By: Amit KumaR Agarwal
Week after week, as I watch films, one question that rankles is, is writing such a tough job?
Two weeks back we had one of the best writers in India, Manoj, rendering one of the most revered Indian texts, Ramayana, ineffective in Adipurush and now we have this film, Satyaprem Ki Katha.
On paper the story might seem novel, the fact is, it isn't. We have had films on date-rape in the past, yet the idea might seem novel - but the screenplay and running time reduce it to a narrative that drags on for 150 minutes.
The tom-foolery in the first half with Kartik Aryan falls flat, add to that 'n' number of songs just thrown in. Why? The second half turns all drama with a good amount of preaching that hardly registers. Plausible screenplay, dialogues with more sensitivity and trimming the film by about 20 minutes would have worked as a Sanjeevani Booti for this film.
A film that the makers ought to have seen for reference is Jab We Met.
Of the leads Kartik Aryan tries hard to play to the gallery, all he does is overact. Kiara Advani tries to infuse life in a botched-up role, and it is to her credit that she is very good in some of the scenes. Gajraj Rao is wasted, while Supriya Pathak and Anuradha Patel are fine.
All in all, the film had a great potential if two things writing and sensitivity were taken care of.