Satyaprem Ki Katha review: Kartik Aaryan, Kiara Advani's film is well intended but inconsistent

Very early in his career, Kartik Aaryan had featured in a film called Akaash Vaani. Helmed by Luv Ranjan - the man who played a big role in making Kartik a superstar - the film had a hatke story and dealt with a very sensitive topic quite deftly. It was a stark contrast from the films that Ranjan and Aryan have come to beassociated with today.Akaash Vaani, which failed tocreate any magic at the box office,dealt with the subject of marital rape - a topic that is not so openly discussed in commercial Hindi cinema - at least not until a decade back. Kartik Aaryan's latest release, Satyaprem Ki Katha, is on similar lines. Mounted on a big scale and promoted as a quintessential Bollywood romance, the film, directed by Sameer Vidvans, talks of consent date rape and has Aaryan transforming from a loser to a hero in the course of the film.

Written by Karan Shrikant Sharma, Satyaprem Ki Katha is based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat where the characters often break into Gujarati lines (without any subtitles provided in between) and songs and presentsa rather progressive world where the women call the shots,at least in Satyaprem's (Kartik Aaryan) household. Sattu is a zero, having no work and no ambition, except for getting married to Katha (Kiara Advani). He spends most of his time doing household chores and arguing with his family over their lack of enthusiasm for his marriage. His mother (Supriya Pathak Kapur ) and sister (Shikha Talsania) are the primary earners, while the father (Gajraj Rao) and son dodomestic work at home.

Sattu falls instantly in love with Katha when he sees her performing at one of the dandiya nights. She is from an affluent family with a boyfriend who drives a fancy car and Sattu stands no chance of being apart of Katha's life. A year later, however, things drastically change, as Katha finds herself agreeing to marry Sattu due to pressure and blackmail from her father.

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Their worlds are different. She is rich, he is not. She is educated and had a career while he hasn't worked a day in his life and so the match seems weird from the go. Things get further complicated when Katha reveals her troubled past to Sattu which can jeopardise their marriage and future together.

Aaryan plays a bumbling idiot Sattu who is projected as a man with no malice in his heart and who cannot lie. He may not be very worldly wise and is ok to adore his wife from a distance, but knows when to stand up and for whom. For years, Aaryan has played the slightly tone-deaf, alpha lover-boy in numerous of his films. His films have been accused of being misogynistic in nature. And while he is now a superstar, he has not been able to fully shrug off the image that has been created - one of an actor who plays a sexist man in most of his films. Satyaprem Ki Katha tries hard to get rid of that image. He is the victim here of course, with the women in his life- mother, sister, and wife- being more dominant and opinionated than him.But he ultimately becomes the voice for those who have been wronged and gives a lecture or two on consent, suicide not being a punishable offence, and date rape.

While the film tackles the topic of date rape and consents credibly in the second half, the first half is lousy. The writers try to write some illogical lines in the film to make it funny and they do not land well. I was almost impatient to understand where the story was heading up till the interval. The plot only fully unravels in the second half of the film where Kiara Advani gets ample scope to perform and she does not disappoint. Her role needs a certain amount of restraint and Advani, who delivered a string of hit films last year,gives a well-nuanced performance. Advani looks ethereal and her performance as a woman with a horrific past tugs at your heartstrings. She outshines Aaryan in several scenes.

The film though lacks consistency in its writing. The narrative is patchy. One doesn't quite understand why Sattu's mother and sister are so mean to him. The first half takes ages to establish the plot and Aaryan's performance too lacks the conviction. But the film redeems itself to a great extent in the second half when the issue of rape is first addressed and then dealt with. The songs are far too many, which mostly hamperthe narrative and makes the 2-hour 20-minute film a bit of a drag. I also did not quite understand the need to include so many Gujarati dialogues in the film. Sure, the characters belong to the state and it is well established but why use the local dialect in a Hindi film?

Some of the characters are downright offensive. Actor Siddharth Randeria plays Advani's father who gaslights her at every instance possible. I didn't even quite get why Supriya Pathak Kapur's character was so terrible and mean at being a mother. Then Gajraj Rao's character also seems myopic in his views. The characterisations are never quite flexed out and leave several questions unanswered.

There are very few films that have a lousy first half and a good second half and Satyaprem Ki Katha falls in this rare category.

Marketed as a love story, the film's nuanced story and the mature implementation of a serious topic only come through in the second half and thus I would suggest you be patient while watching the film.

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