The marriage was already over. Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’ just said it out aloud

Released two decades ago, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna faced initial skepticism, accused of glorifying infidelity and questioning the sanctity of marriage. However, the film has since become Karan Johar's most substantial melodrama, contrasting sharply with his emotional maximalism in Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. Instead of portraying an ideal family, the film delves into the ideals that dissolve within one, showcasing two people creating wars of their own.

Johar explored the consequences of friendship taking the place of love and companionship slowly transforming into a substitute for intimacy. The film subversively weaponized Shah Rukh Khan's stardom to make audiences empathize with Dev, a bitter, insecure, and emotionally corrosive man. Dev, a failed footballer, father, and husband, is equally lonely and unfaithful in his marriage, coupled with Maya, a woman whose unhappiness has turned into resentment.

Their relationship was not about redemption but recognizing each other's failures, making them the unlikable and embittered spouses in their respective marriages. The film was morally messy and emotionally uncompromising, revealing Johar's unsparing perspective on the withering of ideal families and love in the face of reality.