It’s so easy to be cynical about a film that doesn’t break the mould but instead moulds ‘the mould’ into the director’s vision. Sooraj Barjatya loves what’s sneeringly known as the masala cinema. He adores the crisscross of ingenious relationships and the surface-level interaction of light and shade that provides the collective emotional cloudburst for the masses.
His fourth film might not create history as his first and second works (Maine Pyar Kiya and Hum Aapke Hain Koun) did. But in serenading the status quo, Sooraj Barjatya provides us with the comforting joy of the familiar.
This time, Sooraj whittles down the labyrinthine family ties that characterized his great trilogy of family mellow-dramas. Sure, there’s a Doting Papa (Pankaj Kapoor) and a Disapproving Mama (Himani Shivpuri). There’re even a couple of animals, a parrot (obviously mechanized) which talks only through film titles, and a dog which expresses its emotions in animation sequences and shares its name with the film’s comedian Johnny, give or take a ‘Lever’.
Then there are the trademark household helps, a domestic servant and his wife from Bihar who provide a bucolic romantic subtext to the central romance. Their demeanour and dress code could offend those whose aesthetic sensibilities are pastel in shade. But hey, purple too is a colour of life!
Sooraj Barjatya’s cinema subsumes all the colours of the rainbow, and then creates rich textures and designs that mime the multidimensional aspects of existence without mocking them.
While his earlier works brimmed over with characters, Main Prem… is a 3-character state-of-the-art love triangle done with a salt-and-pepper panache that makes the other recent 3-pronged love-spins look like out-of-control juggernauts. What strikes us in almost every frame is the director’s affinity to the most glorious traditions of commercial Hindi cinema.
He doesn’t shy away from melodrama but treats the abused dramatic device with a gentle strength that enriches the triangular undulations of the handsomely packaged film. Though Barjatya borrows the basic plotline about a bride-in-waiting who falls in love with the man whom she mistakes to be her husband-to-be, Main Prem Ki Diwani Hoon is as much like its source material Chitchor as a pair of Bata shoes are like Nike.
Speaking of shoes, there’re no prolonged shoe-stealing wedding rituals from Barjatya’s Hum Aapke Hain Koun this time around. What we get is a lengthy and tedious Valentine’s Day sequence garishly structured by art director Bijon Das Gupta and giddily hosted by Javed Jaffrey and Ruby Bhatia which may irk those who want the director to get on with the story. But then, the songs and the choreography are as integral to Barjatya’s narration as sunshine is to Kareena and Hrithik’s personality.
The moments that bind the love-pair Sanjana (Kareena Kapoor) and Prem (Hrithik Roshan) together are like sparkling beads spreading themselves across the ivory swan-like arching neck of Sooraj’s narration. This time Sooraj doesn’t flinch from letting carnal considerations creep into the couple’s convictions. In fact, in one of the funniest interactive moments, Hrithik lectures Kareena on the symbiotic significance of love and sex.
Sooraj builds a fascinating spiral of love and bridled desire. The sequence where the couple cavort on a barren beach, only to stop before “going all the way,” is a master stroke of amorous invention that comes alive thanks to the crackling, hissing chemistry between the lead pair.
Is there a better, more compatible screen couple than Kareena and Hrithik in Indian cinema today? Certainly not! The way Barjatya has harnessed their combined charisma speaks volumes for his intuitive grasp over the romantic language of the gasp. An inherently silly song sequence like the one where Sanjana’s quartet of friends (a chirpy diversion) “check out” her prospective groom, acquires a charming dimension in the way Barjatya instils his ingrained innocence into the elaborate game of courtship.
At times the gasp does deepen into groan. And you find your interest waning just that wee bit before interval, when suddenly the arrival on the scene of Abhishek Bachchan’s character lightens the film’s tilting scales. That entire chunk of the narration where Kareena takes her beloved’s very special guest around her “scenic little town” (actually New Zealand) is marvellously mellow and full of referral reverberations.
Barjatya balances his innate love for cinematic conventions with a new-fangled romantic yearning without toppling over into an abyss of ambivalence. Though the triangle’s resolution is a foregone conclusion, you can’t help smiling and frowning as the director breezes through moments of pastel pain and pristine pleasure, cruising along emotions that skim the surface without scratching it.
The film’s idyllic setting is a fictional postcard-perfect haven called Sundar Nagar, which Rajen Kinagi’s camera captures in subtle sweeps of ecstasy. The performances lift the theoretically trite plot considerably. Abhishek Bachchan, as the diffident intruder in the romance, uses his expressive eyes and shy smile to optimum advantage. His bashful attraction towards his spirited tourist guide and companion constitutes a highlight in the rather lengthy narration.
Hrithik Roshan’s performance is flawlessly flamboyant. As the extroverted sunshine guy, he takes over the frames. His perfect body language, and the roomy repertoire of expressions ranging from innocent flirtation to loaded passion are, in one word, riveting. Is there an actor of his generation more qualified for super-stardom?
But the film belongs to Kareena Kapoor. Ethereal and enchanting, gamine-like in her vulnerability and supremely seductive in the romantic scenes, she scales new heights in moments such as the one where she warns Hrithik to whisk her away from impending marriage with the wrong man, or the sequence where her friends inform her that Hrithik has run away to Delhi. Her comic aptitudes come bubbling out in the sequence where she’s asked to sing for her mistaken groom-to-be. To a potentially routine role, Kareena adds a multitude of shades.
It would be no exaggeration to say a new female superstar has finally arrived. As for those who think the film is just another love triangle, Kunal Kohli tried it with the same stars recently in Mujhse Dosti Karoge, didn’t he?
A special word for Anu Malik’s music. The songs propel the flimsy story forward. In a tune like Chali Ayee, where Sanjana attempts all the outdoor sports that her Prem loves, our hearts somersault in collective pleasure. Because Hrithik and Kareena look so much in love, we want to believe in the love story. And because we believe in their love, we surrender to the familiar feeling. Unapologetically.
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