Kurbaan Movie Review

Real life couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor come together for Rensil D’Silva’s Kurbaan produced under the Dharma Productions banner. No publicity is bad publicity and hence the controversy surrounding the film right from the time Karan Johar revealed the first look on Twitter to the Shiv Sen protests just before release, has only helped raise the curiosity level. But come Friday, when the film witnesses a global release, it all comes down to the merits. Does Rensil D’Silva in his debut deliver? Read on to find out

The story revolves around Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) and Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan), both professors at a university, fall in love, marry and move abroad to the United States of America.  All’s good, until Kareena discovers her husband works for a terror sleeper cell and along with others, is planning an attack similar to 9/11. Under house arrest, Avantika’s only hope is a journalist (Vivek Oberoi), who is also on a mission to take his revenge on the terrorists, who were responsible for the death of his girlfriend (Dia Mirza in a special appearance).

Kurbaan Review

What works for Kurbaan

  • The first half is fantastic, extremely gripping. Aided by a powerful screenplay in his very first film as director, Rensil D’Siva has managed to keep the intensity level going throughout. He also proves to be an expert story-teller, a director to watch out for.
  • Also there aren’t any unwanted scenes or excessive melodrama, due to which the pace remains very consistent.
  • The second half though, does get a bit heavy with the cold-blooded characters and the crafty yet involving plotline . Don’t expect a moment of relief, till the credits roll – a good 2 hours 40 mins later.
  • What makes Kurbaan a must watch are superlative performances (rated below) from the entire cast – right from the lead stars to those FBI characters played by foreigners.
  • Technically the film is brilliant too. High on production value, even the blast sequences and the aftermath have been shot with attention to every small detail.
  • Music, like in most Dharma productions, is top notch. Shukran Allah and Ali Maula deserve mention.
  • Dialogues (Anurag Kashyap and Niranjan Iyenga) are very effective, especially those written for Saif and Vivek.

Scenes to watch out for (Possible spoilers below)

  • When Kareena gets to know the ‘shocking’ truth.
  • Vivek’s test at the burger / sandwich shop, when he is asked to shoot the chef down.
  • Kareena cutting open the wound to remove the bullet off Saif’s chest.
  • The much discussed love making scene featuring Kareena and Saif. Loads of skin show (bare back) but tastefully shot.
  • Climax

Performances (in order)

  1. Vivek Oberoi – Given a meaty role, Vivek delivers a performance comparable to the likes of Company and Shootout at Lokanwala. Re-birth of a star, if you could call it so. Here’s hoping, he gets noticed and Kurbaan proves to be the much needed boost to his career. What also deserves a mention is his enunciation, which is spot on.
  2. Saif Ali Khan – Very consistent and a performance that stays with you, long after you leave theaters.
  3. Kareena Kapoor – In a depressing character is very effective.
  4. Om Puri, Kirron Kher and the rest of the cast are very good.
  5. Dia Mirza – In a very sweet character, looked stunningly beautiful. How we wish, she had a longer role.

Negatives, not many

  • Family audiences may not enjoy a few sequences. As the movie progresses, it does get too heavy. There is a decent amount of blood and gore too.
  • 4 -5 people organizing a terror attack of such magnitude. isn’t too very convincing. Especially the first plane bombing.
  • The climax, while shocking, may not be universally accepted.

Overall, Kurbaan is a fascinating watch and arguably the best Dharma Productions film this decade. Forget comparisons with New York, this ones much better. Go for it.

Rating: ★★★★½ For performances, direction and screenplay. Must watch.

Other Notes : We would love to repeat, something we have said time and again. Buying, renting CDs / DVDs or downloading it from the internet is illegal. Its quite simply like going to a shop and stealing something that you want to buy. A lot of money and more importantly effort, goes into the making of each film. If you decide to watch it, do so ONLY in theaters. Its a request :)

Already watched the film? Drop in your Kurbaan Reviews below in the comments section.

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167 Comments

  • Indicine Team: thanks and some ppl just want to spoil any good movie with their bad criticism.. Nauman didn’t leave any thing good in the movie! even the way he said the story was bad! If a movie like Kurban is a bad or a poor movie.. then what could we say about Blue and the rest of Akshay Kumar’s movies.. which he did in the past?!!!!!!!!!!!!! zero or what?!

  • Fathiya … for the first time I agree with you…. I thought you only like SRK movies….. Kurbaan is a well made movie,top notch direction and performances.. I dont know why such negative comments are incoming…. SHame on you Nauman… I was laughing reading your comments… I think you will give 4.5 to Harman baweja movies…
    Once again well done fathiya for your great comments,…DO promote the movie as the collections are not as good as expected or it deserved ..

    My rating 4/5

  • Indicine team- movies r meant to be enjoyed i agree.. but d Q s wat r comedy movies made for?? it s more of enjoyment… and very few ppl have d talent to make some 1 laugh.. akshay tops tat list..:)

    U support fathiya only bcoz she agreed with ur rating???

    just like u said every1 has his choice n a own taste.

    i do agree background score was supperb in this move but wy u tell it as more powerful than NEW york??? plots wer different not d story as such. it was revenge against US ppl.

    as i told earlier if it was released before new york it would `ve been great but nw it s a bit damp..

    Not worth 4.5 stars for sure.!

    IF APKGK and ALL the BEST wer above average am sure DDD shud be d same. AJAY DEVGN sanjay dutt ranbir kapoor, if they wer superb in comedy with no story line in d above movies, Akshay s far more better in comedy compared to them.

    if akshay s tiring to watch, wat bout sanjay or ajay devgn?? ajay did similar roles in Golmal n returns but u told he s superb???

    u dont like akshay its obvious nw..;)

    Ok wat was enjoyable in tum mile?? it was borin to its core!!

  • Indicine Team- funny part is, u call Naumans review to be excellent one night and d next night it turns out bad…;) ha ha

    Hw many of u really operate the sight yaar…;) y`days night duty commentor was not akshay fan for sure…;) ha ha

  • I wonder Y de dana dan promo r showing more!!!!!I mean lot of dialouge promo is shown!!!R producer r confident that there r many comic scenes in the movie????Just saw more 3-4 comedy scenes in Television!!!!!It was funny though!!!i can’t wait more !!How to pass 6 day before i go to watch the movie!!damn

  • Preview: De Dana Dan (Prediction – Rating 2/5; BO-Hit)

    De Dana Dan brings together the Hera Pheri team again. Hopefully this outing should turn out to be better than Hera Pheri 2. The story is similar to Hera Pheri (1), where down and broke people hatch a kidnapping plan, which goes out of control.

    Here Akshay Kumar and Suniel Shetty are good friends. Both are broke and both get ultimatum from their girlfriends to get rich, else they will be married off to someone else who is rich. Add to this, Paresh Rawal, a shrewd businessman whom wants his son (Chunky Pandey) to marry one of the rich girls to get a big sum as dowry to help pay off his debtors.

    The broke blokes hatch a kidnap plan to reach to their goal of becoming rich. They get the hostage and hole up in a hotel. At the same hotel, Paresh has his son’s wedding with one of the rich girls. And then as all Priyadarshan comedies go – hell breaks loose and everything goes for a toss ( equals to lot of slap stick comedy).

    Rating prediction: Critics (2/5)
    Box Office prediction: Hit

    Cast:
    Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Paresh Rawal, Katrina Kaif, Sameera Reddy, Neha Dhupia, Asrani, Johnny Lever, Manoj Joshi, Chunkey Pandey, Archana Puran Singh, Aditi Govitrikar, Sharat Saxena and Rajpal Yadav.

    Crew:
    Direction: Priyadarshan
    Music: Pritam, RDB, AD Boys
    Lyrics: Sayeed Quadri, Irshaad Kamli, Neeraj Sreedhar and Sameer
    Art direction: Sabu Cyril
    Cinematography: N. K. Ekambaram
    Editing: Arun Kumar

    -naachgaana.com

  • TO THE INDICINE TEAM

    Indicine team is biased n thats what amish has proved..
    1. U hate akshay
    2. U like someone’s review 1 day and you outrightly reject it the other day for some other reviewer whose review which matches with yours. !Wel i agree with fathiya’s review!
    3. YoU never answer or even participate in discussions with people other than fathiya, nauman, sudeep, amish, saurabh, saju dey etc. ANd you call them others. U r yourself discouraging people to never come again on this site. See many of the comments other than those given by above people were never read or something? Many of them lie unanswered in other forums as well. Everyone has put up some point of discussion or they want to know something from you, but you never turn up to the so called ‘others.’. Well i never used to drop a line and have been reading your reviews since 9th nov, the day wen Oso released and you gave it just one star. But This time i want you to improve and look into this regard.

    this is not good . It only hampers the progress of your site.
    And ya i am not hoping any response from you for this either. Because for you i am yet another one in your list of ‘others’

  • Fathiya:
    you are just class apart. Really you are just a very good reviewer. I agree with your review after watching the movie. Surely kareena is going to get the best actress award this year

  • Payal: thanks dear for your comment.. happy to hear that, and if u try to post lots of comments on this website, you’ll get a feedback from indicine team for sure.

  • Linjo: you were wrong in the past.. yeah I defend shahrukh always because I’m a big fan.. but that doesn’t mean that I don’t watch any other bollywood movies and for other actors! I watch all bollywood best movies and for best actors.. I only skip some shallow cheap comedy movies and I don’t watch tamil or other languages which I don’t understand. I admire Saif, John, Ranbir, Neil (Salman & Akshay when they do good movies, depends on the role they play)

  • Indicine & Fathiya aapi:
    hummm i m just thinking that wht i hv to say abt ur comments about me.
    but i hv to say something other wise all people will think i m dump person.
    lets start
    u guys went for movie and u liked too much and indicine gave it 4.5 star . i mentioned before that i didnt hv any attraction in this movie and i was waiting for dvd but when indicine gave it 4.5 suddenly i made a plan to go for it in cinema . overall movie’s messege is good performances are also superb especially saifi , vivek and kirren kher. last 25 min are superb. But what about screenplay and direction it was looking like director just want to finish movie he doesnt hv any intrest. i hv said so many things about it.
    fathiya i mentioned before i was crazy about this movie when i saw 4.5 stars then how can i go only to see negative points for this movie.
    when u guys especially indicine n fathiya watch akki’s movie then u find 100s flaws like CC2C , KI , Blue , SIK and so many others on that time u guys dont release that 2 and half hour u enjoyed alot and ur laugh didnt stop u guys see only flaws, negative points. and now a serious movie with flaws u didnt see any flaw.
    how mean u r ,just want to promote your favorites movies.
    tell me indicine and fathiya couldnt u laugh while u were watching KI , SIK , Bhaghmbhag , Garam Masala , Heyy Babyy , Hera Pheri , pher hera pheri, Welcome , golmaal returns, no entry , awara pagal deewana,
    did u sleep while u guys were watching these movies ?? didnt u laugh atleast one time ???
    if u r talking about comedy sensless movies then wht about yes boss , badshah, phir bhi dil hai hindustani , partner, all other david dhawan and priyadarshan movies.
    i said before i like saifi very much i realy want this movie hit coz vivek , saifi n bebo all are my favs ( i dont care abt karan johar) but truth is truth .
    if this movie realy good then why ndtv, glamsham and some other critics didnt like ?
    if movie is realy superb and fantastic then every single person should like it like ghajini , a wednesday, race ,bhulbhulaiya, namaste london, waqt , rang de basanti , main hoo na , fanna and list wont stop these movies are universally appriciated .
    indicine: 10 cups of coffee will make u sleep when u gonna watch DDD, tellme one thing we already watched more then 10 comedy sceens and may be more 20 u will get when u will watch . so ur sense of humour is too low that u wont laugh atlease one time ????
    and i m in sydney i do speek english but dont write english so doesnt mean it is flow or flaw i concern about pronounsiation not spelling.
    i m realy sorry indicine and fathiya aapi if i am rude . may be next time we both will like a movie and give same rating like Lodnon dreams, all the best , tum mile .

  • i just read review of indiaglitz.com they also gave 2 stars and they also mentioned negative points which i mentioned . so it means only 3 person like this movie
    1- taran
    2- indicine team
    3- fathiya
    i m trying to find 4th person who liked this movie if i hv any 4th perosn please let me know.
    thx

  • Nauman: as I already mentioned that I don’t go for shallow comedy movies except the ones which I think are good comedy.. out of 11 comedy movies which u mentioned I liked only 3: SIK, Heyy Baby & No Entry ( and I didn’t like all the scenes in these 3 movies too.. there were some bad scenes) and about Gomaal it’s Kachra no. 1 movie (that’s for me.. if it’s not for you and for others.. cc2c kachra no. 2.. Welcome kachra no. 3.. all trashy silly comedy movies.. I know these type of comedy would satisfy lots of ppl but not me, I liked Masti and found it very funny.. it had also some scenes which I didn’t like but overall was a funny good movie with No Entry) but Hera Pheri, bhagambag and the rest I didn’t watch and I don’t want to watch them.. every comedy movie is not funny for everyone.. right?

  • I’m muslim.. and I didn’t find the movie against Islam.. people out there.. don’t understand islam wrong.. Islam would never encourage anyone to kill innocent ppl.. but there’re some fanatic psycho, crazy ppl, who think that when they kill American ppl so they’ll go to heaven even if they killed innocent people because some muslims think that other ppl who don’t believe in Islam and they believe in some other religions so they’re (Kaafer!) that’s the way some muslim think!! and these ppl don’t care about the innocent people’s life.. they’ve a purpose, then a plan, then a decision to make, then… a blast! or suicide bombers!

    So.. crazy people are everywhere.. in muslims, in christians, in hindu.. everywhere.

    The movie is not against Islam but against terrorism.. that’s all.

  • Fathiya behanji- aapka taste bahut bura hai… welcome was kachra??

    masti aur no entry aapki fav hai?? to aap extra marital affair wali comedy me jyaada interest rakhti hai…;) ha ha…

    i dont think u watch movies properly.. nor with concentration. i found dat wen u asked some silly doubt bout A WEDNESDAY last time.;)

    Infact u r not at al funny person so u don like comedy movies… har din serious rehti ho and more over u r preachy most of times. so u `ll like only serious movies so no point in asking u or expecting u of giving a gud review bout any akshay movies..;)

  • yeh kahta hai is ne mujhe paise diye hain . woh churail bolti hai us ne mujhe paise diye hain aur aik woh sandh hai jo kahta hai us ne mujhe paise diye hain ABBAY MAIN TAWAIF HOON KIA JO ITNE PAISE MUJHE DIYE ? ”
    hahhahaha

  • Nauman tat s very very funny….;)

    wo katrina kaif wala- kahan ja rahe ho?
    aatma hatya karna
    tum ne bulaya na yahan pe shadi karne keliye, main kahi nahi jaoungi. tum jao marke vapas aao..;) ha ha

  • Big boss wala s very funny..

    har bar main kuch acha kaam karna jaatha hun to wo saala kutta ake kharaab kar deta hai.
    use kutta nahi kehna.. wo tera maalik hai.. mulchandji bolo..;)

    mulchandji na meri nak katdi, mulchandji mere muh pe mudh ke chale gaye

    saala kitna gamandi hai.. aise chalta hai jaise uska baap ka raj ho..;) ha ha

  • Madam jee deewali ka waqt hai aik suit hi le di jiye . yeh dekhie nala bandha howa hai ur pant ko roka howa hai
    Hahaah

  • i liked kurbaan but it is not a 4.5 rating movie, my rating is 3,5.indicine team: i always trusted ur reviews, your rating for is excellent.but this time u gave wrong rating to kurban.

  • amish:
    aur woh lash wala it is my fav
    Main lash hotel ke bahir le kar khara howa hoon .
    Aray bhai nahi chahie lash aap kisi aur ko baich do.
    Aray yeh koi alo tamator ki sabzi hai jo log khareedne nikal parain ???
    hahahha

  • ^ ya…. akshay makes each scene look so gud….:) along with dat other 22 characters mak it look wow…:)
    tawaif scene was really gud.. johnny says it so well…

  • Kabhi kabhi to anjali paise de diya karti thi , ab us ka bhi biya ho raha hai who aamdani bhi khatam ho gai
    Hahahah

  • Amish, you are misunderstanding our comments. Ghajini is the top grosser for the paid preview shows and Kurbaan is second. When I said ‘not quite’ it was directed at ‘saif s al set to break records this yr i guess”. (this is in response to your comment in the box office topic)

    Now coming to Nauman’s review being excellent. It is and so is Fathiya’s. They have their own point of views. So calling Nauman’s review great doesn’t mean we agree with him. He has put forward his points, which we respect.

    Now Nauman, there is nothing like ‘if movie is realy superb and fantastic then every single person should like it’ – NO MOVIE IS LIKED BY EVERYONE. It just isn’t possible. Ghajini got 2 stars from Indiatimes and Hindustan Times. A Wedneday got 2 stars from Mumbai Mirror. Race was thrashed by many (1.5 from Rediff). Even the likes of Chak De, Taare and Jodha Akbar had their share of critics (and by this we don’t mean professional critics only).

    We dont promote our favorite movies, because we have none until we watch it. And rating a movie high, doesn’t mean we would bump up the box office figures.

    “i m trying to find 4th person who liked this movie” – Haha. What can we say, just go through all the comments here, you’ll find many more. Critics have appreciated the movie too (rediff, times of india, buzz 18, star and many more) So please do get your facts right, before you make such statements.

    And regarding Akshay Kumar movies, you say “didn’t you laugh even once”. Of course we did. But are the standards of his films so low to rate it high just for a laugh? Come on, we expect better from a capable actor like Akshay. His acting was never a problem, its the selection of scripts. All four of his films have failed to recover investment of which 2 were his typical trademark comedies, isn’t that a signal that the audience is getting bored of him repeating himself.

    De Dana Dhan is his best bet commercially. The budget is low and it doesn’t need ‘too many crores’ like Blue or Kambakht Ishq to cross HIT status. Let’s hope it works for him.

    One question for Nauman and Amish. What’s your rating for Akshay last 10 films? List is below, post your rating honestly please :) Would be good if Nauman rates first and Amish follows up.

    Namastey London
    Heyy Babyy
    Bhool Bhulaiyaa
    Welcome
    Tashan
    Singh Is Kinng
    Chandni Chowk to China
    8 X 10 Tasveer
    Kambakkht Ishq
    Blue

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