KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979)

“What law says that a woman is better parent simply by virtue of her sex?” – Ted Cramer

K vs. K is moving account of the aftermath of separation and divorce both for parents as well as kid. Director Robert Benton tackled the emotionally charged story without being too melodramatic anywhere. The treatment of the subject was done both sensibly and sentimentally keeping in mind the shifting roles of gender in marriage and family in changing society.

The film starts with a scene where Ted’s wife Joanna leaving home getting fed up with her hubby’s priority over career. She left home and her seven years child Billy on responsibility of his father. Ted’s trial and error to raise his kid keep shifting between his demanding job and kid’s expectations. As soon as he discovered a responsible and loving father inside him, she comes back demanding custody of kid. It’s rough time for Ted who’s fired from job, fighting legal/emotional battle.

This domestic drama becomes special due to natural, identifiable and heart touching performances from all lead actors and simplicity of story telling invoking natural human emotions. Both Dustin Hoffman & Meryl Streep breathe life into their characters here and even child actor Justin Henry gave fine act. However Streep has minor role but she cracks even the stone heart in last scene. The emotional bonding between Hoffman and kid is something to watch here. Hoffman’s opening his heart out in courtroom or the final scene where both he and Streep letting loose their emotions make your eyes wet.

The emotional appeal of the film runs high at Oscars, winning all major five awards of Best Film, Best Direction, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best adapted screenplay sidelining the tough rivals like Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’ and Bob Fosse’s ‘All that Jazz’.

Ratings-8/10

PS- Mansoor Khan who gave us wonderful ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’ shamelessly ripped off this film almost scene to scene and line to line in Aamir-Manisha starrer ‘Akele Hum Akele Tum’.