Sometimes music videos convey an interesting story in those 5-6 minutes. And there are 2-hour films that take their own sweet time to come to the point and even the story they attempt to convey are half as engrossing.
That's exactly the problem with India's first Boy Band film KISS KIS KO [what's the relevance of the title with the content?]. Stylishly shot [like most music videos], the film tells the journey of five aspiring singers.
But how one wishes director Sharad Sharan would've worked equally hard on narrating a strong story while experimenting with a different theme.
KISS KIS KO does have its share of plus points [few], but the minus ones outnumber them completely. Sad!
KISS KIS KO tells the story of five youngsters [Sudhanshu Pandey, Karan Oberoi, Chin2 Bhosle, Siddharth Haldipur and Sherrin Varghese – they are addressed by their real names in the movie!] and their manager B.D. [Aly Khan]. The boys perform at all possible nightspots, but Lady Luck continues to elude them.
While Siddharth takes time to romance the girls, the remaining four boys are compulsive flirts. Till one incident changes everything. One of the girls, Divya, falls in love with Chin2. So much so that she even starts writing letters in blood!
The boys hatch a plan to keep Divya at bay. They concoct an alibi about Chintu being a married man and a casanova. Divya drops Chintu like a hot potato. But Divya's friend Riya [Bhumika Puri] gets to know what the truth is and decides to take them to task.
She befriends all of them, one by one, and later creates a rift amongst them. Just when things had worked as per her plans, she has a change of heart and even admits to her mistake. Also, in the process, she loses her heart to Siddharth.
Although a number of Boy Band movies have been attempted in the West, it's for the first time that a film has been attempted in Bollywood. That's the only original aspect about this stretched-to-two-hours music video. Otherwise, there's nothing much to look forward to.
KISS KIS KO rests on a thin storyline [penned by Pankaj Kapoor] and the only time you do get hooked on to the proceedings is when the girl befriends all of them, one after the other. But, strangely, the cat is out of the bag much before the interval itself, when all of them land up at her house on Valentine's Day.
What next, you wonder. But post-interval, KISS KIS KO falls rapidly till the climax. The writing has a major flaw in this half – that of Bhumika having a change of heart the moment she has created a rift between the friends. All through this while she was hellbent on teaching them a lesson and when her mission did get accomplished, she feels sorry for the guys that very minute. No explanations are offered for her sudden change of heart. Weird!
The climax, though well executed, is childish. The opponents of the Band of Boys [Raj Zutshi and the singer he is promoting – Aparna Kumar] have a difference of opinion at the last minute and the boys start performing right outside the auditorium. So conventional and corny!
Director Sharad Sharan has shot the film stylishly, but he ought to know that the viewer prefers story over gloss any day. The screenplay is absolutely lackluster and that is this film's biggest undoing.
You expect the songs to be pleasant in a Boy Band film and the tracks don't disappoint. Only thing, there are too many songs in the narrative and since they haven't been promoted extensively, the impact gets diluted.
Cinematography is eye-catching. The locales of Indonesia give the film a fresh feel. The choreography deserves special mention – it's fantastic.
The five boys get equal footage in the enterprise, but Sudhanshu Pandey, followed by Karan Oberoi, leave an impression. Bhumika Puri looks like a doll, but needs to loosen up. Ditto for Aparna Kumar. Aly Khan and Raj Zutshi are competent.
On the whole, KISS KIS KO is a weak product. At the box-office, lack of aggressive promotion and a dull opening will spell doom for this film.
