SatyaPrem Ki Katha Movie Review: In a scene from SatyaPrem Ki Katha, the hero's father reminds him of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam when the son asks how he can marry a girl who was already in love with someone. The father tells him to get inspired by how Ajay Devgn managed to win over Aishwarya Rai as a husband over Salman Khan, her ex-lover. It seems that someone in SatyaPrem Ki Katha was so in love with this track that they made a whole film about it. SatyaPrem Ki Katha Song Pasoori Nu: This New Romantic Track From Kartik Aaryan-Kiara Advani’s Film Is Crooned by Arijit Singh!
SatyaPrem aka Sattu is an unemployed young man, who's kind of a loser, who just can't seem to find a girl to marry. You have to set aside the presumption that someone who looks like Kartik Aaryan can't find a girl, but the previous line also underlines why he can't find a girl.
So instead he has to make food and do household chores for his father (Gajraj Rao), garba-teaching mother (Supriya Pathak) and zumba-teaching younger sister (Shikha Talsania), while the young men around his neighbourhood are getting married.
Sattu has a crush on Katha (Kiara Advani), the daughter of a rich farsan-wala, though she used to have a boyfriend. When Sattu learns that she had broken up with him, he tries to inject himself into her life, first by saving her from a suicide attempt (never mind that he trespassed into her house like a creep). Soon enough, they are married, but Katha comes to his house with some dark secrets of her own.
Watch the Trailer of SatyaPrem Ki Katha:
Before I go ahead with this review, let me warn you that there will be some SPOILERS ahead, because certain aspects of SPKK can't be discussed without mentioning those. The first half of SatyaPrem Ki Katha is more of a light-hearted affair with humour revolving around Sattu's household. Kartik Aaryan and Gajraj Rao's scenes manage to elicit some laughs, though Kartik's comedy is seriously venturing into Akshay Kumar territory. Interestingly, even Akshay Kumar also starred in a film - Namastey London - where his character wore down a girl into falling in love with him, post their forced marriage.
Initially, I found the gender-reversal aspect, of the men in Sattu's house doing household work while the women go to work, quite a cool idea in a film with a small-town setup. Sadly, I keep forgetting that this is a Kartik Aaryan starring Hindi film, and therefore the men are often at the receiving end of insults for not being employed. Ah, well...
Anyway, returning to the 'prem katha', is there really any? The manner in which Sattu marries Katha felt like a plot element borrowed from the '90s to glamourise the idea of arranged marriages, and the problematic behaviours of both Sattu and Katha's father are trivialised to make the union happen. You know something's ain't right when the film makes an Easter Egg out of Kartik's infamous monologue from Pyaar Ka Punchnama.
Still, Kartik and Kiara look so good onscreen as a couple, so I was willing to forsake how Katha is treated as a character in these scenes and look forward to this 'Marriage Story' to develop further.
Alas, the film keeps digging itself deeper as it expands upon their marital dissonance. At one point, when Katha refuses to bed Sattu, she excuses her behaviour by calling herself as 'asexual'. I wish the film could have been about that, about people who recognise themselves as asexual being forced into hetero marriages. Unfortunately, mainstream Bollywood these days isn't willing to take such a bold narrative risk and the 'asexual' comment lends itself to a mere excuse and some lame jokes. From SatyaPrem Ki Katha's 'Pasoori Nu' to Shehzada's 'Character Dheela', 5 Times Kartik Aaryan Movies Recreated Perfectly Good Original Hits!
Even when Sattu and Katha come close post interval, the scenes have a rushed feeling and before you know, they share an intimate moment. Here comes the major SPOILER arena, so tread carefully. In what I believe is Kiara's best acting moment in the film, Katha reveals herself to be a victim of sexual assault. SatyaPrem Ki Katha manages to gain some ground as a narrative with this revelation, but once again, doesn't do much with it. The heroine's ordeal is mostly shown through the male gaze of the protagonist, his suffering gets prominence than hers and even though SPKK shows certain instances of maturity ans sensitivity (how the women in Sattu's house react to this news is such an example), the film's most interesting plot elements get dredged in half-baked writing and oodles of melodrama.
All this leads to a bizarre climax, where Sattu, once again in his irksome obsession to be the saviour, takes certain decision without consulting his wife because #ManAlert, even though those decisions should have been hers. What's more, his poor father is suddenly turned into a verbal punching bag for Sattu to throw social-conscious dialogues around, while the real a-hole - Katha's father - smiles benignly from the sidelines. I was so buzzed out by the proceedings in these portions, that I nearly ignored the weak-ass repackaging of the cult hit song "Pasoori", which, honestly, is the least of this Prem Katha's problems. "Aaj Ke Baad" is lovely, though.
Final Thoughts
SatyaPrem Ki Katha infuses certain social elements into its love-story, and Kartik and Kiara has tremendous chemistry as a couple. The film addresses sexual assault and it's effect on relationships, but it does so in a ham-fisted and melodramatic way that you feel disconnected with the characters, and the weak ending does little to repair the situation. Not the prem katha you want to root for these days!
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 29, 2023 12:55 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).