Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

Rating:*

Once upon a time,Rajkumar Santoshi made a lovely little film which was all fun and games. ‘Andaz Apna Apna’ (1994),which came at a time when neither Aamir nor Salman were Superstars Inc.,has traveled well—its unfettered joyousness delights at every fresh viewing.

The same cannot be said for ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’,with which Santoshi returns to comedy. Prem (Ranbir Kapoor) is a charming slacker who spends all his time with his equally jobless pals. Jenny (Katrina Kaif) is a pretty,perennially smiling orphan who finds she has something in common with the feckless fellow—both stammer when they are upset. (What is it with stammering,suddenly? It seems to be the new starry accessory after ‘Kaminey’). When Prem and Jenny are not going la,la,la,they are circling around the l word—he loves her,she knows not that she loves him.

But by the time they get it,a long,long time after they’ve begun,Santoshi has convinced us that he is completely out of it. The backdrop is real,but the sets are painfully plastic. Notch up a black mark. He has,for leads,Bollywood’s most winsome pair,and he wastes them in this year’s silliest script. Notch up several. Inanity is a great tool for a certain kind of comedy,and Santoshi exploited it brilliantly it in ‘Andaz Apna Apna’. Here he lets inane pile up upon asinine,without getting anything out of it,and burying all his characters deep under.

Kaif,she who has the smarts to play convincingly dumb,is made to appear unforgivably dead here,despite her perky dresses and Alice bands and cutely accented-Hindi. The only one who manages to rise above it all is Kapoor,who does demented with great gusto. He has the kind of connect with audiences that actors kill for: everyone at the preview theatre was laughing with him—not at him—in this forced,unfunny comedy full of errors.

(shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com)