Prem Keetanu Movie Review:
Remaking an audience favourite is undoubtedly one of the trickiest terrains, especially in contemporary times. The filmmaker has to walk the fine line between staying true to the original and bringing something new, just enough to lure a new audience and not alienate the fanbase. But how does one go about their job if a film is hellbent on reminding you of all its limitations, by twisting all the great parts, getting rid of all the good ones, and incorporating everything that makes it worse? Prem Keetanu led by Veer Pahariya starrer is a misfire from the get go.
The film stays loyal to the broad outline of Premalu, the 2024 Malayalam original — Vishal (Veer Pahariya), along with his best friend Magan (Nikhil Vijay), is a college backbencher struggling to find a decent job or do something about his life when he meets Suhani (Aafiya Syed). Vishal is determined to win her affections, but there is a roadblock in his path in form of Jeet (Aparshakti Khurana) who is Suhani’s boss, close friend, a relatively polished and successful man, and a potential partner.
Cast: Veer Pahariya, Aparshakti Khurana, Aafiya Syed, Rakesh Bedi, Nikhil Vijay
Directed by: Apoorva Singh Karki
While largely following a similar structure, Prem Keetanu displays a shockingly weeny understanding of the rom-com genre, and what makes it work. There are two levels on which this film can be analysed — everything it brings to the table, and everything it omits from the original. The film doggedly carries over specific scene layouts without capturing their soul, the vibe. There are a few other tweaks in the way scenes play out — an understandable addition for a remake — but when there is an attempt to twist the emotional and psychological roots of these characters that made them charming, you begin to wonder about what propelled these changes.
There is such a lack of worldbuilding. Characters aren’t given space to breathe. From being a timid backbencher, Vishal has now evolved into an incel-coded young man who cannot communicate with women, or catch their slightest of hints — Everytime a girl smiles at him, he sees it as a sign of a dangerous curve ahead. When Magan calls Vishal a ‘seedha saadha ladka’ at one point, I laughed out loud. Meanwhile, Suhani goes from being a spunky livewire to a dim lightbulb who has no friends or social life outside of Vishal and Jeet. (Aafiya Syed as Suhani is unfortunately charmless).
There is no love for dialogue or atmospherics either. Instead, it’s the background score littered with short verbal phrases, giving cues about how you should feel about the characters and situations, as if somebody prescribed a word limit to the dialogue writer. More space is made for generic and stale dream-song sequences. We don’t see a single proper conversation between Vishal and Suhani and still, before we know, she is already invested in the former's career growth, while he is obsessed with the idea of courting her. Delhi is thematically absent from the film, and large part of the narrative unfolds against synthetic, closed off sets. It’s choices like these that lend an artificial energy to Prem Keetanu. For a film, which is the remake of a relatable rom-com, nothing seems real.
The smaller things too eventually begin to irk you. Vishal and Magan are penniless, yet manage to arrange fancy traditional wear at the nth hour. The use of catalog licensed film songs that add nothing to ambience. Vishal and Suhani going on a casual 700 km bike ride from Delhi to Lucknow without ending up with sore butts. What made Suhani’s father so fond of Vishal? Which places in Delhi did Vishal take Suhani’s father to? In a rare addition that actually works is the idea to lend a personality to Suhani’s father who outrightly rejects Jeet for being a joyless stickler — He would rather relive his youth in drinking sessions with Vishal and Magan, and it’s a character I want to follow.
But the script offers more shallow interpretations of the original. Jeet is visibly toxic, and carries none of the performative maleness that made Adi from Premalu so entertaining. There is no edge to him — he just comes across as a cliched meanspirited and insecure third wheel, too cliched to be an enjoyable nemesis. Aparshakti Khurana puts his best foot forward, but he too is plagued by a script that doesn’t understand how comedy works.
In another major scriptwriting flaw, Jeet never becomes a threat to the Suhani-Vishal bond. With such minimised stakes and little dramatic tension, Prem Keetanu rapidly goes downhill in second half. And it goes to the premise of my argument — why these specific changes? What exactly do they add to the narrative, according to the makers?
All the playful humour is replaced by scenes of unearned sentiment and heaviness, be it in scenes between Vishal and his father, or Suhani and her papa (Rakesh Bedi in an endearing appearance). In the latter, Suhani’s father talks about his daughter’s ‘checklist’ trait — how she has fixed ideas about everything, including a life partner. It would be a nice scene, except the makers forgot to write such a scene with Suhani. Like an average misogynistic movie, Prem Keetanu is least interested in its female lead. Nikhil Vijay as Magan is the only other bright spot in this grating rom-com, And yet, for all his wit and punchlines, Magan too is a bad friend, still obsessed with giving wisdom when his friend turns to him at his lowest moment.
And that’s the crux of it — as much as you try to forget, every once in a while arrives a scene reminding how little Prem Keetanu understood of the charms of Premalu. In another rare addition, Vishal and Suhani have a dramatic confrontation where Vishal accuses Suhani of being selfish, while she calls him out for his tendency to run away from his problems. Earlier, Vishal’s heartbreak moment inspires an angry ballad outburst at a crowded bar, instead of a tipsy, lost-in-his-own-sorrows jig. Towards the end, Vishal arbitrarily launches a physical attack (with a hockey stick, no less) on Jeet after a social media post causes a misunderstanding. It’s not like Sachin from Premalu was a particularly ideal protagonist, but it does seem that Hindi filmmakers have forgotten how to imagine a mellow underachiever for its audience. By bringing in aggression and heavy tearjerker moments in, Prem Keetanu makers prove that Hindi cinema and its audience have lost a certain softness they once took pride in. The Kabir Singh/Animal impact is real… toxically so.
To put it mildly, Prem Keetanu is a ruthless assault to the senses.
