Review: Inconsistent yet entertaining

Film: Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (U)
Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif
Rating: **½

This is a great title for a film. It's intriguing and memorable. Only, there's nothing ghazab about Prem's story. This is just another boy-girl love triangle with miscellaneous characters. What works for the film is the lead pair — Ranbir Kapoor cannot put a foot wrong at the moment and just sizzles on screen with co-star Katrina Kaif.

Rajkumar Santoshi has created a brightly coloured, youthful film set in a fictitious small town where young men can do silly things like run the Happy Club which intends to make people, yes, happy. The entire film and its characters have a comic-book feel where crazy things happen, but it's all meant in good humour.

Prem is a no-hoper, a 9th standard dropout with a heart of gold, who speaks broken English and is broke. Jenny is the perfect girl — well educated, well read, loyal to her family, pretty. The two things they have in common are vegetarianism and a stammer. Their friendship takes them on a chaotic adventure where they have to escape on jet skis, have run-ins with gangsters (who have guns but no bullets and mobiles without talk time), and politicians. A few sequences are truly entertaining — like the wedding dance which has tightly choreographed action and editing.

The film starts slowly, but once it picks up, it's breathless till the interval, dragging once again in the second half. The inconsistent flow is one of the drawbacks of the film and the myriad characters just make things too haphazard. The humour takes time to find its meter — starting out slapstick and juvenile and edging along to genuinely amusing, sometimes charming.

Thankfully, Kaif and Kapoor never falter. They keep you riveted. It's a perfect part for Kaif. As for Kapoor, it's time for him to try something new. He has mastered this type of part and character. Overall, not a bad choice for the weekend and likely to appeal to young viewers.