Toilet Ek Prem Katha Review: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan 'Katha'

PUBLISHED DATE : 14/Aug/2017

Toilet Ek Prem Katha Review: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan 'Katha'

Toilet Ek Prem Katha Review: Swachh Bharat Abhiyan “Katha”

SethuMadhavan


It’s no secret that in a country as vast and as thickly populated as ours, sanitation and defecation continue to be major issues. Open defecation is not just an age old problem but also in many cases a voluntary act followed due to some ridiculous old traditions and beliefs. Against such a backdrop and with the Government at the centre spearheading the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” it should not be a surprise to see people attempting films which tackle the subject. Last year we had seen Raju Murugan’s Joker, a Tamil film which addresses the topic in an interesting fashion and now this weekend sees the release of Toilet Ek Prem Katha, a Hindi film that follows suit. In recent times Akshay Kumar has been consciously involved in films which have a National theme of importance and this is again one such film.

 

Keshav (Akshay Kumar) and his brother Naru (Divyendu Sharma) help their father (Sudhir Pandey) in taking care of their family business; a cycle store in a small town in U.P. Keshav is a smart chap with a lot of aspirations, including a desire to get married to a smart lady of his choice. Unfortunately his father is a traditionalist and insists on following age old customs and practices, as a result of which Keshav continues to remain single. Keshav comes across Jaya (Bhumi Pednekar) and she appears to be just the kind of person that he was on the lookout for. In traditional Bollywood style he ends up wooing her and of course she ends up falling for him as well later. Eventually after overcoming a few hurdles they do end up getting married and just when Keshav assumes that it’s going to be a happy ending after all, his life comes crashing the very next morning after the wedding.

 

Jaya is dismayed to know that there is no toilet at Keshav’s place and that she too like all other women in the village has to resort to open defecation. What happens from thereon and how does the situation eventually get taken care of is what the rest of the film is all about. Now if one has seen the trailer then you must be aware of the entire story because the promo had left no room for any surprise of sorts. The film does start off well as we get introduced to Keshav and the world that he inhabits. It’s also ironical to see someone as smart and practical as him also being a person who cannot stand up to his father when it comes to taking key decisions in his life. Despite the first half having its share of moral science lessons, it’s still easy to digest the same as the emphasis is more on the love story of Keshav and Jaya.

 

But the writing by Siddharth Singh and Garima Wahal takes a radical turn in the second half; the proceedings then making the tale appear to be more like a propaganda tool to support the Government’s initiatives. If all the direct references to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan were not enough then there’s even a positive nod to Narendra Modi’s demonetisation drive as well. Of course it is the filmmaker’s prerogative to choose the style of narration and perhaps editor turned filmmaker Shree Narayan Singh felt that this was a safe route to take and/or something that he was comfortable with. But sadly it does not convert into a great viewing experience for the audience. A satirical dig at the core issue and keeping the momentum relatively lighter almost till the end perhaps might have helped, but what we instead get is a lot of heavy preaching.

 

Strangely the film’s music also is not of much support, other than the popular “Hans Mat Pagli” song (music by Vickey Prasad, lyrics by Siddharth-Garima and vocals by Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal) the other songs do not make an impact. In terms of the casting there is nothing much to complain about, Divyendu Sharma as Naru in particular being quite effective as the brother and trusted companion of Keshav. Bhumi Pednekar has clearly moved on from her debut film (Dum Laga Ke Haisha) and is very comfortable in her new avatar, her scenes with Akshay Kumar revealing that they complement each other well on screen. Akshay Kumar may probably not look very convincing as a 36 year old, but otherwise he is in supreme control playing Keshav, someone who slowly but surely realizes that he needs to usher in a change in the environment around him, beginning at his own house to start with.

 

Toilet Ek Prem Katha is a film that had the potential to go a long way, but here the journey is cut short clearly and the end result isn’t something that was ideal.

Bottomline:

The romance works and it works well, but the propaganda route leads to a derailment of sorts and thus the film doesn’t satisfy as much as it could have.

 

Rating: 2.5/5


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