Up in the Air

The film is about today's youngsters and the smartphone - so many apps to chat, to share, to make friends, and yet such lonely lives

- Satish Padmanabhan

KHO Gaye Hum Kahan (KGHK) is said to be the Dil Chahta Hai (DCH, 2001) of Gen Z (or whatever they are called now. Should it be Gen Zero—they contain everything, and nothing?). Twenty years ago, with India well into the economic reforms era, DCH tried to mirror the ambition, confusion and the emotional atyachar of the youth of that time. Well, at least a certain kind of youth—south Bombay, with a penchant for designer clothes, hip sunshades and sharp haircuts. Now the characters of KGHK are DCH stars Aamir Khan and Saif Ali Khan’s children’s age, and grappling with the same confusion and torment of growing up but with one big difference—the smartphone and the many social media apps loaded in them. The film devotes a lot of screen time to frenetic fingers sliding on a smartphone screen.

It’s the same gang which has made this film too. Farhan Akhtar was the director there, he is the producer here. Along with the pair of Zoya Akhtar (casting director in DCH) and Reema Kagti, the golden girls of OTT in India (Made in Heaven, Dahaad, The Archies). The lyrics are by Javed Akhtar for both films. Works from this stable (DCH, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Rock On…), let’s call it the Akhtarverse, come with a certain quality assurance, of certain sensibilities, but also a certain predictability, the envelope pushed within decent limits but always short of breaking out, scratches on the surface but never a deep cut. The actors are easy on the eye, the sets lovingly designed, the lighting always moody, the camera unobtrusively recording it all, the music foot-tapping (the songs here may grow on you, but DCH had more alluring numbers).