Ajab prem ki gazab kahani

My ratings: 3.5 stars.
'Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani' is as much Santoshi's film as it is Ranbir's. The actor gets into the goofy character called Prem perfectly and is spectacular in the movie, specially, his charm and the manner in which he manages to turn even a simple scene to something so out of this world, is simply amazing. This is an out and out Ranbir affair and he floors one with his talent. Of course, he finally gets a role which allows him to soar uninhibitedly and he digs into it with relish. Ranbir is only able to take over the movie because of the wonderfully, nonsensical dialogues that he is given and the terrific support that he receives from his director and his co actors. The film has a quaint old world charm to it which coupled with the comic element, makes it a very touching and enjoyable movie.

The story is about a simpleton Prem, (Ranbir), who lives with his parents in a small hill station and is the president of the Happy Club, which consists of other equally, unemployed guys of his age. A chance encounter with Jenny (Katrina Kaif) and Prem ends up losing his heart to her, but lacks the courage to tell her about his feelings till it's too late. He discovers that she is in love with Rahul (Upen Patel) and he now makes it the mission of his life to unite the couple.

Santoshi handles the first half of the film very well indeed, but towards the latter half of the second half, the film seems to have been stretched too long and just about starts to get tiresome. The whole kidnapping angle, which forms the film's climax is a little too drawn out and one would have expected a more creative ending from Santoshi. The transformation in Rahul's character is quite unwarranted. But despite these areas, as a whole, Santoshi manages to keep the laughs going and mood breezy, thus exercising superb control on his actors and the screenplay, which is replete with witty one liners.

Total justice has been done to the wonderful music that has been composed by Pritam and Santoshi has picturised each song with a lot of love and care, bringing out its essence and flavour. In fact, the entire film has been shot wonderfully.

JAIL

My Ratings: 2.5 stars.
The film follows the life of Parag Dixit (Neil Nitin Mukesh), an ambitious young executive, making his life up the corporate ladder. Just when everything seems to be going well for this young man, his life is turned upside down and he finds himself behind bars, convicted of a crime which he never committed. His room mate turns out to be a major drug dealer and the cops nab Parag and find a bag full of cocaine in his car. The drug belongs to his friend, who is gunned down by the cops and Parag pays for being in the car with him. His girlfriend (Mugdha Godse) and his mother hire a lawyer and try their best to get him released on bail, but the appeals is turned down and Parag is remanded to judicial custody.
Life in jail is really not all that different from life outside. Parag's bail hearing is turned down by the High Court a couple of times, but he finally gets justice and is a free man.
The jail portions are really realistic and one knows that Madhur has shot in actual jails. The research that he may have done for this film, all comes out in the detailed portrayal of life in prison that is shown in Jail. Madhur has to be congratulated on this and also about the different types of characters that people in the jail and their individual stories. The story is well in place, he gets the lingo and look right but fails to inject that x factor into the proceedings. The film has been well shot.