PARTNER Movie Review : Partner is a laugh riot !

Punchline: love guru

Genre: Comedy
Banner: Sohail Khan Productions & K Sera Sera
Cast: Salman Khan, Govinda, Katrina Kaif, Lara Dutta & Rajpal Yadav
Lyrics: Sanjay Chhel, Shabbir Ahmed, Jalees Sherwani
Music: Sajid Wajid
Choreography: Bosco Caesar
Screenplay - dialogues: Sanjay Chhel
Director: David Dhawan
Producer: Sohail Khan
Release date: 20 July 2007

Story
Prem (Salman Khan) takes up the strange profession of self styled 'Love Guru' whose job includes giving tips to men who wants to get hold of the girls of their choice. Bhaskar (Govinda) is a fat employee working as a financial consultant for a multi-billion dollar company. He is in deep love with Priya (Katrina Kaif) company owner’s daughter. Bhaskar approaches Prem for helping him to make Priya fall for him. Naina (Lara Dutta) is a dynamic photo journalist. The rest of the story is all about how Prem convinces Priya for Bhaskar and how he again manages to marry single-mother Naina.

Actors performances
Salman Khan is in his elements as he made sure that there is good comic timing to his work which is extremely essential for the situational humor to work. Govinda manages his portion well with spontaneous reactions though he looks pretty obese. There is good chemistry between Salman Khan and Govinda. Katrina Kaif is alright. Lara Dutta is ok. Rajpal Yadav is nice as 'Chota Don' (kind of spoof on SRK's Don).

Story: The story is heavily inspired by Will Smith's Hollywood flick Hitch. The director lifted story, characterizations and scenes from Hitch. But he added a couple of threads (making heroine as single mother and marriage scene for Katrina). But what David Dhavan missed from Hitch is the strong characterization for heroine and the ego clash between the lead pair. He made the heroines' characters dummy by increasing exposure to heroes and added more comedy quotient. He leaves out the intelligence aspect in hero's characterization.

Screenplay - direction: Screenplay of the film is adequate. The direction is of typical David Dhawan style. You have to leave your thinking caps outside the theater while watching this film. The way he opened the film with animation story of the main lead is pretty creative. The concept of title cards is also good. He generates a good time-pass humor. But he could not establish and resolve the conflict part of the film is a good way.

Other departments: Dialogues by Sanjay Chhel deserve an applause.. Music by Sajid & Wajid is good. Color grading is nice. Editing is adequate. Production values are of good standard.

Analysis: First half of the film is good. Second half is alright. The director could not handle the resolving of misunderstandings in second half in a convincing way. But he makes up for it by creating hilarious scenes in extended climax of the honeymoon. On a while, Partner is a decent comedy flick and a poor copy of 'Hitch' and I repeat, only if you leave your thinking caps outside.

Katrina does not have much to do except smile.

Lara Dutta, who plays a reporter, clicks more pictures than writing stories. One wonders if she is a reporter or a photographer. Her chemistry with Salman is great, however, and it's time she gets her due like her contemporary, Priyanka Chopra.

A still from PartnerAmong the film's low points is Rajpal Yadav's character, Chotta Don. It is an imitation of Shah Rukh Khan's Don. Later in the film, Yadav's character just disappears.

Also, the film's end is very abrupt.

But despite the shortcomings, you will not feel disappointed because you will have had a good laugh through most of the film. A must watch.


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