By picking the subject of gender role reversal for his film, R Balki walks on a tightrope, and even though the execution gets wobbly once in a while, he, thankfully, regains the balance every time. When the aggressively ambitious marketing professional Kia (Kareena Kapoor Khan) bumps into the young chap Kabir (Arjun Kapoor), she realises that he's everything that she is not; unambitious, openly emotional and passionately wishing to keep himself away from the corporate rat race, yet they seem to fit in together. Even as sparks fly during their first meeting, their contrasting personalities come right to the fore.

Ki And Ka is a brilliant idea. They've turn the tables on the gender game. They've sneaked in a bit of social critique. They've tried to break down the symbiosis of males and females in the social, political and emotional realms. It all sounds good. But when you get down to tackling the bull by its proverbial horns, you realise, all the logic and math in the world can't make sense, if you haven't put your soul into it. Ideas are nurtured best, when you believe in taking them somewhere, not just letting them develop ad hoc. That's what happens with Ki And Ka. It goes from being a novel idea to going absolutely nowhere.

In R Balki's world, if you're a woman battling an unwanted-pregnancy scare, the solution is a UPT (Urine Pregnancy Test) kit. Once you've taken one strip test and found the result positive, the next step is to be absolutely sure about it. So, instead of going to the gynaecologist like, well, normal women would probably do, Balki's heroine is coaxed by her husband into taking five more strip tests. 'Just to be sure' of the results. After four negatives to two positives, you'd think maybe, logically, the woman would now want to go to the gynae.

There's nothing detrimental about men doing housework. There's no shame in women chasing career goals single-mindedly. There's hardly any reason for hue and cry. Roles are a burden only when imposed on an individual. If a man and a woman are happy with the arrangement they have chosen for themselves, nobody outside it has any right to judge. R Balki's Ki & Ka examines the shifting dynamics of this ancient institution through a contemporary marriage between a homemaker husband and his breadwinner wife.

In the Hollywood comedy The Intern, Anne Hathaway heads her own ecommerce fashion company, while her husband Anders Holm is content with being a stay-at-home father. Similarly, in Balki's Ki and Ka; the role of the woman and the man are refreshingly reversed. Right at the start, you're told through a convoluted monologue that Kia doesn't want to be a man's `support system.' So when she meets the sentimental Kabir, who doesn't aspire to be like his billionaire-builder father, instead wants to be like his homemaker-mother, you're ready for the sparks.

I count amongst some of my best friends, house husbands. Or let's put it in a slightly more nuanced way, men who like to stay home, take charge of the household, be the primary caregiver for parents and children. They know that they come in for more than their share of good- humoured ribbing as well as nasty jibes, and they have learnt to take it in their stride because they are supremely comfortable doing what they do. Oh, and before I forget, their wives go to work, are great at their demanding jobs, and get in the lolly.

Almost every second Bollywood film claims to be different and zara hat ke in their story and presentation. While there are few films that live upto the promise of being 'different', there are others which land up being damp squibs. This week's release is the Arjun Kapoor - Kareena Kapoor starrer KI & KA, a film about gender differences and breaking stereotypes. Unlike the quintessential hero that Bollywood has witnessed so far, this film is an attempt to change the perception about many things.

When the trailer of Ki & Ka starring Arjun Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor Khan was released, it created a major buzz, especially because of its unique concept- a wife, who goes out and earns big bucks while the husband stays at home and takes care of the household. However, despite the promise of an interesting story, Ki & Ka does not meet expectations primarily because of a weak screenplay and a clichd approach.

The hero and the heroine of Ki And Ka share a birthday - April 15. So when they decide to marry, the couple choses the same date as D-Day. While they are at it, one of them reminds the audience that the Titanic, too, sank on April 15. How very fitting! Ki And Ka, writer-director K Balki's fourth feature film, is all at sea as it tries to steer its ambitious concept to the shore. A rom-com about a man who thinks nothing of wearing the mangalsutra in his marriage, it does no justice to the novelty of the theme.

Kia (Kareena Kapoor) is an aggressive and aspiring corporate big shot, having a grand vision to be the CEO of a company. She is always super busy and believes in being an independent woman, not to be shadowed by men. Contrary to her, we have Kabir (Arjun Kapoor) who is a son of a reputed businessman in Delhi. Kabir is a topper of IIM-B but has no interest in business or his father's monetary legacy. He is fond of his late mother and wants to be like her, managing daily household activities which he thinks are equally important as working in the office. Kabir also doesn't believe in wasting his life in the name of career.

Abhimaan in a kitchen. This one line sort of sums up the story of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Kapoor's Ki & Ka. The irony is that Abhimaan's original cast Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan make cameo appearances in the R Balki film. Arjun plays Kabir. He's rich but not a brat. He's jobless but not worried. He's sort of broke but rides on segways and has a strange fetish for railway carriages. Kareena is the ambitious Kia who believes that men are only alive to make women feel like crap.

It's not a man's world, not anymore. At least this is what R Balki's Ki & Ka tries to establish: In this world, women behave like men, and men are already men. So it's basically a tale of two men accusing each other of being a man. Delhi-based Kabir Bansal (Arjun Kapoor) is in line to inherit his father's multi-crore business conglomerate. Are you also reminded of the AIB Roast? Yes, Arjun Kapoor is playing a North Indian, again. Kabir wants to be like his mother because he believes being a housewife is nothing short of being an artist.

What would happen if a couple reversed socially accepted roles within their marriage? Would their relationship survive societal opprobrium, ridicule and personal insecurities if he were to be a stay-at-home spouse and she the breadwinner? These questions that form the starting point of Ki & Ka are no doubt intriguing. They are ever relevant too, in a world that upholds stereotypical gender roles within households, with horribly regressive expressions such as "she wears the pants".