Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna — A Story That Stayed With Me

I’ve always had a soft corner for Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. It’s funny, really. My friends could never understand why I was so keen to watch a film about extramarital affairs. To them it was scandalous, maybe even dull. They mocked me for taking it so seriously. “Why would you like a movie about people cheating?” And yes, the film didn’t exactly set the box office on fire it was considered a disappointment for a Karan Johar movie.

But for me, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was one of a kind. It wasn’t just the glamorous New York backdrop, the star-studded cast, or the melodious songs; though all of that added a certain charm. What really drew me in was its raw honesty. Beneath all the style and drama, there was something painfully real about it the way it showed two flawed, selfish people who, in the name of love or perhaps lust ended up breaking not just their own lives but those of the people who truly loved them.

There was no glorification. It didn’t try to justify what Dev and Maya did. It simply showed how easy it is to destroy something beautiful a family, a trust, a sense of belonging when you are blinded by what you think is “true love.” What struck me even more deeply was how the people around them Rhea and Rishi stood by them, compromised and tried to make things work, even when it must have been unbearable.

I don’t know if everyone saw the same film the way I did. Many got caught up in the fashion, the music, the dialogues. But I saw the pain, the uncomfortable truth that sometimes love doesn’t make you noble; it makes you selfish.

And then there’s that one scene I’ll never forget when Rani Mukherjee’s character, Maya, apologizes to Preity Zinta’s Rhea. The way Rhea responds it’s brutal, yet so powerful. She says something along the lines of, “The biggest punishment isn’t my forgiveness - it’s that you’ll have to live with Dev (Shah Rukh Khan).” That line has stayed with me. It wasn’t just sarcasm it was truth. Because sometimes, living with the consequences of our choices is a harsher sentence than any punishment someone else could give.

So yes, maybe Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna wasn’t a perfect movie. Maybe it was too bold, too uncomfortable, too ahead of its time. But for me, it was real. It dared to show that love can be destructive, that guilt doesn’t always lead to redemption, and that not all stories are meant to have happy endings. And perhaps that’s why I’ve always liked it because it wasn’t afraid to say what most films wouldn’t.