main prem ki diwaani hoon

8/14/2019 Main Prem Ki Diwaani Hoon

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An epic of cliches

THERE IS THIS small town named, by someone with an eye for the original,Sunder Nagar.

It has a glorious beach where the sun sets in impossible colors; foamingrivers for when you want to ride the rapids; and snow-covered mountains ifskiing is your thing.

All within 15 minutes of each other.

The only snag is transportation. This is the Hotel California of airports,where planes land from all corners of the compass - only, none of them everfly out. So if you want to go to Delhi so the story can move forward inyour absence, you have to take an ancient train.

But let's not crib - the quality of life is so good, here, that you can bea small-time publisher of unknown authors, and yet afford to live in anenormous manor, with a farmhouse across the hedge.

This house contains a family that gives Dumb And Dumber a bad name. There's

this elder daughter who lives in the U.S. and knows this gorgeous bachelorwho is richer than Bill Gates and who, coincidentally, is planning to setup a company in Sunder Nagar.

So she shoots off this email to her father. Papa (Pankaj Kapoor) goesaround the house yelling 'Pooja ki email aayi hai!' Thomas Watson nevermade half the fuss when he heard his boss Alexander Graham Bell's voiceover the telephone, that first ever time.

The family - and dog - gathers around the computer and learns Prem-babu isexpected next week and Pooja has fixed up for him to stay with the familyso he and her younger sister can get together.

Then Pooja, the dimwit, goes off on holiday, omitting to intimate papadearest that the plan has changed and someone else is coming instead.

Papa goes to the airport and picks up Prem-babu - who is actually Prem-babubut not the Prem-babu, if you know what I mean. No? Join the gang.

The wife (Himani Shivpuri) wants to land a rich hubby for her youngerdaughter and will do all she can to bring that about, even if it meanscaricaturing every stupid mother ever seen onscreen.

The center of all this fuss is younger daughter Sanjana (Kareena Kapoor) -gutsy, liberated enough to don revealing clothes and shake her fanny in herparents' faces while singing a song dissing her mom's notion of finding the

perfect match.

She isn't having any of this arranged marriage business, see; at least notuntil her four friends, whose collective IQ is slightly lower than roomtemperature, have verified Prem-presumptive has all the essential qualitiesof a modern male - like feet free from hair.

Once that is done, love happens - on Valentine's Day, of course.

But it's too early for the happy ending. So Pooja dashes off another emailto say hey, Prem-babu had to go to Japan so he couldn't make it, he is now


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landing two days later. You know these business magnates - constantly goingoff somewhere else, and not having their secretary inform those concernedabout changed plans.

Husband looks aghast at wife, wife looks accusingly at husband, both lookat the heavens and ask who is this Prem?

The mother is having none of this romantic nonsense - the Prem-babu

(Abhishek Bachchan) who is arriving is the actual maalik of the company, sohe is the suitable boy; the Prem-babu already in situ (Hrithik Roshan) ismerely a naukar in said company, hence thoroughly unsuitable.

So there you have the problem: there is a Prem who is not the real Prem butit is the Prem Sanjana really loves; and there is a Prem who is the realPrem but not the Prem she really loves.

You're with me so far, right? The real Prem meanwhile falls in love withSanjana because she makes him ride a bicycle.

Sanjana - this volatile version of modern womanhood - can't bear thethought; she signals her abhorrence by singing the real Prem's favorite

poem! And then looks shocked when he proposes marriage - like she can'tbelieve how he misunderstood her feelings.

And so it goes on. For three-and-a-half hours, while you wonder why eitherof the Prems would want such a silly twit anyways.

The storyline would have seemed dated in the seventies; today, it will findno takers if you were giving it away for free.

There is good music (Anu Malik) - only there is too much of it; the filmcould have done with four songs less.

That brings up the performances. Director Sooraj Barjatya had three hits in

Maine Pyaar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and Hum Saath Saath Hain; all threehad Salman Khan playing the lead character - perhaps that is why thedirector makes Hrithik Roshan act like Khan; much to the detriment of thefilm.

Kareena Kapoor is saddled with a badly etched character; this is heightenedby the actress's penchant for overacting. Talent scouts looking to cast thecentral character in a ham sandwich, look no further.

Bachchan - whose role calls for him to be sober and restrained - comesacross nicely. Until he finds love - when he becomes a goof, but thankfullynot a loud goof.

That, and a reasonably restrained turn by Pankaj Kapoor, are the only gracenotes of this film.

CREDITS

Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon

Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Abhishek Bachchan, Himani Shivpuri,Pankaj Kapoor

Producer: Rajshri Productions


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Director: Sooraj R. Barjatya

Music: Anu Malik

Article copyright India Abroad Publications, Inc. Published in India Abroad, 07-11-2003

main prem ki diwaani hoon

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