Synopsis
Sanjana
(Kareena Kapoor) is an outgoing college girl
settled with her parents in Sundargarh. Her
sister is married and settled in the United
States and is trying to forge an alliance
between Prem Kumar, owner of the Prem Group
of Industries. He has just started a project
in Sundargarh and would be visiting them soon.
Prem arrives and soon sweeps Sanjana off her
feet. Even the parenst approve of this alliance
as the two find themselves falling in love.
Just when all is hunky dory, it is found out
that this Prem is Prem Kishen (Hrithik Roshan),
the business manager of the Prem Group of
Industries while Prem Kumar (Abhishek Bachchan)is
due to arrive shortly. Prem Kishen leaves
for Delhi to attend to business when Prem
Kumar arrives at Sundargarh and finds himself
falling for Sanjana... Due to the machinations
of Sanjana's materialistic mother (Himani
Shivpuri) Sanjana's and Prem Kumar's marriage
is fixed. Prem Kishen returns and on hearing
of this impending marriage retreats in favour
of his boss and best friend. But as soon as
he realizes the truth Prem Kumar backs out
and Sanjana gets her true love after all.
Considering
that he is regarded as a director who has
been much aped in Bollywood, it is astonishing
to see Sooraj Barjatya ape the Karan Johars,
Aditya Chopras and Sanjay Leela Bansalis and
none too successfully at that. Maybe he felt
the overdose of sugar sweet huge joint families
singing together at every conceivable function
possible was wearing too thin to last and
turned his attention to the it young crowd
today but whereas Karan Johar and Aditya Johar
belong to that crowd, Sooraj, a lot more middleclass
in his values, fails miserably with what he
considers as hip and trendy. On top of that
to try and put so-called traditional family
values Rajshri style and you have a film that
is a total mishmash.
After
striking gold when he turned an earlier Rajshri
rural hit Nadiya ke Paar into a more
up market urban Hum Aapke Hain Kaun,
Sooraj again turns towards recycling an old
Rajshri film Chitchor. While the former,
directed by Basu Chatterjee, is still remembered
as a sweet little romantic comedy with winning
performances of Amol Palekar, Zarina Wahab,
Vijayndra Ghatge and Master Raju, this romantic
melodrama has little to recommend it.
While
Maine Pyaar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain
Kaun had several romantic moments that
struck instant chords with the viewers (particularly
in the latter where Salman's growing romance
with Madhuri against the backdrops of the
big family wedding was extremely well handled
with several cute little scenes) Main Prem
ki Diwaani is by and large totally shorn
of memorable moments. OK maybe the bit of
Abhishek learning to cycle or Kareens's reaction
to Hrithik when he declares Pankaj Kapur to
be like his own father but perhaps that it!
To
compound things further the film is itself
treated on a most unrealistic level with New
Zealand being passed off as Sundargarh including
river rafting and bungee jumping. C'mon! Add
to that it's stagy scenes, one dimensional
stereotypical characterizations and you are
treated to a pretty torturous experience of
viewing the film.
The
film is basically Kareena Kapoor's story -
She, to quote herself on her role, plays a
girl of today but whose thoughts and values
are very Indian! Spare us please…However
to be fair to her she does give the role all
but remember having Indian values means being
quiet and suffering thus leaving her a doormat
for much of the film. And why do characters
of today not open their mouths to express
themselves for what they are feeling - they
are pretty verbose in every other scene. Surely
Kareena could have spoken to Abhishek or tried
to instead of keeping quiet. And is Hrithik
so dumb that he cannot understand Himani's
change of attitude towards him?
Hrithik
meanwhile plays the cool dude - A horrible
piece of overacting. Was Sooraj trying a Shah
Rukh with him or what?
Abhishek
plays the other guy with the same name as
Hrithik - Prem and thankfully in the midst
of all the overacting he is admirably restrained.
But his character seems most unbelievable.
Can a young business tycoon of today's time
in the United States have no friends, live
in a private cocoon and not even have had
a normal conversation with a girl???
Among
the support Pankaj Kapur seems to be most
awkward as Kareena's ever supportive, buddy
father while the less said about Himani Shivpuri's
raving and ranting, the better. The four bimbette
friends of Kareena fare even worse. The comedy
track with the dog and Johnny Lever having
the same name and the digitally created parrot
with a penchant for Hindi film titles are
puerile to say the least. Speaking of the
effects the parrot and the comic like faces
added to the dog every time he gets into a
barking fit are bizarre and tacky to say the
least. In fact the entire comedy track including
Hrithik's brushes with the bimbettes is a
big no-no.
Music
is adequate enough with a couple of catchy
songs but not winning. Other technical departments
too don't deserve a special mention as nothing
really stands out.
Without
doubt a terrible film and a horrible disappointment
from the man who made Maine Pyaar Kiya
and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun.
