Everyone told me not to watch
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (PRDP), but still I did.... And after I actually did, I
asked myself…… Why I did what I did?
Okay!! In my defence, I had
really put in lot of thought before trading my almost midnight sleep of three
long hours. My few reasons to justify watching this one despite the not-so-good
reviews were -
a) The belief of awesomeness
in the maker of "my can’t ever have enough of” movie Vivaah
b) The grandeur , the costumes , the
jewellery and the thumkas in the title track
c) Awesome shooting locations in my
beloved state of Rajasthan
Now as a viewer, the story, the
screenplay, the direction, the casting and everything else individually don’t
matter to me coz all I care about is entertainment. However, PRDP has moved me
so much that in the interest of those who haven’t yet taken any call about
PRDP, here's what I feel about the movie.
I say if you have already bought
the tickets, you can either choose to be generous by gifting the tickets to
someone you don’t much care about or you can experience the few moments of
happiness offered by the maker. The comforters could be the
double delight of Salman Khan in absolutely contrasting double roles, gorgeous
and stylish princess look of Sonam Kapoor, the extravagant locations, the
ornate sets, the beautiful costumes and the jewellery.
I am personally annoyed with
Sooraj Badjatya to have made this and Salman Khan for having signed this and
breaking my heart with the failure of their magical duo. Although Salman has
managed to save some misery, Sonam’s marvellous look hasn’t even remotely made
up for her much unconvincing performance. For the first time ever, love story
of Prem doesn’t feel believable given the fake chemistry between the 30 and 50
year old. All the other actors are mere extras and add nothing to the movie but
time.
As far as the songs go, the hit
Jodi of Salman Khan and Himesh Reshamiya has doomed too. The ten (not so
hummable) songs in the movie feel like 25 given their rapid frequency and no
reason to be played out. The overall music and lyrics are old enough to make
PRDP look like a film straight out of the ‘80s.
Apart from the
trivially sketched characters and timeworn songs, PRDP definitely lacks
freshness. Stretching on family values and importance of relations through
unnecessary elongated scenes to make up for a reasonable run time doesn’t
really work in favour of the film. In this ever-changing world, Sooraj Badjatya hasn’t just carried
forward the legacy of Prem but has also used the same recipe of a “family
oriented film” spelling out the moral of “lucky are those that have
the support and love of their families”.
Although the
story is set in present time, it has an archaic feel which clearly indicates
the wrong amalgamation of a contemporary drama and a period extravaganza
leaving me as a viewer much confused.
Overall, the
movie is quite predictable, old-fashioned and overly melodramatic. Sonam's unpolished acting, the
not-so-good direction, over-sightedness with respect to the story and
screenplay and animation much below bollywood standards do not justify
Rs.80crores consumed in the making of this film.
PS - PRDP is a good family movie only if it was made a decade earlier than it actually
has.
Now looking forward to Tamasha, Dilwale and Bajirao Mastani!
Shruti
