Kambakkht Ishq
- Director
- Sabbir Khan
- Studio
- Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
- Release Date
- 2 July 2009
- Running Time
- 135 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹65.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹84.00 Cr
Review
Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor's chemistry barely survives the exhausting cynicism that Sabbir Khan mistakes for wit in *Kambakkht Ishq*, a romantic comedy that confuses chaos with comedy and considers police raids hilarious plot devices. The film's central premise—two people sabotaging their best friends' marriage to prove a philosophical point—is so fundamentally unlikeable that no amount of Italian scenery or Kumar's reliable charm can rehabilitate it. Where films like *Pyaar Ka Punchnama* mined genuine relationship anxieties for laughs, this one wallows in petty antagonism masquerading as depth, with neither Simrita's sweeping generalizations about men nor Viraj's counter-schemes feeling earned or funny. Khan's direction is aggressively unfocused, lurching between slapstick, courtroom drama, and romance without establishing a coherent tone, and the supporting characters—particularly the married couple caught in the crossfire—are treated as props rather than people we care about.
What partially saves this from complete mediocrity is the undeniable screen presence of its leads. Kumar slides into the stuntman role with practiced ease, and Kapoor brings an edge to what could have been a one-dimensional cynic, but the script gives them nothing substantial to work with beyond bickering that's meant to feel will-they-won't-they but reads as actively antagonistic. The Italy portion offers respite—when the film finally settles into romance rather than scheming, it remembers it's
Storyline
So basically, this stuntman named Viraj and a med student called Simrita totally clash when they meet at their best friends' wedding. Both of them are super cynical about relationships and think marriage is a terrible idea, so they're constantly trying to sabotage the newlyweds. Simrita's convinced that all guys are only after one thing, so she gets her bestie Kamini to make Lucky wait three months before consummating the marriage to prove her point. Meanwhile, Viraj wants to prove her wrong and tries to help Lucky out, which leads to some pretty ridiculous situations involving nightclubs and fake girlfriends.
Their schemes obviously go sideways when the cops raid a club during one of their schemes, and Kamini and Lucky end up having to go to marriage counseling and basically getting put on probation by a judge. Throughout all this, Simrita keeps drilling into Kamini's head that men are all the same and just want sex, which obviously creates tension between the newlyweds. Lucky's frustrated because Kamini won't let him get close to her, and it's just a whole mess.
But here's where it gets interesting—Simrita and Viraj keep accidentally running into each other when they both end up traveling to Italy for their own reasons. That's when things really start to heat up between them, and you know what that means for two people who supposedly hate each other!
