{"id":750,"date":"2006-12-27T10:49:00","date_gmt":"2006-12-27T10:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2006\/12\/review-kabul-express-2.html"},"modified":"2013-09-10T00:48:57","modified_gmt":"2013-09-10T04:48:57","slug":"review-kabul-express-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/2006\/12\/review-kabul-express-2.html","title":{"rendered":"Review : Kabul Express"},"content":{"rendered":"

[amazon_link id=”B000KX0GW4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]\"Soundtrack\"[\/amazon_link]
\nRating : Above Average (3.4\/5)
\nGenre : Drama
\nYear : 2006
\nRunning time : 2 hours
\nDirector : Kabir Khan
\nCast : John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Hanif Hum Ghum, Salman Shahid, Linda Arsenio<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KABUL EXPRESS : A BOLLYWOOD-ISED DOCUMENTARY<\/em>
\n<\/strong>
\nThis is directed by documentary film maker Kabir Khan, so it is expected that it has a documentar-ish flavor to it. Still Khan manages to squeeze in a few light moments in this story of a desolate Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Suhel Khan (Abraham), a journalist and Jai Kapoor (Warsi) his cameramen, journey into Kaabul with the main idea being to get an interview with members of the Taliban. This turns out to be an inordinately difficult task, since firstly the Taliban are in hiding, and secondly the intrepid journalist duo haven\u2019t done their homework \u2013 they haven\u2019t a map, research, or any information. Similarly clueless is American journalist Jessica (Arsenio), whom they meet up with. She decides to travel with them, and the trio meander through the ruins of Kaabul with their driver Khyber (Ghum) and his trusty Toyota \u2013 Kabul Express.<\/p>\n

They finally get their moment when Talib soldier Imran (Shahid) takes them hostage and forces them to turn the jeep towards the Pakistani border. Actually of the Pakistani army, Imran is working for the Taliban under orders from the Pakistani bosses, and now wishes to return to his country. Through the journey the group runs into lots of trouble, but this cements a bond between them, one human to another and exposes the real culprits \u2013 countries fighting wars for booty at the cost of their countrymen.<\/p>\n

Kabir Khan takes potshots at everyone but India \u2013 Pakistan is a heartless nation sacrificing it\u2019s soldiers under American pressure, and the US is corrupted by greed. The locales are shot realistically but the characters don\u2019t stick that well and appear flat. The 2 Indian journalists appear to be greenhorns at war-reporting \u2013 which was probably intended. However they also appear dumb, which I\u2019m not sure was intentional. The film as a whole appears to be a very on-the-surface treatment, and doesn\u2019t get down and dirty. I mean, where\u2019s the angst, the emotion , the baggage which comes with a war-torn country ? Where\u2019s the stuff that could have transformed this film into a fantastic movie ? Because it did have potential.<\/p>\n

The pace of the film drags in the first half, and the film could have been much tighter. Acting wise Warsi comes out the winner, but then he is an excellent actor<\/a>. Salman Shahid is also very convincing as a Pakistani soldier in the employ of the Taliban. Hum Ghum is OK. John and Linda can be qualified as dramatically challenged.<\/p>\n

The film while different (no songs) and an honest attempt to depict Afghanistan\u2019s plight doesn\u2019t have what it takes to go commercial. There is a difference between documentary and Bollywood and Kabir apparently can\u2019t make up his mind on what genre to play up.<\/p>\n

Still, worth a watch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[amazon_link id=”B000KX0GW4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][\/amazon_link] Rating : Above Average (3.4\/5) Genre : Drama Year : 2006 Running time : 2 hours Director : Kabir Khan Cast : John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Hanif Hum Ghum, Salman Shahid, Linda Arsenio   … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_17000648_17000648":"","facebook_10233691416821117_190635594420624":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[43,76,14,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-43","category-bollywood","category-drama","category-thriller"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false,"sow-carousel-default":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"amodini","author_link":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/author\/admin"},"uagb_comment_info":2,"uagb_excerpt":"[amazon_link id=”B000KX0GW4″ target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ][\/amazon_link] Rating : Above Average (3.4\/5) Genre : Drama Year : 2006 Running time : 2 hours Director : Kabir Khan Cast : John Abraham, Arshad Warsi, Hanif Hum Ghum, Salman Shahid, Linda Arsenio   … Continue reading →","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p45CAb-c6","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=750"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4686,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/750\/revisions\/4686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fridaynirvana.com\/film\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}