Kisna is a well-crafted movie with deft execution by Subhash Ghai and brilliant performances by starcast.
The film is not without the grandiose cinematic style typical of Ghai. Ashok Mehta’s cinematography binds a viewer to the screen while Rahman and Ismail Darbar’s music act as delectable embellishments to the story written by as many as four writers, including Ghai himself.
Just as too many cooks can sometimes spoil the broth, so it seems that four different writers somehow deprive the story of a single voice. But Kisna still entices because Ghai knows the pulse of the audience and, better than that, he knows his craft.
Kisna is an apt example of Ghai’s command over his filmmaking skills. The movie grips a viewer from the very beginning and the introduction of every single character adds energy to the film. Ghai keeps the focus of his story on the Kisna-Katherine track while he creates an interesting backdrop with an ensemble of characters convincingly played by Isha Sharvani, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, Rajat Kapoor and Yashpal Sharma.
Isha Sharvani’s acrobatic dances leave the audience with their mouths gaped in disbelieve, but it is the fair lady, Antonia Bernath, who emerges as the true star of Kisna with her highly credible performance. Antonia brings out a calculated balance of realism and Bollywoodish melodrama in her portrayal of Katherine. In fact, Vivek Oberoi looks relatively bland in front of Antonia’s highly expressive performance.
On the whole, Kisna is a movie worth watching. It moves at electric pace, tells a gripping story, tugs a few strings at your heart, makes you smile and cry, and then leaves you with a sweet-n-sad feeling in the end.