Kabul Express

Something worth enjoying



Not a single person in this world can be disappointed by this movie. After all, people go in with moderate expectations for a movie like this, and practically get blown away. Kabul express is the same sort of eye candy, which comes with a fresh script, and everything that it offers has never been seen before in Bollywood cinema. Kabir Khan has taken a new step into perfection, and Bollywood cinema excels one more time with this visual masterpiece. The acting is better than mediocre. If not exaggerated, the acting is superbly executed by the whole cast. Especially, Arshad Warsi, who provides a perfect comical timing. Kabul Express can be seen as a bold comedy, an eye opener, a stunning experience, and a film which will bring change.

Five unlikely acquaintances make their way across Afghanistan as war looms on the horizon in this satiric comedy from filmmaker Kabir Khan. Suhel (John Abraham) is a broadcast journalist from India who is given an important and potentially very dangerous assignment. New York City's World Trade Center has been attacked by terrorists, members of the Afghan-based Taliban are believed to be involved, and the United States is expected to launch a major attack on Afghanistan in a matter of days, so Suhel and a cameraman, Jai (Arshad Warsi), are flown in to get a front row seat for the upcoming fighting.

As they search for genuine Taliban fighters to interview, Suhel and Jai make their way across Afghanistan in a Land Rover with their driver Khyber (Hanif Hum Ghum). The television reporters are soon joined by an American photojournalist, Jessica (Linda Arsenio), and before long they find a cooperative (if surly) member of the Taliban to guide them, Imran (Salman Shahid). However, as the miles pass the traveling companions find themselves less concerned with terrorism or international politics than sports scores and seating arrangements, and they encounter a number of strange characters along the way who make the absurdity of the coming war all the more obvious. Kabul Express received its North American premier at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival.

Kabul Express works in parts. Each visual depicts the tragedy of a spectacle called Afghanistan. Each scene is also accompanied by a killer line by Arshad. John really doesn't have much to do or say in the film and is treated purely as eye-candy, much like his female counterpart, the American journalist, Linda Arsenio.


Kabir, thankfully, doesn't take sides and gives due blame to bring the current situation to light. America is named as the reason for every ruin you see in the film. The most interesting conversation takes place on the run -- when Coke-Pepsi, Madhuri Dixit, Kashmir and America are all tied up.


You cannot stop laughing and being pissed at the irony of it all -- that in the end all these wars are about digging up oil and selling Pepsi and Coke.
Kabul Express suffers from poor characterisation of John and Linda. At times, you squirm in your seat as they have no real connection to the story. But then having John in a film helps market it so that the film opens to houseful boards. That isn't really a strategy you can find fault with -- the reason a film likes this ends up being green-lighted is for the star power behind it.
Yash Raj Films decides to experiment with Kabul Express, a song-less film. Technically, every department is top notch. As an actor, Arshad steals the show. Salman Shahid and Hanif Humghum are also very good.


Kabul Express is a good-looking film but it refuses to get its hands dirty. Instead of having a gritty and rugged feel, it is too spic and span. Technical finesse is one thing, but in these rugged terrains, the feel should be more like the look of a commercial film like Black Hawk Down to get the viewer more involved. Kabul Express should have had the look of Omkara.
Also, one wonders why two journalists would land up in Afghanistan without a guide or any contact or be unable to find a shutterbug in a country overflowing with photojournalists.
However, what makes it hard to quibble about Kabul Express is that the film works on many levels. It's the first Indian film to show a true picture of Afghanistan. It shows the plight of Pakistanis caught on the other side after their country was forced to change allegiances by America. It is a film which makes you ponder on a picture postcard country ruined by a capitalist monster running amok worldwide.


The scariest scene in the movie is when the Pakistani soldier talks about the deception of America, mirrored by his colleagues at the Pakistani border that has been sealed off. The scene makes you think that Pakistan and America have been the best of friends. Today if this is the state of Pakistan, what about India?


We are going to bed with a monster with no heart. Are the ruins of Afghanistan a mirror to the future ruins of a country called Pakistan? A country called India?
Are we just fuel pumps on a global map selling oil and Coke?
Kabir Khan has told a story from his heart, and what is important is that his heart is in the right place.