Prem Ratan Dhan Payo

There’s something to be said for Sooraj Kumar Barjatya’s filmmaking—he goes ahead and does what he wants, without bothering about prevailing trends. When everybody else is making sophisticated films, both in terms of style and content, Barjatya goes retro with Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. In the past too, his films have taken up the ‘family-values’ theme at a time when domestic dramas were way past their sell-by date. Luckily, he has Salman Khan with him, now when he is failproof and critic-proof, paying back for both his first big break, Maine Pyar Kiya, and the monster hit Hum Aapke Hain Koun? by Barjatya. PRDP, about a commoner, Prem (Khan), taking the place of a lookalike wounded prince, and solving all problems from sibling rivalry to palace intrigue, to a strained romance with a princess (Sonam). With two Salmans on screen, who, between them, dance, fence, flirt and flex muscle (miraculously, without taking their shirts off), nobody has much to do except dress up in blinding finery. Plus, there is a sheesh mahal (palace of mirrors) built over a waterfall. If anybody informed Barjatya that privy purses were abolished in 1971, he wouldn’t care; neither does his audience. Who wants realism or logic? Most ‘commoners’ will go see the blingy clothes, copies of which will quickly make their way to street stalls, where the white and green lehenga from HAHK still sells during every festive season.