We are family
wogma rating: Watch if you have nothing better to do (?)
We Are Family of a little sister called Cliche, big brother Predictability and brat teenage sister, Implausibility. Our big daddy is Mr. Patronizing Dialogue and soccer mom is the Great Indian Kangan. Oh yeah and our stepmom is Stepmom.
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We Are Family = Stepmom in Hindi. Of course, it is going to be Indian-ized! You see the beginning with the casting. Supposedly, our Indian palate is better satisfied by a hunk, Arjun Rampal who woos Kajol and Kareena Kapoor in one go. Versus the balding, Ed Harris.
We are family - For some reason this title for a Karan Johar film gives me the heebie-jeebies. His films are between Mr.-Two-Goodie-Shoes Vs. Mr.-not-human characters. Most situations are exaggerated. I understand, he's only We are family's producer and not director; but when the director goes on record saying, "I feel truly blessed that I'm working for the man whose cinema he has worshipped", my blood pressure is absolutely justified in going up a few notches. I'm reminding myself that Karan Johar has also produced Wake Up Sid.
Actually, Dharma Productions truly, absolutely, categorically needs appreciation because this film is the OFFICIAL REMAKE of an English film. Yep, we live in times when taking permission of original film-owners needs special mention and applause. Not because they had the patience to wait the process out for a couple of years. But because not too many others bother going through the 'right thing to do.' I think our angst against the filmmakers would reduce by a significant percentage if credit and handsome amounts of hard cash were given where they were due.
In fact, they have gone a step ahead and bought the rights for Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock". If they are setting a trend here, they can be excused a 100 crimes (of which only 99 remain because they have cold-bloodedly slaughtered the song they paid for).
Remake-makers are in a no-win situation. If the film is not liked the verdict is, 'they can't even copy properly' and if you like the film, in all likelihood, you are going to say, "Well, they copied. So it's not really their work." I have worked my conscience out this whole 'remake' debate. A film is a film is a film. You either like it or not or more often than not - both together. While I tried to pen my thoughts down about my take on "adaptations" and such, The Bollywood Ticket expresses the case more elaborately.
Even Avatar (2009), which broke box-office records for an American film in India, still grossed much less in India than the Bollywood film 3 Idiots (2009), which released around the same time. So why would Bollywood filmmakers even want to remake films that Indian audiences don't want to see? The truth is, they don't....
And what exactly constitutes a remake anyway? The Hindi film Jism (2003) has been called a remake of Body Heat (1981), which is a remake of Double Indemnity (1944), which is based on a true story. So, is Jism really a remake or is it based on the true story, too?
...
In May, Indian entertainment conglomerate Reliance sold remake rights to the 2007 Bollywood hit Johnny Gaddaar to a U.S. producer.
Now that last one is a huge YAY!
After that long aside, Stepmom is and We Are Family is very likely to be a saddish, serious movie. Likewise, We Are Family better be a tear-jerker too. Towards that end, it does look promising -
And of course, we cannot handle too much emotion, and we need our break. By the way, the following song trailer got me really upset. No, not because Kajol was pregnant when she was doing this. Because it gives so much of the movie away! And makes the film even more predictable than it already is. Not to mention, that the lyrics which mean, "I can't remember the lyrics to this song, so I'm just singing words on and on" which actually sounds more like the lyricist had a writer's block and penned his condition down.
Oh, whatever...
I think I'm going to be happy as long as it is not a Kajol screeching vs. Kareena shrieking duel. And there's always a new promo to look forward to (Guzaarish) Ok, I'll stop being mean and just wait for September 3rd for We are family.
By the way, do watch the other promos here to for the beautiful locations.
Ps. Music Reviews -
Milliblog - Karan Johar’ish predictability, with a new-found maturity.
Apun Ka Choice - overdose of melodrama
Hindustan Times - nothing extraordinary
Rediff - Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy's effort in We Are Family is nowhere close to this afore-mentioned legacy
This article was first published at meetu's Times of India Blog
- meeta, a part of the audience
We Are Family...hmmm the name still gave me the creeps as I entered the theater. Shrugging it off, I settled myself in for a cushy, melodramatic, soap opera - the English version of which I've seen. I wondered as I walked out, "Does one well-made teary scene, warrant a 'good' opinion?" I didn't have the heart to write-off a film for its thousand flaws when it managed to have one scene that touched me because it was written, performed and directed well. Even if most of the emotion is because of the way I identified with the situation, "Oh my God! What if I'm dying and I have to tell my kids about it?" boo-hoo-hoooo-tissue-please Ok, now that we are done with the 'credit where it's due bit', I feel liberated and let the 'ripping apart' begin!
We'll start soft, just like the film. It is a mature concept and the big picture is actually non-standard considering the typical Hindi family stories. When you start watching Stepmom you feel like you have started reading a book from the middle of a chapter. We Are Family sort-of covers that gap and gives a more rounded beginning. Also, the missing backstory of the three main leads, from Stepmom, is provided briefly. And the short one or two line descriptions work perfectly. And the stage is set for a fine melodrama...or not.
The performances aren't what I feared - shrieks and shrills or over-the-top. But they fail to move or get you interested, let alone involved. Mom-type Kajol; strong yet unsure, Kareena Kapoor and hunk dad Arjun Rampal show you their dilemma and the struggle, but none of them make you don't feel for them. Maybe because the characters have flaws and they are not necessarily good human beings. But they are not bad enough to hate. Awesome gray characters I've always been waiting for, but they still seem out of a book, not real human beings. And it is difficult to point out what exactly didn't work in the writing and execution of these three characters.
The kids on the other hand are pretty much caricatures that are plucked from one filmy stereotype to another. Actually, I got that wrong. Not all three of them are designed that way. The little boy, has absolutely nothing to do. His middle name might as well have been, 'Haven't a clue why I exist.' The writer's cluelessness transcends barriers of the fourth wall to haunt the audience.
I don't think there was any attempt at all to make the film's events unpredictable. The trailer itself gives away the main elements of the film by way of dialogue, sequences, songs or make-up. Moreover, why would one watch We Are Family instead of Stepmom? There is hardly any value addition or Indianization. Unless you count making it with 3 kids instead of 2 and having a "kangan" (bangle) scene.
Oops! How could I forget how they allude to the idea that woman's ultimate aim in life is to get married. And then directly go on to say that being a mother comes with the XX chromosome! Without getting into an argument about the modern woman versus the traditional idea of a woman's role in society, I'd like to say that these concepts are rather regressive. Not to mention that two women who were/are in love with the same guy are shown dancing together. I mean, I'm sure there are many women who'd get along that way, but here it wasn't convincing enough.
The concept of We Are Familyconstantly reminded me of what I remember as a beautiful film, Mere Baad where Rakhee Gulzar plays a mom of four kids. It's a soul-touching film about how she goes about looking for foster parents for her kids after she's diagnosed with a fatal disease. No, We Are Family is nowhere close to being that sensitive, but I suddenly feel like digging that one out. Any pointers for where to start?
- meeta, a part of the audience
Thumbs up, by Taran Adarsh, Bollywood Hungama : ...Casting the best available talent for two pivotal parts and doing complete justice to their roles is tough... full review
Thumbs up, Bollywood Mantra : ...Director Siddharth P Malhotra showed his excellence in picturising some scene... full review
Thumbs up, by Sukanya Venkatraghvan, Filmfare : ...WAF is designed to be a family entertainer and that it definitely is.... full review
Thumbs up, by Deepa Garimella, fullhyd.com : ...The film is gorgeous to watch, with the leading ladies making up much of the beauty. ... full review
Thumbs up, by Pankaj Sabnani, Glamsham.com : ...The climax, though good, doesn't elevate to the desired level. No doubt it's a sombre subject. ... full review
Thumbs up, by Saurin Parikh, Gomolo.in : ...The three kids are really sweet... full review
Thumbs up, by Pravin Pendalkar, Gomolo.in : ...The direction was good, music was a big letdown.... full review
Thumbs up, by Sarita Tanwar, MiD DAY : ...It's a brave effort on Johar's part to give a larger-than-life look and feel to an emotional tearjerker, especially at a time when everything other than action and comedy has taken a backseat... full review
Thumbs up, Movie Talkies : ...It is to the director's credit that he manages to extract such intense, yet controlled performances from both these women, thus never allowing the movie to become screechy and melodramatic.... full review
Thumbs up, by Dunkdaft, Movies Music and Me : ...its the treatment of the movie, that makes it worth watch. The acts are flawless... full review
Thumbs up, by Subhash K Jha, Now Running.com : ... Very few mainstream films manage to look as good on the surface and also capture the heart. "We Are Family" is equally appealing from the outside and at the heart.... full review
Thumbs up, by K N Gupta, SmasHits.com : ...the screenplay lacks the original movie's vitality... full review
Thumbs up, by K K Rai, STARDUST : ...Arjun Rampal, who plays the part of Aman, has surpassed all of his previous performances and has done a great job... full review
So-So, by Abhishek Pandey, AOL INDIA : ...despite Kareena's creditable performance, the evergreen charm of Kajol, who plays the aggrieved-by-life mother, steals the thunder ultimately.... full review
So-So, by Aniruddha Guha, DNA : ...Kajol’s portrayal of Maya, especially, is befitting the amazing talent you associate her with. ... full review
So-So, by Gaurav Malani, Express India : ... You never know or wish to know what went wrong between the two but at the same time also wonder what makes them so amiable despite the divorce... full review
So-So, filmi cafe : ...The writing and direction is just perfect in the first half but after Kareena comes and joins the “family’ the situations become repetitive and the pace drops.... full review
So-So, Mixed Bag : ...I am somehow still not convinced that Arjun Rampal can actually act. He within his limits is an actor of little value beyond his looks... full review
So-So, by Ankit Ojha, Planet Bollywood : ...dialogues by Niranjan Iyengar are fantastic... full review
So-So, by Sonia Chopra, Sify Movies : ...So while you dislike him for a display of insensitivity to everyone in his life, you admire his faithful friendship towards his ex-wife... full review
Thumbs down, by Aparajita Ghosh, Apun Ka Choice : ...Yes, for a change, Bollywood takes the right route to remake one of the hits from its more gifted though less productive elder cousin across the Atlantic... full review
Thumbs down, by Baradwaj Rangan, Blogical Conclusion, The New Sunday Express : ...This is a movie about women, and for women. It has no time for men – on screen, or in the audience.... full review
Thumbs down, by Bobby Sing, Bobby Talks Cinema.com : ...everything happens so perfectly and nicely within a rich family to such a level that it all becomes completely uninteresting, unmoving and pointless... full review
Thumbs down, by Bollyfan, Cinemaa Online : ...Hey…there was this Julia Roberts film playing on HBO the other day. Has to be a classic…it had Julia Roberts in it, after all.... full review
Thumbs down, by Deepa Gahlot, cinemaah : ...There was plenty wrong with Stepmom (which makes you wonder why Johar even bothered to remake it) and it’s even worse in We Are Family.... full review
Thumbs down, by Manisha Lakhe, Film Impressions : ...Good thing is Niranjan Iyengar's dialog is pithy. Pity they can't get over references to stars... full review
Thumbs down, by Deepa Deosthalee, Film Impressions : ...takes the already sexist plot of Stepmom and twists it further into a putrid patriarchal melodrama... full review
Thumbs down, by Aakash Barvalia, Gomolo.in : ...Silent emotion parts, with no dialogues, were expressed beautifully, both by the actors and writer-director. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Divya Arora, Gomolo.in : ...it was really a high-end melodrama, which doesn’t work these days, except in 80’s... full review
Thumbs down, by Mayank Shekhar, Hindustan Times : ...To be fair, Rampal gets better playtime in the Indian adaptation. And he also looks suitably dishy for his target audience, as We Are Familyagainst a bald, old, divorced, charmless Ed Harris... full review
Thumbs down, by Kaveree Bamzai, india today : ...It comes as no surprise to know that Tupperware and Poggenpohl (a brand of modular kitchens) have paid for inhouse placement in We Are Family. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Amrita Ranjan, Indiequill : ...Kareena, as the somewhat reluctant other woman, is pretty darn good, particularly when Shreya is calling out Maya and Aman on their respective blind spots. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Prachi Parekh, J.A.M : ... Kajol, Kareena and the three kids have given good performances but Arjun Rampal is invisible purely because his character has no scope... full review
Thumbs down, by Komal Nahta, koimoi : ...music falls short of expectations as well as of the high standards set by the Dharma banner brand... full review
Thumbs down, by Sanjukta Sharma, Live Mint : ...does not trust the audience to feel things without layers of emotional hokum slabbed on top of a very simplistic story... full review
Thumbs down, by Saibal Chaterjee, NDTV : ...Lack of depth is the norm in We Are Family. ... full review
Thumbs down, by Preeti Arora, Rediff : ...There are the mandatory scenes of Kareena trying to build a connect with her to-be step-kids. But their interactions are jerky and seem foisted on the story.... full review
Thumbs down, by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Reuters : ...everything about it is so cosmetic, even the emotions, that it’s hard to be touched by anything.... full review
Thumbs down, by Janhvi Patel, StarBoxOffice : ...It does not offer Kajol or Kareena “roles of a lifetime”... full review
Thumbs down, by Roy, The Friday Freak : ...Dude, if ninety percent of thirteen year old kids did what this girl does in the movie, she’d spend her entire life in a juvenile home – not get pampered with a flower petal nail polish at the end of the movie.... full review
Thumbs down, by filmbear, Upper Stall : ...The director has even resisted taking a direct shot of the Sydney Opera House, choosing instead to reflect it in a window during a song montage. Now this is production value. ... full review
Twitter reviews for this movie are not available.
This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.
Plot Summary
Aman (Arjun Rampal) has divorced Maya (Kajol) and is now seeing Shreya (Kareena Kapoor). Aman and Maya have three kids who are now to be told about Shreya. And that's not the only complication.
What Worked
- The play in the beginning, which makes a statement, "without love there wouldn't be a happily ever after" sort of setting the tone for the film.
- The shot of Kajol's eyes when she tells Arjun Rampal the big secret.
What did not
- Each situation is either exaggerated or toned down - to unbelievability.
- Kajol looked too old to be Arjun Rampal's wife.
- Arjun Rampal looked too young to be a father of three and also he didn't look like the kind who would have not one, not two, but three kids.
- The whole angry teenager daughter being bitchy. Her behavior doesn't look convincing.
- The second half is more or less a snore-fest.
Parental Guidance:
- Violence: None
- Language: Clean
- Nudity & Sexual content: None, except for one scene of teenagers partying and dancing when drunk.
- Concept: That of children accepting their ill-fate in the form of parents' divorce and mom having a fatal illness..
- General Look and Feel: This is serious stuff. I wouldn't want my 8 and 6 year olds exposed to the concept of divorce or the fear of their close ones dying for at least another few years.
![[Wikipedia page of We are family]](/static/images/icons/wiki_small.png){kind=icon}
![[IMDB Page of We are family]](/static/images/icons/imdb_small.png){kind=icon}
![[Dharma Productions twitter account]](/static/images/icons/twitter_small.png){kind=icon}
Comments (18)
Yet it is the official remake & probably tht's the only thing positive about it...:D
I review the entire movie in this one scene. Read it to believe it:
Rhea has prepared spaghetti for the kids. The kids throw the spaghetti at her. No, it’s not like just dunking it at her, they actually paintball her with the spaghetti. Finally frustrated, she tells them to stop it or she will smack them. You know what the thirteen year old kid gets up and says? You cannot touch us, you are not my mother.
This is like a thief telling the police officer that they cannot haul the thief to the station even if the thief is caught red handed with money bags bulging out from his knapsack, because ‘he wants to see a lawyer at the crime scene itself.’
How was the Guzaarish trailer?
Was forced to watch this with over 10 family people. Nevertheless the new big cinemas has a cool cone pizza and the DabanGG trailer looked promising! Meetu lets watch Dabangg together, I will come down to Pune for its release, what say?
@Roy ha ha! well hitting a child is unacceptable dude, even if you are the parent. :D
@Rahul It didn't screen in the theater I watched it in :(
@moviebhakt :) and about Antardwand, it went out of theaters in Pune by Monday. I want to watch it, will review it if/when it comes out on DVD or TV.
@Annkur chal done! pakka na?
Your quick review is the funniest stuff I've read in a while, Meetu :)
It made me laugh out loud in a largely public place!
@lost in confusion naah...the filling in the blanks wasn't that good :D
@Swetha glad to bring out a laugh **bows**
Thankfully I survived We R Family....
and i got goose bumps when I heard my fren saying....what abt a sequel to this....!!!>>
good work meetu!!!!!!!...
@Priyamvada :) i'm glad you survived and I don't know what to say to your friend :D
@Pinky ha ha ha
@Harpreet i think your girlfriend is very considerate :D
We are family :: another flop from Kareena Kapoor. She is such a good actress but another flop from Kareena.
Ok just cause I know that its a copy of a hollywood flick that I have already seen (and enjoyed) gives me a good reason not to waste my time on this movie.
-Kay
Bollywood gossip
@Meetu, me and the other US-Based Bollywood film fans only made it through about a half-hour of this film last night. However, I feel compelled to write you and the Entire Indian Film Industry today to let you know that, if you're really suffering from such a dearth of cinematic treacle that you have to import it from America - I will, in the interests of good Indo-American Film Industry Relations, happily ship you all of ours at once!
If I'd known WE ARE FAMILY was a Bollywood version of STEPMOM (which was quite nauseating enough in its Hollywood incarnation), I don't think I would have rented it. The description on Netflix made it sound like more like a film about a divorced Indian woman helping her ex-husband's new wife blend into the family - which would have been interesting, maybe even touching, and certainly more inclusive than the often competitive Western view of The Other Woman is. But I can't decide if some of Kajol's character beats were cultural, specific to her character, or just bad writing - but she came off as petty and unreasonable, in ways that I'm sure weren't intended. (By contrast, Simran in DDLJ's desperate and demanding streak was perfect for her "nice girl breaking with her family for love" character. She had the strength of will to both defy her father, and make Raj be the kind of man his father knew he was under the youthful hijinks.)
Much as I like Kajol and Kareena Kapoor, I really don't need to see them doing these characters - which I would swear were even less well-written than Susan Sarandon's and Julia Roberts's were (and the original was appalling enough, thank you). Nice as it was to see Arjun Rampal pay a hero again, I wish he'd chosen a better movie to do it in.
To borrow a term - what a bunch of bakwas !
@TimELiebe wow, this is the first time, I think, when you've disliked a Hindi film so strongly. :) Like Jitaditya pointed out, the saving grace is that the copy is official and not a blatant rip-off being passed along as original to an audience whose exposure to cinema from the world is widening ever so slowly. :)
@Meetu - you're right, my original comments may have been a bit...excessive, and I did see it was an official remake of STEPMOM. A big part of it was because I really didn't like STEPMOM, either - and another big part is because I've seen Indian movies handle similar stories with much more grace and warmth.
Actually, I don't think I disliked this movie quite as much as I did GOD TUSSI GREAT HO - another adaptation of an American movie I really disliked. But I was very disappointed, since I'd hoped I was getting a more Indian take on the story than we got....
@TimELiebe welcome to the world of Hindi films based on American ones.
@Meetu - as my wife likes to say, "Don't follow us - we don't know where we're going either!"
I guess what makes this worse than the DHOOM movies or even KAMBAKKHT ISHQ (which I'll admit holds a special spot in my heart because it was the first masala we saw) is that it wasn't even a Hindi take on STEPMOM - it was STEPMOM....with different actors. Sure Kareena Kapoor is more appealing than Julia Roberts - but that's a low bar to clear!
@TimELiebe ha ha ha ha...
this movie is such a rip off of the American film step mom with julia roberts
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