Noble Interiors beyond Glossy Exteriors

I personally think it is time we moved over the whole 9/11 debacle. Come to think of it, its been almost 8 years now and construction is fast progressing at the site right in the heart of New York. Every one has moved on and are trying to forget (if not forgive) what happened in the past. But our movie makers on this side of the globe are yet to get over the ill treatment meted out to Muslims in the US post 9/11. Lets hope this is the last one on the subject...

That said, New York is not half bad. It is quite watchable though the first half is comparatively dull and highly wordy, some of the scenes do not work (especially the reaction of the entire cast to the twin towers being bombed, thats a real spoiler!) and the lead cast does not exactly comprise of the best of actors.

John Abraham with his lethal torso and boyish grin is appealing but he has never been much of an actor and in spite of graphic scenes that show him being tortured by FBI for no rhyme or reason, your heart does not quite go out to him, thanks to his limited acting talent. Katrina Kaif looks fetching and that is no news! This is her best performance till date but she fails to look convincing as the mother of a 4- year old.

Irrfan Khan is a solid performer who has the ability to rise above any script and here also he does the same. If there is one actor who is likely to benefit immensely from this enterprise, it ought to be the blue eyed Neil Nithin Mukesh. He slips into the fresh, naive, innocent Omar in the first half like a glove and brings out the helplessness in the second half very clearly.

Another interesting performance is of John's assistant who was similarly harrassed by FBI and his rendition of his sufferings to Katrina will touch everyone's heart. The guy is definitely someone to watch out for!

I agree that Kabir Khan's intentions behind putting together something like New York is noble and this is much better than his previous outing "Kabul Express" which ended up being a documentary. However, Kabir fails to strike the right balance between glossiness and realism and ends up alienating the characters from the audience to a great extent. John and Neil do not make good classmates- the former easily looks a decade older than the latter! If he had chosen more talented actors instead of John and Katrina, may be the film would have ended up looking better.

Pritam's music is pedestrian and there are sequences you feel could have been trimmed down (Rameshwar S Bhagat is the editor). Aseem Mishra is successful in giving a glossy look to the film and Rocky S needs to be creditted to make his actors wear clothes that are really "wearable" (quite opposed to Yash Raj Culture). Technically, New York is as good as any other Yash Raj production but while walking out of the cinema hall, you cannot help but feeling that Kabir Khan did not use the potential of his script to the fullest...That said, New York is definitely a one time see...