When I first saw "Kal Ho Naa Ho", I was surprised by the extremely modern way that was used to illustrate the film. I liked to see the Indian actors walking through New York's streets, and having an ordinary life of American, or at least Indian-American people. The film was a wonderful comedy/drama about NRIs, which makes it very special, because none of the Indian films about NRIs in the past have done it as convincingly as this one. It portrays the life of New Yorkers in a rather satirical, but realistic way.<br /><br />The first part of the film was very nice, funny and entertaining. I liked the well-written characters. Naina (Zinta) is an angry insecure and square girl who has no life. Her friend Rohit (Saif) is a cool guy with a gold heart, but without self confidence. Jennifer is a weary working woman, while her mother in-law Lajjo is a typical Punjabi mother in-law. The film is interesting and flows well, and then suddenly from nowhere comes Aman (Shahrukh), a happy-go-lucky guy who seems to have no problems in life, but he does want to solve the problems in Naina's family when he meets the rather complicated girl, whom he falls in love with the first moment he sees her. The character of Aman adds a lot of comedy and humour to the film. Aman tries to get close to her and then, when she finally understands she is in love with him, he rejects her! It is weird, but then we get the real secret disclosed. Aman knows he cannot be with Naina so he tries to serve as a matchmaker between Naina and... Rohit, who also fell in love with her! A typical "Karan Johar love triangle" indeed. But it is not, it is done in a very different and charming way.<br /><br />Up until that point I really loved the film. The really big problem comes in the fourth quarter of the film: It is so so slow! This is a realistic, but overly cheesy and probably the longest sequence of its sort to have been made in recent years in Bollywood.<br /><br />Anyway, the direction of Advani is very good. The music is out of this world and every song contributes to the film in its own way. The dialogues are nice, intelligent and never go over the top, which is great. Cinematography is terrific, editing is good, sound is superb (mainly because it's live sound), and acting is natural throughout. <br /><br />Shahrukh Khan is OK. His comic timing is fantastic, but in some moments he overacts. Saif Ali Khan is the film's biggest surprise. After Dil Chahta Hai, he makes it big one more time with a terrific performance. Note the scene when Naina tells Rohit about loving Aman and his expressions. Preity was brilliant, and delivers a great performance. It goes without saying that she is the best choice for this role. She had given better performances than this one before, but she comes with a very credible performance all through, especially toward the end. Jaya Bachchan shows how much this industry missed her and what a wonderful actress it lost during the two past decades. She is natural, and slips into her character in an extremely convincing way. <br /><br />There were undoubtedly too many emotions, but Kal Ho Naa Ho works wonderfully as a complete entertainer. It has a nice, quite innovative script in terms of writing style and the background of the characters. The makers paid attention to the American style and environment of the film, and I found the contradiction between the bright, free of worry New York and the tear-jerking proceedings of the story toward the end very interesting.