Review: Limited Run
Prem Ratan Dhan Payo | Sooraj R. Barjatya | India | 2015 | 150 minutes
Now playing at Marcus Point Cinema through Thursday, November 26»
James Kreul argues that the latest vehicle for superstar Salman Khan, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, delivers the best balance of music, dance, melodrama, and romance of any Bollywood film to play in Madison (so far) this year.
Looking back, I’m disappointed in myself for not reviewing any Indian popular cinema since the Telugu-language Baahubali in July. I had hoped the Madison Film Forum could help catalyze general interest in Bollywood and Tollywood in Madison. But, as with other special-interest films in town, it has become hard to know when films will arrive and even harder to turn reviews out in time to be useful for what is often a one-week run.
In terms of Bollywood (Hindi-language) I liked the last Salman Khan starrer, Bajrangi Bhaijaan in late July, but generally loathed Welcome Back in September. Since then, most of the popular Indian films that have played in town have been Tollywood (Telugu-language), and I’ve missed all of them except Bruce Lee: The Fighter in October, which I liked mainly due to the star power, charisma and dance/fight moves of Ram Charan. In general, I’ve become a bit tired of the action-wing of Indian popular cinema, with its overuse of fast-slow-fast fight scenes with debris-ridden high-speed shutter shots. Call me a softie, but I’ve been waiting for a good old-fashioned combination of music, dance, melodrama, and romance.
Sooraj R. Barjatya’s Prem Ratan Dhan Payo comes the closest to achieving the right balance of those four elements out of all of the popular Indian films I’ve seen in Madison this year. (We’ll have to see if the much publicized reunion of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol in Dilwale next month will be able to match it.) Many familiar elements are here: royalty, a double role (thankfully introduced in the first act, rather than the intermission or later), betrayals and double crosses, and an overriding theme of the importance of family. Some might argue, as some have in India, that this is so old-fashioned that it is in many ways ideologically regressive. But the familiar elements this time around allowed me to relax, and allowed the filmmakers and stars to concentrate on the colors and textures of this well-worn tale.
The success of a film with a familiar story largely depends on star power, and after the successful Bajrangi Bhaijaan in July, Salman Khan delivers a second great screen performance this year in Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. He has an intriguing screen presence: a vulnerable hulk. He’s so muscular that he nearly bursts out of his shirts, or at least his sleeves (look at his black shirt, which fits him like a “smedium,” in the picture above). Such a top heavy guy shouldn’t be so nimble, but he moves like the more muscular and athletic dancers of classic Hollywood musicals. Imagine if Gene Kelly could bench press twice his body weight. Somehow we are able to ignore those bursting muscles when he plays more humble and vulnerable characters (even if you could design a muscle-concealing prosthetic, Khan doesn’t need one).
Not surprisingly, here Khan plays a double role. First he plays Prem, an actor and narrator of devotional plays who has an obsession with a young philanthropic princess, Maithili (Sonam Kapoor). Prem travels to Pritampur to personally deliver a donation to Maithili’s charitable relief organization. Maithili is in Pritampur because she is engaged to its prince, Yuvraj Vijay Singh (who is, of course, played by Salman Khan). Prem arrives in Pritampur just as a plot against Vijay’s life begins to unfold.
The prince’s assistants, led by Pritampur’s Diwan Sahab (treasurer), Bapu (the always great Anupam Kher) recruit Prem to stand in for Vijay as he recovers in the days leading up to his coronation as king. Bapu believes that the plot against Vijay was hatched by Vijay’s half-siblings, Ajay (Neil Nitin Mukesh), Chandrika (Swara Bhaskar) and Radhika (Aashika Bhatia). Chandrika seems particularly bitter about their second-class status as children of the king’s mistress, despite their father’s efforts to raise all of his children as equals.
I won’t go further into the betrayed loyalties and double crosses involved in the plot against Vijay; it will suffice for now to say that there several.
This gives Prem a lot of quality time with Maithili, and he quickly disregards Bapu’s instructions to maintain a “vow of silence” until Vijay can return to his princely duties. Maithili is not exactly sure what is going on, but she notices a change in “Vijay,” and to Prem’s delight, she likes the changes. This deception facilitates a blossoming romance between Prem and Maithili, which Maithili thinks is simply a re-kindling of her romance with Vijay. That’s kind of slimy on the surface, but keep in mind that Prem is both pious and respectful; he only wants to help Maithili to find happiness with her prince, not with him.
The two key music and dance numbers demonstrate how Prem Ratan Dhan Payo is a great throwback musically and visually. I appreciated that in general the orchestration on the soundtrack avoided the heavy dependence on bass-driven Hindi-pop that dominates most of Bollywood these days. One highlight, “Jab Tum Chaho,” takes a simple task, writing down a list, and turns it into a comic and visual delight. Prem (as Vijay) asks Maithili to list of things she would like to see changed in the relationship, and he will write them down to work on them. Of course, the list quickly becomes a long one, and the writing down process is integrated into dance moves (even the bodyguards get into it). Note: Not all of the images in the music videos below are in the film itself.
That motif of list making and writing has an important variation in the second highlight, “Jalte Diye,” which conveys a pivotal emotional moment in the film. Maithili, who is now completely in love with the new and improved Vijay (actually Prem’s improvements on Vijay), asks him to take dictation for a new list, and she wants the list written on her back with a feather quill. This is one of my favorite scenes in any film this year. It takes the time to draw out a richly melodramatic moment: Maithili is completely in love and wants to seduce Prem/Vijay into a new level of intimacy, but Prem realizes in horror that he cannot continue to participate in this deception because it has gone too far. Barjayta pulls out the stops in terms of deliberate pacing, rhythm, colors and textures. A cynic might quip that this is just an elaborate Cialis commercial, but if you are willing to buy into the Bollywood idiom this scene is emotionally compelling and complicated.
“Jalte Diye,” is so good that one wishes that Barjayta could have raised the bar more consistently throughout the film. In general the film is earning mixed reviews in India, despite good notices for Khan. Many of the sequences are just typical—still entertaining, but not very distinct. But again, I’ve been waiting for this kind of Bollywood romance for a while, so for me Prem Ratan Dhan Payo was just what the doctor ordered.
Two notes on seeing Prem Ratan Dhan Payo in the theater: First, I was surprised that the songs were not subtitled. Not having subtitles for songs is common in DVDs of older Bollywood titles, but I haven’t come across it in theaters since digital distribution has made subtitling generally much easier and less expensive. This wasn’t a deal breaker; I’ve stayed for entire films without subtitles in town (most recently Drishyam at the old Eastgate). For the most part the music sequences remain narratively clear through visual storytelling, but I would have liked to known more details from Maithili’s list in “Jab Tum Chaho.”
Second: I’ve discovered the right night to go see Bollywood/Tollywood films. With the advent of digital distribution, it is now far more common for Madison theaters to open on the global release dates, which are often on Thursdays, not Fridays. It’s hard to keep track of these Thursday openings (heck, it’s hard to keep track of the openings, period). Based on attendance at Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, the target audience, Madison’s Indian community, has no problem knowing what is playing when and where. I’ve tended to catch the films at Saturday matinees, and have watched them practically alone. It is much better to watch them with a healthy crowd to appreciate the responses. You also get a better sense of the films and filmgoing as a family experience, especially as you avoid the toddlers wandering the isles throughout the screening.
I probably shouldn’t worry about catalyzing interest for Bollywood in Madison. It seems to be doing just fine with its target audience without any assistance.