I went into the theatre with few expectations and was pleasantly surprised by the movie. However, first a word about Ranbir Kapoor. Its easy to see why he is the current darling of the masses and the classes. APKGK is a classic case where the actor rises above the script and man, has he got charm! It seems some people are born to be actors and Ranbir Kapoor is definitely someone to watch out for.
Now back to the movie. The setting is a quaint little town. Prem Shankar Sharma (Ranbir Kapoor) aka Prem is the President of the Happy Club. The aim of the club is to unite the lovers mostly by kidnapping girls and getting them married to their lovers and funnily the location of the club is a Coffin Shop! Prem’s aim in life is very simple, to make people happy.
In a goof up, Prem tries to kidnap Jenny(Katrina Kaif) and slowly they become friends. Now Jenny is an orphan, who has been adopted by the Pinto couple who are really nasty to her and want to get her married to a guy of their own choice. Prem and his team saves her from this guy only to discover that Jenny has feelings for Rahul (played by Upen Patel, , as wooden as ever). The happy Prem is shattered, but tries to make both of them meet. After a lot of hitches, the duo get set to married but then Jenny discovers that she has feelings for Prem and so there’s finally a happy ending.
APKGK is not in the same league as ’Andaz Apna Apna’ also directed by Raj Kumar Santoshi who has directed this Romcom. The scrip is not strong, with a wafer thin plot, and there are quite a lot of attempts to elicit forced laughs from the audience.However, there are some genuinely funny moments in the movie and some endearing moments too.
Though Katrina Kaif, after so many hits, is yet to come up with a strong performance and should try to hone up acting skills, one can’t deny that she lights up the screem with her presence. She looks beautiful, and since she plays a Christian girl, you don’t mind the accent, but then where’s the time to notice her accent. She looks beautiful and her chemistry with Ranbir Kapoor is crackling. They make a great onscreen couple. Ranbir Kapoor has the easy charm which immediately captivates you and you know here is a guy who knows the abc’s of his acting. He makes the most mundane lines seem interesting. Upen Patel is as horrible as ever and probably got a role so that people get a fun out of watching him do some bad acting! Supporting cast is okay, but Darshan Jariwala and Smita Jaykar, who play the role of Prem’s father and mother stand out.
Some scenes which stand out are the opening sequence, the scene where both Prem and Jenny are stammering and Jenny thinks Prem is making fun of her, the sequence where Prem is trying to save Jenny from the attentions of Tony in a party. Though not all, some scenes genuinely bring out the laughs. The movie, however, could have been shorter.
And last but not the least. The songs are nice and especially ’Tera hone laga hun’ by Atif and Alisha Chinoy, ’Tu jaane na’ by Atif and ’Prem ki naiya’ by Neeraj Shridar and Suzzane D’mello stand out for their sheer melody. ’Prem is naiya’ is a fun song with some very nice moves by Ranbir Kapoor.
Cinematography by Thiru is lovely and he has shot the locales of Ooty, Goa and Turkey beautiful. The picturisation of ’Tu jaane is’ is great.
All in all, though not a great movie, its a good time pass. Go watch it for Prem Shankar Shankar Sharma.