Pardesi Re Review {1/5} & Review Rating
J.S.K. Productions P. Ltd.'s PARDESI RE, written-produced-directed by Kewal Krishna, is all about Indians who depart from their motherland for lucrative opportunities abroad.
Prabhakar (Ashutosh Rana), the protagonist of PARDESI RE, is a folk singer from Allahabad. Life goes on as usual until one day he meets Ragini (Shruti Ulfat).
A group of NRIs in London invite well-known singers from India to perform in London every year. This year, their theme is folk singing and they send across Ragini, an FM RJ, to contact a famous folk singer and extend an invitation for the show on their behalf.
Ragini meets the singer, but realises that he doesn't deserve the honour. Ragini plans to return to London, but chances upon Prabhakar. She happens to overhear Prabhakar whilst he's singing a devotional song in a temple. She looks at him as a perfect son of the soil and extends her invitation to London.
However, Prabhakar refuses the invitation on grounds that he doesn't want to leave his motherland. But, later, he is forced by circumstances and personal constraints to accept the offer.
In London, Prabhakar stays with the President of the NRI group, called India Club. He meets Diya (Shama Sikander), the Club President's daughter. On further interaction with her, Prabhakar learns that Diya doesn't think highly of Indians. Prabhakar decides to confront Diya and during a debate, succeeds in showing Diya the true picture.
Diya subconsciously loses her heart to Prabhakar. On the other hand, even Ragini is impressed with Prabhakar's love for his motherland and finds herself drawn emotionally towards the talented singer. What happens next?
PARDESI RE bears a striking resemblance to Manoj Kumar's immensely successful PURAB AUR PACHHIM. The difference being, while P.A.P. captured the diverse lifestyle of the east and west with clarity and ?n, PARDESI RE comes across as a soulless saga. The drama in this case looks artificial and it fails to strike a chord with the viewer.
The only redeeming feature of this enterprise is the dialogue, which successfully stir up some patriotic fervour at brief intervals. But, at places, the writer does go overboard, with the protagonist's preaching and sermonising testing the viewer's patience.
Another glaring loophole is that although the story is set in London, the film has been shot indoors extensively. That's where parallels would be drawn with P.A.P. again, since the 1970s hit captured the beauty of the magnificent city skilfully. In PARDESI RE, barring a few sequences here and there, major work has been done indoors, which takes away the charm to an extent.
Direction is handicapped thanks to a weak screenplay. Music (Sujeet) is also a drawback. Cinematography (Sanjeev Shrivastava) is just about okay.
Ashutosh Rana looks completely ill at ease in the main role. Making him do the filmi dances was a mistake. Shruti Ulfat and Shama Sikander are alright. Rajpal Yadav provides ample relief.
On the whole, PARDESI RE is a non-starter.