One of of my favourite directors Raj Kumar Santoshi, known for his admirable story telling skills returns on the screen with a romantic comedy featuring Ranbir Kapoor & Katrina Kaif. There are huge expectations from the three and everyone is looking forward to witness another applaudable comedy on the lines of Santoshi’s highly appreciated “Andaz Apna Apna”. The promos are exciting and the songs are good. Hence, the stage is all set for just another blockbuster of the season from the maker of brilliant movies ranging from “Ghayal” & “Damini” to “Pukar” & “Halla Bol”.
But now after watching the latest project from one of my most admired directors, I remember a phrase which I don’t believe in really, but is often used by the artistic people in the creative field. It is called “CREATIVE BLOCK” which refers to a phase in the life of creative people where they are not able to create as per their own set standards and come up with some shockingly underworked projects which were completely unexpected from a person of their status. “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” exactly falls in that category. Starting with a deliberately created comedy sequence, the movie clearly gives you an idea that it is not going to be what was being expected. And as the clock moves on you realise that this time Santoshi has delivered the weakest movie of his sparkling career.
Surprisingly, the film has got nothing before intermission except the sincere, skillful performance of Ranbir and glamorous looks of Katrina. There is neither any story development in progress nor any well defined characters on the screen as normally seen in the previous works of the director. Till intermission only the love angle is visible to the viewers and one keeps on wondering that where the hell is movie heading towards. Besides this, when the real plot unfolds, it has no surprise element, since you have already guessed it without any serious efforts. Further it was also quite hard to understand that what was so "Ghazab" (great) about the storyline in the movie as mentioned in its title.
Post interval, with the introduction of few new characters, the movie even slides down further mainly due to its disastrously weak writing. In fact there are only few hilarious scenes having the exclusive Santoshi touch towards the climax of the movie. But even those are very few in quantity, compared to the movie’s enormous promotional campaign emphasizing on comedy. Moreover, the final sequence in the Don’s den is also similar to the one seen in “Andaz Apna Apna” but it greatly lacks in content.
The movie has only one performer throughout and he is Ranbir Kapoor at his best. Giving an excellent notable performance, he simply shows that he knows his job very well. Katrina on the other hand has got nothing great written for her in the script. So she remains there as a pretty face in the movie who his capable of giving much better to a project. The rest of the entire cast completely fails to make any kind of impact on the viewer, which is not a routine kind of feature in a Raj Kumar Santoshi film. In addition to this, Santoshi also makes many strange and bizarre kind of moves in his current offering which raises enough doubts on his whole hearted involvement in the project. For instance, the confusion over the city in which the story is staged, the short cameo of Salman Khan in the first half, the un-necessary stammering act of both Ranbir & Katrina, the broken English dialogue scene of Ranbir and the surprising entry of a character resembling JESUS towards the end. Actually speaking, all these scenes don’t seem to be directed by the Santoshi we know from so many years (who can also be spotted in a scene with Ranbir). He may not have tasted success in most of his previous projects, but there has never been a BAD Santoshi film as APKGK.
Musically, it does have some good numbers, well arranged by Pritam, which are widely being appreciated by the youth. But the soundtrack is surely going to be judged by the performance of the film. Cinematography serves the purpose well but it’s really sad to see that we still have to move on to the hill stations and snow-mountains to film a romantic song featuring the lead. But actually, the main culprit here remains the writing department which takes everything back to the mediocre levels.
In the end, I would like to add that “Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani” is a very casual kind of effort from one of best directors of Bollywood. It can only be seen for the outstanding contribution of Ranbir. But let’s take this movie as a result of an unproductive phase in the career of an immensely talented director. And let’s pray that he gives us a much better and polished product next time which can stand tall among his other masterpieces of the past.
Rating : 1.5 / 5 (Very unexpected disappointment from one of my favourite film-makers)
