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Sooraj Barjatya have been known for making quality cinema that spawned some successful films like Maine Pyar Kiya, Hum Aapke Hain Koun.. , Hum Saath Saath Hain and Vivah boasting off the tradition and culture of Indian family with tuneful music and grandeur sets. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, his fourth collaboration with Salman Khan and after gap of 16 years, has created hype and soared sky-high expectations. Unfortunately, the family drama disappoints and will leave you dissatisfied at the end.

Prem Ratan Dhan Payo tells story of royal family of Pritampur where a plot has been hatched to assassinate the young prince (Salman Khan) by his brother (Neil Nitin Mukesh) before the coronation takes place in the royal palace. A look-a-like of the prince, Prem, steps in to save the day. However, he falls in the love with bride-to-be of the prince(Sonam Kapoor).

Now Sooraj Barjatya has adapted the story from Anthony Hope's novel 'The Prisoner Of Zenda' (1894) and infused his family drama with typical song-drama routine. Master of presenting the values of Indian culture and custom on silver screen innumerable times, Sooraj Barjatya gives you a fine first half with grand opening scene of Salman Khan and introduction of each character coupled with bit humor. Till this point, the film is tolerable however the second half tumbles down the rabbit hole and refuses to pick up. The screenplay is messy with too much of things happening in quick succession and without any sensible reason. The problem is Barjatya follows the same path of his previous films ( he even borrows the sports scene from Hum Aapke Hain Koun… this time replaced by football in this one) which actually become a mockery in the end. Another issue is too many songs which is misplaced and is included in every ten minutes between the scene. The climax which should have been the highlight of the film is diluted with weak action choreography and melodrama.

Sooraj Barjatya ( also credited with story and screenplay) is not in form this and clearly misses the mark. Coming from the director who made some outstanding cinema previously, I was disheartened. The editing(Sanjay Sankla) is half-baked with weak dialogues that will spoil your mood leaving you unsatisfied. Cinematography (Manikandan) is spell-binding capturing the essence of Rajasthan and Gujrat. Art direction is eye-catching. Kudos to Nitin Chandrikant Desai for always innovating with unique style. Background score is jarring to ears. Music by Sanjoy Chowdhury and Himesh Reshammiya is tuneful but certainly not chart-bursting. Coming to the performances, there is only one reason to watch the film – SALMAN KHAN. The superstar is getting better with his expressions and emotes well throughout the film. He is adequately supported with fantastic performances by Anupam Kher and Deepak Dobriyal. The third and the final problem with the film is wrong casting (Vicky Sidana). Sonam Kapoor certainly does not fit to carry her part earnestly. It is high time for her to seriously take her acting lessons properly ( She is part of the industry for 8 years). I feel bad for a talent like Neil Nitin Mukesh getting wasted in half-baked character. Armaan Kohli is a letdown.

Overall, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo is a big letdown with poor direction, wafer-thin plot and messy drama. If you are a die-hard fan of Salman, watch otherwise skip it. Below average 2/5

– Ketan Gupta

Damn, when will we ever learn? Well even before asking this, I knew the sad answer. I could not bear to watch more than half an hour of this worthless piece of s**t. The abundantly used & reused script, the all good pauper, the double role, the unnecessary songs, the out of sync pathetic & outdated soundtrack, the forced upon villains of the film & Salman's usual overacting were too much for me to handle. This whole movie is way too outdated and seems like a movie from the late 80's. The screenplay and the coincidental scenes of blossoming love between Salman (50 year Old) & Sonam (20 Years Younger) were irritatingly naive and dated. I beg to the film makers to grow up and stop testing our I.Q. already. Please have mercy on us. But then again, why would they ever stop! It's hard to believe but true that this movie has already done Box office collections nearing 200 Cr. as of yet (i.e. today : 17th Nov). 'Bhai's' Fan following from the masses in India surely encourages them to keep making these overrated pieces of junk repeatedly. I usually check the rating and make an educated guess after reading some reviews from IMDb website. But then again, the fans of these glorified actors have infiltrated deep within IMDb too and misleading gullible movie watchers to go ahead and watch these kind of movies. The wish that the censor board rate movies on I.Q. levels too. I guess I'll stick to my thought of staying away from Bollywood movies, cause while watching such crap, I tend to get frustrated and uneasy. Rest, this is my thinking on this, you take your own call. Caution : Proceed to theaters at your own risk!!!

It is one of most poorly made movies I have watched in a long time. Don't know what Sooraj Barjatya was thinking while making this one. No story, no theme, no soul, no sense, no base....what was this Sir

Salman you just did Bajrangi Baijaan, which is so good. Why did you have to do such a movie. What was the football match about. So unreal, so unwanted. Sonam Kapoor I thought could act when I saw Ranjhana, guess it was just a fluke. I am so disappointed because I have always loved Sooraj Barjatya's movies. Now next time I have to be really careful before watching his movies

Sad and disappointed

The first half of PRDP flows very slow and the story moves along boringly whilst establishing the characters. The biggest problem with the movie is that the conflict doesn't seem to be too big for it to matter later on when the conflict gets solved.Prem Dilwale's too much overacting makes the film irritate you like hell. The football match sequence and the sequence where Prem mends the relationship of Vijay with his step-sisters are completely over the top ones. There are a lot of illogicalness like the placement of a palace on the edge of a waterfall. At the end of the 160 minute duration, PRDP manages to make everyone sleep and the emotions do not work at all which should in turn make the film not work even amongst the family audiences. PRDP looks completely outdated and clearly no money has been spent on the sets and the costumes. The production design is of very low standards. The VFX work is the worst you have seen in Hindi films and the editing could have been much more tighter but as we all know, Sooraj Barjatya believes in boring cinema. Himesh Reshammiya delivers a pathetic soundtrack. None of the songs stay with the viewer. And the worst one is the title track which seems to be nowhere. Each and every actor completely overacts and the one who does the most throughout the movie is Salman himself. Prem Ratan Dhan Payo can't even be thought of to be compared with classics like 'Maine Pyaar Kiya' and 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun'. The film thoroughly bores you with dull moments all over. Sure there are a lot of silly and illogical moments. And Salman Khan puts in a terrible performance as Prem Dilwala. In the first half of the film, he irritates you over time and again. Diwali is the time when families come together and PRDP will be disliked even by families as it is the most boring movie which irritates you with overacting. This festive season, avoid it for sure. It's a 0/10 rating movie to be honest, but have to give 1/10 as 0/10 is not allowed on IMDb. Sooraj Barjatya films come once in 6-7 years and there is no director in the industry who can fill a film with as much overacting as much as the he can. Advice for the youth, don't even watch it on your on TV.

It is tough for me to even give 2/10 to this movie. The entire movie had roughly 45 minutes of content, but was 3 hours long. The movie progressed at a very slow pace, and the direction style was very similar to how serials are directed in India (yuck). Everything was overdramatized, and I'm surprised I didn't internally combust while watching this expensively made crap put on a screen. Apart from Bhajrangi Bhaijaan, all Salman Khan movies have been the same for the past 10 years, and most of them have been pretty bad. Props to Salman for doing something different than the stereotypical mindless action movies he does, but this was probably his worst movie in the past 10 years (yes even worse than his typical mindless action movies). Salman may get to a point where he can act and make good movies one day, but this will be one of the biggest stains on his record.