'Amar Prem Ki Prem Kahani' review: Loud, meaningless, and stereotypical
What's the story
When JioCinema's Amar Prem Ki Prem Kahani started with a voiceover, I was immediately haunted by the memories of Ghudchadi, another sub-standard JioCinema film which begins similarly. A gay love story set in a conservative desi family? Amar Prem...'s synopsis teems with possibilities, but none of those are effectively mined. Extremely loud, marinated in stereotypes, and consistently wayward, it's a pointless, senseless film.
Story
Follows romance between two men from different backgrounds
Directed by Hardik Gajjar, it follows Amar (Sunny Singh), who lives with his conservative, Punjabi family which is forcing him to get married. Still in the closet, he stumbles upon Prem (Aditya Seal), who belongs to a more sophisticated, posh background, and is openly homosexual. They quickly fall in love, and the film follows their journey of convincing their families and sealing their union.
#1
It isn't able to draw you in at all
Amar Prem... squanders all its potential right from the first frame, and as much as you want to give it brownie points for a brave story with a unique setting, the screenplay makes it extremely difficult. It has no sense of rhythm or direction, it doesn't know what to do with its characters or its story, and it's devoid of any complexity. Absolutely toothless.
#2
No conflict can be taken seriously
There are too many convenient turns and co-incidents, so it's impossible to take anything seriously. For instance, Amar-Prem keep running into each other every few seconds, a supposed "villain" is sidelined mid-film, another antagonist has a change of heart, and the most unrealistic—their relationship is easily accepted! If the film is hoping for such a utopia, the intention is lost in this muddled mess.
#3
Tough to wade through it without forwarding scenes
Hoping for Amar... to focus on conflict, drama, logic, and serious conversations is asking for too much. The cheesy dialogues are better suited for teenagers than adult men, and Amar's confession of love is dealt with extremely frivolously despite being one of the story's most important parts. The narrative may have been solid on paper, but it completely goes up in flames onscreen.
#4
Stereotypes galore throughout the second half!
How would we know if a character is Punjabi? Of course, needless, excessively loud, annoying music. Here, it keeps playing even when chaos unfurls and drowns the scenes completely. The film doesn't know when to fix its tonalities and is not meaty enough to warrant almost a two-hour-long runtime. Eventually, it's impossible to care for a film that doesn't care for itself.
#5
Only Seal seems to be committed here
Coming to the performances, Singh sadly seems to be repeating his performances from his previous comedy films, and he fails to do justice to the pathos of a closeted gay man struggling with his identity. Seal fares much better; he is effortlessly charming and slips easily into his character, leaving little room for complaint. He is the only watchable aspect of this film.
Verdict
Can skip it; 1/5 stars
Hindi cinema is starved for homosexual love stories, and Amar Prem... had an opportunity to deliver on that front. However, the absurdity on display is nauseating, characters are overcooked in stereotypes, clichés further mutilate it, and logic struggles to find a place. This epic failure is not worth remembering and though it tries, trying isn't enough. Queer love stories deserve better. 1/5 stars.