We are Family is no Stepmom

First things first: We Are Family is no Stepmom. Like its producer Karan Johar promised, the Kajol-Kareena Kapoor starrer (Kajol as ex-wife Susan Sarandon and Kareena as the other woman) was not a scene-to-scene adaptation, but we wish they had taken the easier way out and just stuck to the original. Their attempt to Bollywoodise Stepmom to suit the palate of morally-sensitive Indian audiences is shoddy. Think jarring snippets of songs incorporated at all the wrong moments like when Maya (Kajol) tells her family that she has deadly cervical cancer or during a verbal sparring between the other-woman and the ex-wife to get my drift.

But the good news is that debutant director Sidharth Malhotra managed to stick to the Bollywood formula of dance, songs and over-the-top emotions in a mere one hour and 55 minutes. It would have gone down as a commendable feat only if the viewer didn't get the feeling that Malhotra was in a tearing hurry to activate our tear ducts with some very manipulated scenes. Subtlety was shown the door in scenes including Kajol's break-down in the kitchen and the doctor spewing some very corny dialogues like: "Maya, you will live as long as you can, but from now on count your life in moments, not years."

As far as performances go, Kapoor as the career-centric girlfriend who grapples with motherhood is the winner with her carefully-controlled act. Kajol — though good — was predictably consistent and left you with that been-there-seen-that feeling. The children, like in most Bollywood films, grated on your nerves by speaking in overly childish voices but their cute daddy (Arjun Rampal) made up for it and held his own in an otherwise woman-centric drama. Watch this film if you have a penchant for soppy tear-jerkers.