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October 31, 1998
QUOTE MARTIAL
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Prem agonySyed Firdaus Ashraf
Sooraj (Fardeen Khan) is a son of a colonel in the army, Veer Bahadur Singh (Raj Babbar). He falls for Sapna (Meghana Kothari), the daughter of a software tycoon, JK, (Anupam Kher). And you note that finally the software business is having an impact on Hindi cinema too. Tycoon is big deal in every sense. He is almost all the time in a private helicopter and if he picks his mobile phone, he isn't telling the wife he's not coming for lunch, but telling cabinet ministers where they get off. Apparently, even 'Bill Gates' would feel ashamed to see this man's style of functioning. Or so we are informed. Big trouble is, the manager to beat Gates doesn't like his daughter snuggling up to a poor colonel's son. So JK uses all his managerial skills to keep his daughter away from lover boy. And to aid JK's cause is his diligent son, who roams around with dogs to keep Romeo away from his sister. The chap ends up looking obnoxious, and not just because the role demands it of him.
An interesting factor is that every character in the film is well versed with the love stories of yore, as if grandma, perhaps harking back to her youth, ladled out only the mushy stuff as she dandled them on her knee. The colonel has no problem about his son marrying a rich man's daughter. His wife (Smita Jaykar), meanwhile, warms a wheelchair and laments that she has become a burden on the colonel's life. She might not have been a problem if she had gone easier on the self-recrimination. She doesn't but the colonel's a brave and resourceful man. He tells her he's happy that she has gifted him the most precious thing in his life, his son.
Anyway, to get on, the tycoon catches the lovers in bed one day. They note his presence only after a session of heavy duty smooching. Irritated papa tells his henchman to liquidate the Romeo and drags his daughter away. The daughter wails in distress and says if Romeo kicks the bucket then so will she. So dad satisfies himself telling her he will spare the colonel's pup if she marries young business partner (Rajesh, a newcomer.) She acquiesces but vows she will never speak to her father again too. So, a badly beaten Sooraj is left alone by the goons when JK, for a change, makes a call to them.
Sooraj, being in India, doesn't hit the bottle, singing doleful songs of love and parting. The colonel suggests he quit this moaning, sell the darned bike, and take the next flight to Australia. And, just to drive the point, he harks back to grandma's tale, telling his son that had Mumtaz been alive, Emperor Shahjahan would have sold the Taj for her. Strangely, Romeo has this friend in Australia who isn't so important that he be named in the movie. This chap apparently runs a service that keeps a tab on tycoon families. And thus does Sooraj locate the JK residence and comes in for the engagement ceremony of the daughter. JK is shocked, but Sooraj is even more upset, deciding his gal has opted for lucre over love. Till, she secretly gets the message across that she'll meet him someplace quiet. And the fiancee, who just happens to be an eavesdropper, gets nasty, and says hang the business and his reputation and gets a bunch of bad Australian guys over with the intention of thrashing the Romeo and raping Juliet. That's how it goes...
Meghana Kothari is pathetic. And her diction is ghastly. Raj Babbar's role is unbearable, particularly all those rambling monologues on 'love'. Anupam Kher, despite being a software giant, is never seen before a machine. And, he's just wasted anyway. Satish Shah and Rakesh Bedi, despite their small roles, stole the show. The director could have done better to stress on comedy here. There were a lot of expectations from this film, since Feroz Khan was betting his son's career on it. But the script and the music are ordinary; only the the title song, Prem Aggan, is passable. Face it, guys and gals, Prem Aggan just isn't worth the trouble.
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