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“Sanam Teri Kasam” is Radhika Rao and Vinay Sapru‘s second Bollywood film as directors and is the cinematic equivalent of pulling off a Band-Aid very, very, very slowly. Excruciating and never-ending.
sanam2This ill-fated love story packs pretty much every tear-jerking trope in the movie rule book, and is so out-dated in its treatment and outlook that you wonder if it really is 2016.
How else can you justify the heroine wearing high-neck collar dresses covering every inch of her skin, shrinking away from men, and consider getting married her only aim in life?
Saru (Pakistani actress Mawra Hocane) is a timid woman terrified of her conservative and dictatorial father, works at a library (which is where all bookworms work apparently) and wants to get married to an “IIT-IIM” type to make her father happy.
Her neighbour Inder (Harshvardhan Rane) has just served a jail sentence, has a string of girlfriends and is the opposite of her ideal man. Unfortunately, Saru’s father catches her in Inder’s apartment and banishes her. All part of a misunderstanding, of course, as our virtuous heroine wouldn’t dream of being caught alone in a man’s apartment.
sanam1A miserable Saru returns to Inder, who helps her find a new house, gets her a makeover (no more loose clothes), and even a “IIT-IIM” husband, all the while flexing his very visible muscles. None of those muscles seem to make it to his face, which remains static. Hocane compensates for Rane’s catatonic state by overemphasizing every emotion and screeching her dialogue.
Directors Sapru and Rao borrow liberally from successful movies like “Love Story” and “Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam”, but fail to execute even these tried-and-tested tricks. Their actors seem to be at sea, and there are many unintentionally hilarious moments, like when Saru calls Inder a “personal love letter from God”.
“Sanam Teri Kasam” is one of those films that should have been made in the 80’s, when such themes might have been better accepted. Or better yet, it shouldn’t have been made at all.
The post ‘Sanam Teri Kasam’ is an ill-fated love story appeared first on News India Times.
