We are Family Movie Story Review & Rating

Bollywood remake of Julia Roberts starrer Stepmom,We are Family, is directed by debutant director Siddharth Malhotra, produced by Karan Johar’s production house Dharma Productions and released on the 3^rd September, 2010 in India. Earlier it was scheduled to be released on the September 10, 2010 but Johar changed the date of release because it clashed with release of Salman Khan starrer Dabangg.

The movie stars Hindi Cinema’s two of the most successful actresses Kajol Devgan and Kareena Kapoor along with Arjun Rampal.

The plot of the movie revolves around the concept of stepmom’s upbringing of the step-children. Maya ( Kajol ) is adivorcee, Divorced for 3 years, is staying with her 3 kids. Her ex-husband Aman ( Arjun Rampal ) has been in relation with Shreya ( Kareena Kapoor ). Maya is like the perfect mother, who despite being a single mother has kept everything working smoothly for the home and the kids.

We are family follows exact pattern of the typical Dharma production movies where we see everything working out perfectly, a rich family living abroad where everything is seen from a broader perspective than in India. A divorced dad still frequently and spending quality time with his kids and wife, which is strange for the Indian audiences and on top of this he introduces his kids to his girlfriend for no reason .Which shows the entire concept has been taken from the foreign trends and the movie is largely targeted for the international audiences, since such a lifestyle is not usually seen in India.

Now when the kids are happily living their mom, the movie goes into the same old Bollywood mould of illness of hero who tries to find his girlfriend a new love to be with her when he’s gone. The difference here is that we have a very loving mom who brings in her own home her ex-husband’s girlfriend to look after the kids after she’s gone. Which may seem exciting in the story but the portrayal on the screen is really unconvincing.

Though the kids are shown to be living in Australia, but still like the Bollywood fashion they label his girlfriend as a witch. Then there are scenes where the stepmom is shown connecting with the children trying to build the bond. In Stepmom, Kareena’s character played by Julia Roberts, shows how she succeeds in building a relationship with the kids on her own terms as a slow evolution. Here it’s instantaneous. One minute they’re full of hatred and suddenly they’re in love with each other. Then as the movie carries on at no point, there’s a big stage performance (dance and melodrama) where everyone performs for Kajol showing her how much will she be missed after she’s gone.

The actors being the excellence at their work have done justice to the role too, But still it misses the moving factor. The movie has been rated poorly by many of the film critics, Average rating being somewhere around 2.5/5.