Karan Johar's gleefully over indulgent ode to the Yash Chopra style and the aesthetic of glamorous realism, "Kabhi Khushi Kabbie Gham" [K3G] is perhaps the most lush, melodramatic, and charismatic Bollywood film ever made.

Many aspects of K3G follow a theme of, yesterday, today, and tomorrow. From the epic casting coup for the film, that brings together one of the great screen couple of yesteryear, Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya (Bachchan) Bhaduri. The reining hottest Bollywood screen pairing of Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, and the two most promising screen stars of the future, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor. The film itself, is structured in a yesterday, today, and tomorrow format. The first half of the film is a story told in flashback, with the second half of the film taking place in the 'present day'. The imputes of the film is Hrithik Roshan's character's wish for a future family reconciliation and there is even a fantasy sequence in the second half, picturing this future reunion.

The theme of yesterday, today, and tomorrow is incorporated with the main theme and byline for K3G, "Its all about loving your parents." Karan Johar has been known as an autobiographical screen writer. His first film, "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" [1998] the director has stated, is partially a story about himself, with one of the main characters actually being Johar. Mysteriously Johar also states that the audience will have to guess which one of the character is him. If one takes a closer look at the characters of K3G it becomes quite obvious that one hero in particular is symbolically Karan Johar. This character symbolically walks Karan Johar's journey to his evolution as a Bollywood film director. This character is the film's main protagonist Rahul, played by Shahrukh Khan.

To explain this we have to look at the plot of K3G. In the film Rahul is the (adopted) heir to an industrial empire that is presently run by his father. Rahul is exiled to London because he has married against his father's wishes. Rahul's younger brother Rohan (who is not adopted) goes to London with the intention of fetching Rahul back and reuniting him with the family.

The plot of K3G's basic story line is really, as I've already stated, is a veiled metaphor for Karan Johar's true Bollywood life. Karan is the son of film producer Yash Johar who is the head of the Yash/Rai production company. Karan grew up in the heart of Bollywood, and he has stated that the Director, Yash Chopra is like a second father to him. As a teenager Karan moved to London to go to school and effectively disassociated himself from his Bollywood past. He wanted to study to be a fashion designer and not have anything to do with Bollywood. In fact he states that during this period he hated Bollywood films and thought it was bad cinema. He even went as far as to lie to his classmates that he was not the son of Yash Johar the producer of Bollywood films. This part of Karan's life parallels the plot of K3G as Rahul sends himself into self exile to London to escape his past as the adopted son and heir to a rich empire. The fact that Rahul is adopted (which is really not that important to the plot) is a metaphor for Karan feeling that Yash Chopra is like his second father or effectively, adopted son. Next in the plot of K3G, the real son of the industrialist goes to London to bring Rahul back to India and his family. In Karan Johar's real life, in 1994 the son of Yash Chopra, Aditya came to London and approached Karan with a proposal to help him make his maiden film, this film would be "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" [DDLJ]. Karan accepted and worked as a clothing consultant and also had a small acting part in the film. Working on DDLJ reawakened Karan Johar's love for Bollywood and he returned to the open arms of his film family. So if the character of Rahul in K3G represents Karan Johar, then the industrialist adopted father is meant to be Yash Chopra and his brother in the film Rohan is meant to be Aditya Chopra, the brother who convinces him to return home.

As I stated at the beginning of this look at K3G, Karan Johar has meant the film to be an ode and homage to the great Bollywood entertainers like the ones made by his 'second father' Yash Chopra. It is a story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It is a story that is, "All about loving your parents." The film is veiled autobiographical metaphor. In many ways it also shows signs of being a post modern film, as it consciously uses the history of Bollywood films past, present, and future in it's look and story. "It's all about loving your parents", Karan Johar says, and Karan Johar's 'family' is Bollywood.