Ki & Ka

Ki & Ka
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	R. Balki
Produced by	R. Balki R K Damani Rakesh Jhunjhunwala Sunil Lulla
Written by	R. Balki
Starring	Kareena Kapoor Arjun Kapoor
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja Songs: Ilaiyaraaja Mithoon Meet Bros
Cinematography	P. C. Sreeram
Edited by	Chandan Arora
Production companies	Eros International Hope Productions
Distributed by	Eros International
Release date	1 April 2016 (2016-04-01)
Running time	126 minutes[1]
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹20 crore[2]
Box office	₹100.33 crore[2]

Ki & Ka (English: She and He) is a 2016 Indian romantic drama film written, directed, and produced by R. Balki. The film follows a young, married couple contradicting the gender roles placed upon women and men in Indian society. It stars Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor.^[3][4][5][6]

The film released worldwide on 1 April 2016. Made on a budget of ₹200 million (US$3.1 million) the film has earned over ₹1.02 billion (US$16 million) worldwide.

Plot

Kia (Kareena Kapoor) is a highly motivated and driven career woman. She aims to become successful in the business world, and also advocates for more Indian women to become career-minded, instead of just accepting the traditional fate of a housewife. Kabir (Arjun Kapoor) is the son of a successful building constructor (Rajit Kapoor), and has no real aspirations to hold a day job or be permanently employed. He wishes to be a 'house-husband', having been influenced by the happy life that his mother lived as a housewife. While on a flight to Delhi from Chandigarh, the pair meet and become friends. They begin to spend more time together and learn more about each others lifestyle. Kia discovers that Kabir's preference to stay at home fits perfectly with her wish to climb up the corporate ladder. Kia also learns that Kabir has no interest in his fathers business and does not want to inherit his wealth.^[4]

Kia and Kabir gradually fall in love and decide to marry, establishing a relationship where Kabir handles the household while Kia is the main breadwinner. The couple live happily together and Kia's career grows as she is offered a generous promotion. After some time, the apartment that they rent is put up for sale. Not wanting to move out, Kabir decides to buy the house, and in order to make payments, he becomes a gym instructor.

During an interview, Kia mentions her 'unusual' marriage and her husband's role in their household. The interviewer is impressed by this, and requests a meeting with Kabir. While being questioned, Kabir explains that it does not matter if ki (feminine) takes up the role of ka (masculine), and ka takes up the role of ki. The interview is a great success and Kabir is asked to hold many more seminars and speeches on Gender Equality and modern marriages. Kabir's busy schedule causes him to stay away from home for much of the day, causing Kia to become upset. She is frustrated at all the attention her husband is receiving and, in order to cover up her jealousy, she accuses Kabir of using their relationship to get recognition and publicity. The couple argue and Kia asks Kabir to stop his public appearances.

Kia travels to the US for her job, and Kabir decides to remain behind. At a college reunion, Kabir is pressured by a friend into giving another interview, which is broadcast on TV. Film actress Jaya Bachchan sees this interview, and asks her husband, superstar Amitabh Bachchan to call Kabir and organise a meeting with him. Jaya is highly impressed with the story of both Kabir and Kia. Meanwhile, Kia's mother (Swaroop Sampat) is taken to the hospital after collapsing, causing Kia to rush back to India.

After learning that Kabir gave another interview, Kia becomes angry and the couple argue. Kia accuses Kabir of using her, saying that he used their relationship for his own profit. Kia further condemns Kabir for gaining fame without working, as she feels that her hard work and successful career are going unnoticed. Dejected, Kabir does not defend himself and starts packing to leave for Chandigarh. Kia comes across a gift that Jaya gave to Kabir for his wife, and also a letter written by the actress, in which she congratulates the pair and says that to be a man who maintains a household rather than work is a brave choice, but to be the wife of such a man is an even harder choice. Kia's mother confronts her about her jealousy, and says that it is the reason for the couples many fights. Kia realizes that she has been unfairly tough on Kabir and apologizes to him for her behavior and temperament. The couple reconcile and find a happy compromise. Kabir's father, who has come to appreciate Kia's business acumen and drive, decides to make her the CEO of his company.

Cast

• Kareena Kapoor as Kia Bansal
• Arjun Kapoor as Kabir Bansal
• Swaroop Sampat as Kia's Mother
• Rajit Kapur as Kabir's Father
• Amitabh Bachchan as Himself (special appearance)
• Jaya Bachchan as Herself (special appearance)

Production

Development

Balki finished the script in July 2015. The film derives its title from linguistic gender divisions of the Hindi language found in the words "ladki" and "ladka" meaning "girl" and "boy". He said, ""In Hindi not just human beings but also nonliving objects have gender. Everybody and everything is categorised. But this film, like the couple's marriage, underlines the fact that Ki and Ka as genders don't matter."^[4]

Release

Ki & Ka has followed a similar path to Kapoor & Sons on day one and has seen a pick up in the evening and will finish with similar collections. It could go a little higher due to the slightly wider release. The early estimate is around ₹6.75 crore (US$1.1 million) nett.^[7] The film managed to pick up in the evening in the evening to record collections of ₹7.25 crore (US$1.1 million) approximately on the first day.^[8] The film earned ₹8.25 crore (US$1.3 million) on second day.^[9] The film earned ₹9.25 crore (US$1.4 million) on third day. The film had a decent weekend though the trend was not great for a content urban film. A further push on Saturday would have benefited the film tremendously. It is the third highest weekend of 2016. The weekend business of Ki & Ka is ₹24.75 crore (US$3.9 million).^[10]Ki & Ka had the normal Monday drop of around 50%. A ₹3.50 crore (US$550,000) nett plus Monday is reasonable for the film.^[11] Ki & Ka held very well on 5th day with a very limited drop of around 6-7%, film earned ₹3.25 crore (US$510,000) on 5th day.^[12] The film had a decent first week of ₹37 crore (US$5.8 million) nett apprx in India.^[13] The film earned ₹39 crore (US$6.1 million) in eight days.^[14]

Music

Ki & Ka
Soundtrack album to Ki & Ka by Ilaiyaraaja Meet Bros Mithoon
Released	25 February 2016
Recorded	Meet Bros Recording Studio, Mumbai Prasad Studio, Chennai
Genre	Feature Film Soundtrack
Length	24:03
Label	T-Series
Singles from Ki and Ka
"High Heels" Released: 21 February 2016

The soundtrack album features songs composed by Meet Bros for the T-Series label^[15] besides having an original song composed by Balki's regular collaborator Ilaiyaraaja, who has also composed the background score of the movie.

Lyrics have been penned by Kumaar, Amitabh Bhattacharya and Sayeed Quadri.^[16] The full music album was released on 25 February 2016.^[17]

Critical reception

Critic Rajeev Masand rated the film 2/5, writing, "Ki & Ka arrives with a curious premise, but Balki fails to flesh it out into an engaging film. I was especially pleased to see Kareena Kapoor sink her teeth into a solid role after what seems like an eternity. Arjun Kapoor deserves credit for taking a role that few male stars would, but both actors are let down by the inert writing."^[18] Anupama Chopra also rated it 2/5. She reasoned that "One of the enduring problems with Balki’s films persists — his crackling concept runs out of steam. It’s almost as if he spends so much of his creative energy coming up with the high-wire idea that he has none left to flesh out the narrative around it."^[19] Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3 stars out of 5, and stated, "On the whole, Ki & Ka is a cleverly crafted feel-good film that packs all the emotions. Though it has strong performances by both Arjun and Kareena, the film is bound to draw extreme reactions from the orthodox audiences who may find the premise difficult to digest. It is an urban progressive film and should appeal more to women and young married couples." ^[20] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film 2 stars and termed it as "rocky" while commenting that "The film is fun when it is setting up the roles. But the execution, as it goes along, gets rocky. Much of it stays episodic, and starts reinforcing the very stereotypes it set out to negate. The problem is the film’s unwillingness to go the mile. She also noted that it could have been more "sharper" and "deeper".^[21] Rohit Vats from Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 2.5 and noted that film has a lot of drama and summarized, "There is no denying that Ki & Ka has a noble concept, but hasn’t the director very conveniently confined himself to a comfort zone where he only needs to break some generalised stereotypes such as ‘women can’t be ambitious’ or ‘men can’t cook at home’ or ‘a woman’s career is finished after pregnancy’? Ki & Ka isn’t a strong voice against gender stereotyping, but it’s one of its kind in mainstream Hindi film industry, and that makes it notice-worthy."^[22] Meena Iyer of The Times of India gave the film 4 stars and stated, "Kareena is terrific, Arjun, endearing. But Balki's writing is inconsistent. A few scenes leave you misty-eyed, but for the most part, the stock situations are banal. Yet, Ki and Ka is worth a ticket because it tells shows how there is nothing wrong with the man wearing the apron and the women wearing her ambition."^[23]

Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com gave it 2.5 stars while noting, "Ki & Ka is obviously taken in by its liberal notions but fails to realise that it’s not so uncommon in today’s urban context where lots of working men and women share both their professional and personal duties."^[24] Sarita A Tanwar of Daily News & Analysis gave it 2.5 stars and described the film as "stretched" and "cheesy" but also called it "a daring film" while interpreting it as "The best thing about the film is that it questions gender roles that we impose on ourselves and each other. But, the film loses momentum mid-way. The idea is stretched too thin and the climax is cheesy. It's enjoyable when it's not trite. You might take to it if you are the sort that enjoys clichés."^[25] Pallavi Patra from Zee News gave it 2 stars and mentioned it as "trite enterprise" while summarizing the film as "Ki & Ka is a seemingly funny enterprise with a feminist theme gone awry. It's not the theme that is at trouble here but a laid-back script coupled with an ostensibly manufactured chemistry between its promising leads. Watch it or not, Ki & Ka prefix will enjoy its dominance over the youth – but cinematic wise – not a good picture here"^[26] Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV gave the film 2 stars and called it "intermittently watchable". He noted, "A concept film that has a lot to say - Ki And Ka actually succeeds in getting a few of its points in edgewise - but the writing is below-par. As a consequence, Ki And Ka is like a string of patched-together monosyllables that never attain sustained coherence. Too much talk and very little plot progression put the skids under the film. Ki And Ka goes belly up pretty quickly never to recover fully."^[27] Ananya Bhattacharya of India Today gave a low rating of 1.5 and summarized it as "good germs of film spoilt by bad execution" and mentioned, "he film tries so hard to be what it is not that it loses way badly. The writing is not a field which Ki And Ka excels in. The film, for most part, feels like a rehearsal of sorts. Both Arjun and Kareena look like they are mouthing sharp, one-tone dialogues to impress the conductor of this out-of-tune opera that is Ki And Ka. The ping-pong dialogue-delivery between Arjun and Kareena is a major dampener."^[28] Anna M.M. Vetticad from Firstpost also criticised the film as "fun concept spoilt by patchy plot" while stating "Large swathes of Ki & Ka are fun, considerable sections of it are unexpectedly broad-minded, path-breaking for Bollywood and insightful. The problem is that we can section it off in this fashion. Ultimately, what fails the film is its mixed messaging and choppy texture."^[29]

References

External links

• Ki & Ka on Facebook
• Ki & Ka on IMDb
• Ki & Ka at Bollywood Hungama