Avantika Ahuja (Kareena Kapoor), an academic living in the United States, returns to Delhi after her father falls ill. While in India she meets Ehsaan Khan (Saif Ali Khan), a University professor from Mumbai; and the two become friends and soon fall in love. After some time, Avantika must return back to work. Ehsaan readily agrees to emmigrate for her, and the couple are soon married and living in America. Avantika helps Ehsaan in getting a job, and he is appointed as a professor to teach 'Islam and the Modern World' at the same university where she works. The pair live a happy life in a quiet suburb populated by many South Asian families.

Actually, I saw Kurbaan in November of 2009 but didn't write a review on it until now. When I left the theater, I remember asking myself how much did Kurbaan move me as a cinematic experience. It has managed to stir our minds about the true roots of terrorism, but only in some pieces. Though a good movie, Kurbaan stumbled a lot to enthrall us, especially the first half.Nearly everyone got meaty roles. Om Puri sleep walks through the role of a 'leader terrorist'. It didn't even test a quarter of his acting calibre. Saif Ali Khan was brooding, tough & menacing. Vivek Oberoi showed the right balance of anger, fear & vulnerability in his performance. Kareena Kapoor gave it her best shot. She's a seductress in the steamy scenes. Other actors like Kiron Kher and Diya Mirza (inconsequential role, really) were impressive too. Some of the American actors were wonderfully natural, especially the confrontation scene between Vivek Oberoi and a white American girl. The girl was superb.Maybe it's the first time direction of Renjith but some of the scenes in the movie were 'choppy'. Let me explain - in the first half, Saif & Kareena keep meeting each other in every consecutive scene like as if they were performing on a stage! Scene A - Saif & Kareena meet at a cafe, Scene B - Saif proposes to Kareena, Scene C - they move to US. The editing didn't help make the scenes move seamlessly from one to another. I did feel I was watching a drama on a stage.The title song 'Kurbaan' is cool. And the way explosion shots were tackled was applause-worthy.Verdict - Doesn't engage you all the time but still, a very good directorial debut by Renjith. Watchable.

"New York" & "Kurbaan".... seems like there was a race between the buddies Adi & KJo. The similarities are aplenty and let me not go there on a listing spree. Having accredited and acclaimed for one of the finest screenplay in "Rang De Basanti", expectations are bound to run high from Rensil D'Silva. Paradoxically in "Kurbaan" the screenplay turns out to the weakest link, owing to which the Titanic starts going down under with each passing reel. The DOP also needs to share the blame for giving it a feel of suspense thriller/ whodunit at unwarranted places.° Saif Ali Khan: The character seems to be a direct lift from "Fanaa". He puts up a strong performance however the the fallacies in the movie overshadow his effort. The smooth talking professor/ love story did not quite gel well.° Kareena Kapoor: "Love is blind, marriage restores sight" is an apt phrase to describe her character. Avantika appears to be either an emotional fool or fickle-minded. Poor writing indeed.° Vivek Oberoi: Not quite there.° Om Puri: The fundamentalist part of the character is straight lift from "Shoot on Sight". However he seems to be having a streak of poor/ impulsive planner.° Kiron Kher: Get the diction spot on and everything good ends there.° Nauheed Cyrusi & Dia Mirza barely had few scenes. ° Khulbushan Kharbanda's character was unwarranted. Coming from the house of KJo music is generally one of the strong points and therefore a few songs are quite good. There are too many coincidences/ cinematic liberties in the movie. Coming to the premise, the writing of KJo attempts to give a balanced view of both sides of the coin. Sadly the research is inadequate and can be aptly termed as school homework. The writing hardly manages to touch a layer or two at the most. The planning/ plotting/ execution - if the actual terrorists would watch "Kurbaan", they would fall of their chairs and die laughing.

Kurbaan is a major disappointment for me. I expected much more from Karan Johar and was ready to see a powerful and moving picture. But it neither moved nor entertained me as I thought it would. Though the first half is fairly interesting, the entire suspense thing was a complete letdown. Once the so-called "secret" was unveiled, the movie became very predictable, and not even once was I particularly thrilled or shocked or surprised. The script is the film's weakest link. The film fails to convince the viewer. The romance between Saif and Kareena was not believable, the proceedings seemed unjustified by any means, the background of the characters was vague and the reasoning behind their actions was overlooked. At some point the film became overly messy and that too while being slow and boring. The film's subject was hardly evident in it and was seemingly used as a pretext. I did not see the point of the story and what exactly it tried to convey. Did you?Kurbaan's saving grace may lie in some of the performances. Some. Saif Ali Khan did not impress me here, he was sort of ordinary. Kareena Kapoor was pretty good in her role. She was likable and looked stunning throughout the movie. One performance that completely amazed me though was that of Kirron Kher. She was absolutely outstanding, and her dialogue delivery was natural and powerful. Vivek Oberoi was strictly okay though one must note that his role is underwritten. The film's soundtrack was very good. "Shukran Allah" is a nice song, "Kurbaan Hua" is also very good. The film's last scene was somewhat effective with good acting by Kareena, but a few pluses cannot save this movie, and the final verdict is average. Kurbaan may be a decent one-time watch but overall it is a great disappointment. It is best described as a wannabe thriller which lacks the power to captivate and enthrall. Watch it if you must.