By: Keyur Seta

Director: Mrinal Kulkarni

Producers: Bhupar Bodar Enterprises, Pravin Thakkar and Amol Production

Writers: Mrinal Kulkarni and Manisha Korde

Cast: Sachin Khedekar, Mrinal Kulkarni, Pallavi Joshi, Sunil Barve, Suhas Joshi, Mohan Agashe

Music: Milind Ingle and Surel Ingle

Genre: Romance

Rating: * *

Story Outline: Anushree (Mrinal Kulkarni) is going through a troubled marriage with her husband (Sunil Barve), although the couple isn’t divorced. Suddenly, she is bestowed with an air of happiness after Dr Prakash (Sachin Khedekar), a divorcee, enters her life. Circumstances bring Prakash and Anushree together and they start developing feelings for each other. But soon, things become complicated for both.

Review: Is it possible to find love again after a broken marriage? This question was sensibly and heartwarmingly explored recently in Satish Rajwade’s Premachi Goshta. Mrinal Kulkarni’s directorial debut Prem Mhanje Prem Mhanje Prem Asta explores the same issue but in doing that, it also uses the exact storyline, including the twists and climax, which Rajwade used in his film.

But even after ignoring its similarities with the Atul Kulkarni starrer, the film still fails to either move or entertain, barring few moments, due to a weak script. The story takes time to develop at the start and it doesn’t take time for you to realize the amateurish screenplay and dialogues. However, there is a lot of hope and promise in store after a relationship starts developing between the two characters with the alarming interval point further generating interest.

That point, however, is hardly exploited in the post-interval portions. Instead of taking the story and drama to a higher level from that moment, the writers present a series of unappealing and uninteresting sequences that you eventually lose interest after a point of time. What’s worse is that some tear-jerking moments turn out to be unintentionally hilarious. Although the climax does include a couple of touchy moments, it isn’t entirely satisfying. Not to mention your experience before that.

As mentioned earlier about PMPMPA’s similarities with Premachi Goshta, it comes as a strange surprise because the former went on floors much before the latter released. And needless to say, if you have seen and loved Rajawade’s film, you won’t be impressed with PMPMPA.

From Milind Ingle and Suresh Ingle’s compositions, ‘Mann Bavarate’ is impressive. The fun title track at the end is not only against the subject, it also appears as a forceful attempt to be ‘cool’. From the technical areas, the camerawork is adequate while the background score should have been used more.

Apart from few moving moments, Mrunal Kulkarni’s sincere performance is the saving grace. She perfectly gets into the skin of the character and gets every emotion right. She surely deserves to do more films. Sachin Khedekar also impresses but he doesn’t get much scope to be at his best.

Pallavi Joshi comeback turns out to be above average. Her diction doesn’t help her cause. Sunil Barve isn’t bad but he too suffers from a weakly written character. This also ensures he becomes a source of some unintentional hilarity. Neha Joshi is impressive as a bindaas girl. The rest of the supporting actors – Mohan Agashe, Suhas Joshi and Smita Talwalkar – fit the bill.

Overall, Prem Mhanje Prem Mhanje Prem Asta suffers because of the writing and presentation. Due to the big names and some hype, the film has a decent chance at the box office. But it is doubtful whether it would be able to sustain at the ticket window for long.