Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Logan By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Roland E. Zwick Though a native of India, Avantika (Kareena Kapoor) is currently a professor at a college in New York. On a trip to visit her ailing father in Delhi, Avantika meets and falls in love with another professor, the dapper and dashing Ehsaan (Saif Ali Khan). After a whirlwind courtship - which seems to take place in a slickly-produced shampoo commercial - the star-crossed lovers set up a new life for themselves as a married couple in the States. But all is not unadulterated marital bliss for the newlyweds, as Avantika quickly discovers that Ehsaan is, in reality, a secret Islamic terrorist who married her strictly as a means of getting easy ingress into the United States. The other major character is Riyaz (Vivek Oberoi), a war correspondent for a local news station, who allows himself to be recruited into the sleeper cell of which Ehsaan is a member.Though "Kurbaan" starts out as a fairly typical - i.e., overly cutesy - Bollywood romance, it quickly transitions into an admittedly bloated but moderately gripping action-movie thriller with serious social overtones. Perhaps because this is an Indian film, the terrorists, though by no means the "heroes" of the story, do get to air their grievances in a somewhat more sympathetic and even-handed fashion than they would were it an American-made production. On the other hand, like most Indian films, this one suffers from over-length and a tendency towards hyperbole when understatement might have been the better course to take. And while the Indian actors are all fine, the American performers leave much to be desired (perhaps the result of an Indian director, Rensil D'Silva, not being able to identify poor line readings when delivered in another language). In addition, the action sequences are often clunky and unconvincingly staged, especially when contrasted with something like the expertly executed "24."Yet, despite its flaws, "Kurbaan" combines suspense, social commentary, romance and clue-gathering in generally appropriate proportions, which makes the two-hour-and-forty-minute running time pass reasonably quickly.

nadjacs There was a bit of good acting scattered throughout and the music was decent, but the plot holes were large enough to drive a bus through, and I found the handling of Muslim characters extremely one-sided. Yes, there were a few moderate voices, but they got very little attention, making this seem pretty much 95% anti-Islamic.The story following the FBI investigators was extremely choppy and that investigation was not believable. Leads such as fingerprints that should have been on the murder weapon in the club, or such as the license plates on the burned car were completely ignored as these supposedly-trained detectives stumbled around in the dark and waited for a reporter to solve all their problems.The idea that a terrorist cell would not do even a cursory investigation of a new member right before an attack is also ridiculous.I was however very impressed by the Hindi spoken by random New York Caucasians in the night classes. Shabash! Maybe mine would have improved faster if I'd attended more lectures on religion.

Sherazade I was a little hesitant about watching it especially after all the assorted reviews I had read but I have to say though, the acting is top class (Kiron Kher was exceptionally good) and the movie itself is well paced(it comes to the point right away), where 'New York' was glitzy and somewhat sugar-coated for the audience, 'Kurbaan' is blunt, raw and shot (at least the first half of it) with an intelligent audience in mind.As a resident New Yorker very few things offended me in the film which more than I can say for most parts of Yash Raj's 'New York'. But just like 'New York' had John as the harrowing tragic anti-hero, 'Kurbaan' has Saif as its powerhouse take-no-prisoners male protagonist who has been wronged by society and is seeking revenge. In 'New York, you actually take pity on John Abraham's character whereas in 'Kurbaan' in spite of what were are told Saif's character went through, it's hard to feel sorry for him. However, most of the 'Kurbaan' scenarios are true to life (Yes! our JFK/NWK TSA would random search an innocent person while a suspicious one walks right by them, YES! it's possible for a sharp-shooting gun-man to take out 4 armed police officers who rather than call for back-up after witnessing one of their own get massacred try to play hero instead, YES! stranger things happen in our upstate cul-de-sac suburbs more than our inner cities etc. etc. you get the gist) Vivek Oberoi's character was the worst of the bunch in my opinion(second only to the horrible extras and their $2 acting) his roof-top-cop-like character was so poorly written that you would find yourself asking more questions than trying to reason with the decisions the character makes.While there are similarities between "New York' and 'Kurbaan', let it be known that they are two separate films to their own merits. Where 'Kurbaan' makes a mockery of the NY-FBI and NYPD, 'New York' was more lenient. Where 'New York' glossed it up with the tragically unsuspecting heroine (played by Katrina Kaif) 'Kurbaan' gives you Kareena Kapoor (a far superior actress any way you slice it) bare and broken. Which is the better movie? Well, it would depend of who you ask.Forget about the sex scene people, trust me you've seen raunchier (get over yourselves).One thing Bollywood directors/producers/writers need to do when shooting in a foreign locale is get the accents right, give the extras some credit and require them to act rather than behave like clueless idiots. It just never fails in Bollywood movies, you will always see weird stereotypes, hear weird accents in places where they shouldn't be and see over-blown scenarios etc. etc. DO YOUR RESEARCH. Somebody would have called the cops, a train would never roar out of the station during a police investigation, the neighbours would have suspected something, I could go on and on...

sniperswagat 'Kurbaan' is another in the new 'global-terrorism' mould cinema of Bollywood. It can also be called the second in a trilogy, sandwiched between 'New York' and 'My Name is Khan'.Avantika, a Professor at the Delhi University, falls for Ehsan Khan, a new Professor who's just joined the staff. They get married; move to the US for Anamika to continue her teaching and Ehsan starts a new job there as well. Avantika later realizes that Ehsan is a terrorist and is involved in the bombing of an aircraft. How she tries to get out of this situation is the crux of the story.The screenplay tries to lift the story above the regularity of what we read in the newspaper reports by putting in Vivek Oberoi's character into the mix to spice things up, but fails. There are glaring mistakes; like Vivek Oberoi's unnecessary and unrealistic gung-ho act, FBI agent Collins surviving the powerful blast at a distance of 1 metre while the entire subway station around him goes to waste, Om Puri meticulously planning everything and then failing to do as much as a background check on Vivek Oberoi. Even the much publicized intimate scene is a gimmick and could have been done without.Rensil D' Silva performs decently in his directorial debut, considering he's hampered by the poor screenplay. At some places, the story moves a little abruptly; but that will get better as he makes more movies. He is also able to bring out good performances from most of the cast.Kareena Kapoor as Avantika is the soul of the film. She's at the eye of the storm and puts in a great performance. She is the best performer in this movie without a doubt. Saif Ali Khan looks old and burdened. This might be deliberate to show him as the hardened terrorist, but he fails to give you the scares. Om Puri as the mastermind of the operation is effective in his brief role. Kirron Kher has a refreshingly different role from the usual benevolent motherly roles she plays and she does very well. Vivek Oberoi is decent, but his gung-ho act and inconsistent accent takes away from his performance. Dia Mirza is OK in her brief role.The music is hummable. No song stands out, but no song grates on your nerves either. The background score is mostly effective, but in moments of tension, there seem to be some mirthful beats playing, and that sounds strange. The cinematography is good. The actions scenes look real, with an explosion looking like an explosion and not something superimposed on the scene.Final Verdict: Kurbaan is a decent movie, hovering somewhere between average and good.