Film / Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (translating to "Never Say Goodbye") is a 2006 Bollywood romantic drama film produced by Hiroo Yash Johar of Dharma Productions, directed by her son Karan Johar, who also wrote the film with Shibani Bathija.

The film centers around two married couples, Dev and Rhea Saran (Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta) and Rishi and Maya Talwar (Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukherji), whose lives have been generally unfulfilling. When Rishi's single dad Sam (Amitabh Bachchan) and Dev's single mom Kamaljit (Kirron Kher) turn to each other to cope with their loneliness, Dev and Maya are inspired to turn to each other to help each other's lives, but end up falling for each other.

This film provides examples of these tropes:

• Amicable Exes: Rishi and Rhea end this way with Maya and Dev. They can't forgive them, but they know to move on: it's in fact them realizing that Dev and Maya haven't moved on that pushes Rhea and Rishi to let them be together.
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Maya and Dev are bickering in the hospital over the anguish they've caused each other, Maya remarks that she wouldn't have married if she hadn't met Dev. Cue this response from Dev, which makes her realize what she just meant.
  Dev: "Wouldn't have married? Is that a good or a bad thing?"
• Awful Wedded Life: Two of them, in fact! They are what drive the plot forward.
• Bittersweet Ending: Discussed. Dev and Maya are eventually able to start a real, loving relationship, but they lament all the hearts they broke and all the people they hurt to get to this point.
• Buy Them Off: Amidst mounting frustration with his dad's behavior, Rishi is promised a red Ferrari if he agrees to hold a party for him. Rishi recognizes he is being bought...and accepts.
  Rishi: "If you think you can buy me out by bribing me...you're absolutely right. I love that car!
• The Casanova: Sam is a relentless flirt who always has his arm wrapped around another woman and, in his son's words, will "hit on just about anything that moves". He however explains that it is a coping mechanism he uses to deal with his unfulfilled marriage to his former wife, who urged him to fulfill the dreams they couldn't when alive. It's also how he realizes Dev and Maya are having an affair.
• Career-Ending Injury: Deconstructed. Dev suffers from one at the beginning of the film, preventing him from playing football ever again. While he's left as a coach to a team of kids that struggle to be as good as he once was, his wife Rhea earns massive success being part of a fashion magazine, leaving Dev a Broken Ace bitter with frustration and jealousy.
• The Confidant: Dev and Maya become this to each other to deal with their respective marriages. It's Played for Drama however as them having the functioning, healthy friendship they lack in their marriages results in them developing feelings for each other.
• Dramatic Irony: At one point, Rhea and Rishi both celebrate at a club for, among other things, what they believe to be the restoration of their marriages. All while Dev and Maya consummate.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Dev buys a bouquet of roses for Maya, but when he spots her and Rhea walking together on the street, he gives them to Rhea instead, although leaves one behind for Maya. Then Maya leaving that rose on her bed convinces Rishi that her love in him has been restored.
• Disappointed in You: Sam and Kamarjit are both mortified when they see Dev and Maya in an embrace. Aside from Sam admitting that Dev was right to be afraid of what he might see outside the station, they're left utterly silent.
• Everyone Has Standards: Rishi and Rhea are understandably heartbroken and furious when Dev and Maya confess their affair to them. However, even they feel that the two lying to each other and being alone in misery for three years is too harsh even for them; as such, after both Rishi and Rhea make their own romantic advances on others, they give Maya their blessing to pursue Dev before he leaves the country.
• Fire-Forged Friends: This is why Dev and Maya fall for each other. In the absence of anyone else to confide in about the failings of their marriages, they consult each other, delving deeply into their own flaws and merits, and develop such a healthy friendship that they start harboring romantic feelings.
• Foreshadowing:
  • The first few minutes of the movie practically spell out the plot: Maya ponders what she should do if she finds her soulmate after marriage, and asks Dev if he still loves his wife.
  • Rishi warns his dad that he can't be so reckless, seeing as he's already had two heart attacks. He has one later in the film that takes his life.
  • When he and Maya find Sam and Kamaljit talking outside the station, suspecting they have fallen for each other, Dev expresses his fear of coming out of the station because of what he might see. That's exactly where Sam finds out about their affair: he even admits that Dev was right to be afraid.
• Gone Horribly Right: The roses that Dev buys for Maya but gives to Rhea help rekindle the bonds between him and Rhea, as well as that of Maya and Rishi. Too bad that Dev and Maya were at this point having an affair.
• My God, What Have I Done?: The two couples both attend a ballet to celebrate their restored relationships, during which they caress their spouses. Both Dev and Maya are left mortified once they grasp how much they've toyed with Rishi's and Rhea's emotions.
• Neat Freak: Maya is one, frequently vacuuming the house, and asking Rishi to take his pants off just to clean them. This is a source of anguish in her marriage, as she's so obsessed with cleaning she rarely does much else. When she confesses her affair to Rishi, he remarks that it's ironic that someone so obsessed with cleanliness can "bring in so much filth".
• Never Say Goodbye: The film's title translates to this after all. The word "goodbye" to the characters implies that they'll never meet again.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: All of Sam's humor dissipates the moment he realizes Dev and Maya are having an affair. And then he dies, so yeah, there's that.
• Sustained Misunderstanding: When Dev and Maya think that Rhea and Rishi are having an affair, they confront their spouses. Unfortunately for them, it happens at the worst possible time (when Rhea is trying to encourage her son to play the violin, and when Rishi's dad brought another woman to his house), so their attempts to clarify the situation make it sound more and more like an actual affair.
• Time Skip: One at the beginning, after Dev's Career-Ending Injury, and one near the end, after Dev and Maya have left their spouses.
• Tranquil Fury: Rhea's response to learning about her husband's affair. Aside from slapping Dev, she simply declares their marriage over and asks him to leave.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Rishi's response to learning about his wife's affair. He mockingly asks if Maya slept with Dev and if it was fun.