Prem Ratan Dhan Payo a Tribute To The Bhansali filmmaking?

Everyone who loves the movies knows that the two filmmakers Salman Khan was closest to were Sooraj Barjatya and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, so much so that Salman physically resembled the two filmmakers during those times when he worked with them.

It is also commonly known that Salman had a serious fall-out with both the filmmakers. With Sooraj , Salman fell out over the infamous black-buck incident. With Sanjay things turned sour when the filmmaker chose to work with Shah Rukh (in Devdas) after two back-to-back films with Salman.

To cut a long story short Salman, who doesn't forgive and forget easily, decided to do just that with Sooraj (forgive and forget) , and after a cold war that lasted a decade they got together with a film grandiloquently entitled Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.

From the look of it , Prem Ratan Dhayn Payo seems like a revenge on Sanjay LeelaBhansali. The colours on the film's palate,the texture of the sound and visuals, Sonam Kapoor's clothes makeup and mannerisms and the way the songs are filmed...all indicate a heavy SLB hangover in this Barjatya special.

The latest song Jalte diye released from the film shows the Bhansali aura at its most aggravated . From the way the scenario is lit up with deeyas and other artificial lights meant to create an illusion of natural brightness , to the way Sonam dances around Salman's persona...this is the arcadian operatic world of Bhansali brought to spluttering life by a fellow-filmmaker whose best is clearly behind him.

It must have been easy for Salman to convince Himesh Reshamiyya to compose "Bhansali type of songs". Himesh is an old Salman groupie. He knows there is a price to pay for saying no to Salman's wishes. The price is worse than death : banishment from the superstar's durbar.

Barjatya must have been a tougher nut to crack. It is hard to imagine how or why a filmmaker of Barjatya's formidable reputation would fall in line with his leading man's plan to "do a Bhansali". Regrettably that seems to be the case , with Sonam filling in for Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the saturated frames while Salman tries to recreate the courtship conventions of Hum...Dil De Chuke Sanam.

The entire effort looks laboured and selfconscious. Where in the songs and the teaser trailer do we see the hand of the creative craftsman who gave us Salman as the obedient family man and the shy reluctant lover-boy in Hum Aapke Hain Koun?

By declaring Sonam to be "better" than Madhuri Dixit Salman is only drawing attention to to how determined he is to do Bansali with Barjatya.