Despite the supernatural elements, Shukriya: Till Death Do Us Apart (2004) isn’t a horror movie, it’s a family melodrama like Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, a story of star crossed lovers who are surrounded by the nicest family in the world.
London-based businessman Karam Jindal (Anupam Kher) really does have it all: a loving wife, Sandhya (Rati Agnihotri); two beautiful daughters, Anjali (Indraneil Sengupta) and Sanam (Shriya Saran); an apprentice, Yash (Indraneel), who is ready to taker over the company and is practically part of the family; and, of course, lots and lots of money. Karam plans to celebrate his sixtieth birthday by using some of said money to open a new hospital, named after his late mother, which will treat the poor free of charge.
Anjali is married to a nice young man who politely stays offscreen for most of the movie. Sanam is single, and while the family really wants her to marry Yash, who absolutely adores her, but she thinks of him as a friend. Instead, she uses a bizarre little fortune telling box which informs her that her true love will be a musician. Soon after, she meets aspiring musician Ricky (Aftab Shivdasani). She likes him, he likes her, she invites him to her father’s birthday party, and, after she’s gone . . .
He’s hit by a truck and dies.
Karam, meanwhile, is haunted by a voice which claims to be Death – his death, specifically. Karam does not want to die, so he convinces the voice to let him have four more days, which will be long enough to put his affairs in order and oversee the opening of his hospital. He also tells the voice that it doesn’t understand how hard it is to be human, so Death decides to take a holiday, borrowing the body of the recently deceased Ricky to become a guest in the Jindal household. Sanam doesn’t understand why Ricky is calling himself Rohan, but she’s thrilled that the man she believes is her destined love is staying with them, while Death/Rohan/Ricky is intrigued by her and the promise of this Earth thing called kissing. And you can probably predict exactly what happens next.
Or maybe you can’t. The twist, if there is one, is that Karam has no need to learn any valuable lessons (except maybe listen when the doctor tells him to cut down on the salt, but that ship has pretty much sailed.) Karam’s priority has always been his family; even before he learns that he’s going to die, we see him tell his wife and both of his daughters that he loves them. He uses his four extra days to manage the circumstances of his death, rather than to repair any fractured relationships, because the relationships are all already strong.
This is another one of those movies where absolutely everybody is nice. The parents are nice, the sister’s are nice, the human incarnation of Death is nice. Even Yash, who is clearly set up to be the villain, is very nice, apart from one shocking moral lapse. That’s what really works about Shukriya; it’s worth fighting for four more days of this life, but you know it’s going to end anyway.
London-based businessman Karam Jindal (Anupam Kher) really does have it all: a loving wife, Sandhya (Rati Agnihotri); two beautiful daughters, Anjali (Indraneil Sengupta) and Sanam (Shriya Saran); an apprentice, Yash (Indraneel), who is ready to taker over the company and is practically part of the family; and, of course, lots and lots of money. Karam plans to celebrate his sixtieth birthday by using some of said money to open a new hospital, named after his late mother, which will treat the poor free of charge.
Anjali is married to a nice young man who politely stays offscreen for most of the movie. Sanam is single, and while the family really wants her to marry Yash, who absolutely adores her, but she thinks of him as a friend. Instead, she uses a bizarre little fortune telling box which informs her that her true love will be a musician. Soon after, she meets aspiring musician Ricky (Aftab Shivdasani). She likes him, he likes her, she invites him to her father’s birthday party, and, after she’s gone . . .
He’s hit by a truck and dies.
Karam, meanwhile, is haunted by a voice which claims to be Death – his death, specifically. Karam does not want to die, so he convinces the voice to let him have four more days, which will be long enough to put his affairs in order and oversee the opening of his hospital. He also tells the voice that it doesn’t understand how hard it is to be human, so Death decides to take a holiday, borrowing the body of the recently deceased Ricky to become a guest in the Jindal household. Sanam doesn’t understand why Ricky is calling himself Rohan, but she’s thrilled that the man she believes is her destined love is staying with them, while Death/Rohan/Ricky is intrigued by her and the promise of this Earth thing called kissing. And you can probably predict exactly what happens next.
Or maybe you can’t. The twist, if there is one, is that Karam has no need to learn any valuable lessons (except maybe listen when the doctor tells him to cut down on the salt, but that ship has pretty much sailed.) Karam’s priority has always been his family; even before he learns that he’s going to die, we see him tell his wife and both of his daughters that he loves them. He uses his four extra days to manage the circumstances of his death, rather than to repair any fractured relationships, because the relationships are all already strong.
This is another one of those movies where absolutely everybody is nice. The parents are nice, the sister’s are nice, the human incarnation of Death is nice. Even Yash, who is clearly set up to be the villain, is very nice, apart from one shocking moral lapse. That’s what really works about Shukriya; it’s worth fighting for four more days of this life, but you know it’s going to end anyway.
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