Sughandh Films LLP and Kenilworth Films’ Ek Kori Prem Katha (UA) is about the tradition of a married girl proving her virginity on the first night.
Sabhyata (Khanak Budhiraja) and Laddu Singh (Akshay Oberoi) live in the same village and they fall in love with one another. Laddu Singh is the son of the village Pradhan, Thakur Ram Dev Singh (Raj Babbar), and Kanak Devi (Poonam Dhillon). Sabhyata and Laddu Singh get married. On the first night, when Kanak Devi gives Sabhyata a white bedsheet to see if there are blood marks on it the following morning, Sabhyata is shocked because she is unaware of the tradition. She fights with husband Laddu Singh. The couple does not consummate the marriage for the few days they are together. After a few days, Sabhyata leaves her marital home and returns to her parental home. What happens thereafter? Do Sabhyata and Laddu Singh come together again? Does the age-old tradition come in the way of their married life?
Saba Mumtaz has written a story which would not appeal to today’s generation as it doesn’t care much about loss of virginity before marriage. The screenplay, written by Saba Mumtaz and Chinmay P. Purohit, would be found to be too regressive by the audience in today’s age and time. The drama, therefore, fails to involve the viewers. Rather, the audience would feel disconnected from the proceedings. Dialogues, penned by Chinmay P. Purohit, Reetlal Pandit, Nishant Bharadwaj and Gayatri Manish, are so-so.
Khanak Budhiraja does a fine job as Sabhyata. Akshay Oberoi is good as Laddu Singh. Raj Babbar is natural in the role of Thakur Ram Dev Singh. Poonam Dhillon has her moments as Kanak Devi. Darshan Jariwala makes an average mark as Sabhyata’s father, Naan Babu Singh. Ketki Dave, as Sabhyata’s mother, Laxmi Singh, is so-so. Mukesh Bhatt is fair as Jhinku Singh (Chacha). Rakhi Jaiswal (as chachi Tara), Jagriti Vaswani (as Laddu Singh’s sister, Rajni), Janmejay Singh (as Pratap), Aparna Tripathi (as Pratap’s wife), Khushi Jain (as Amoli), Manisha Purohit (as Seema Singh, sister of Thakur Ram Dev Singh), Khushboo Atre (as Pariksha), Sunny Pancholi (as Keshav), Simran Arora (as newly-wedded Satya), Bharat Shroff (as Keshav’s father), Sanjay Dadhich (as Sarju), Alok Pandey (as Puttan), Arvind Kumar (as Ghapoli), Dhruv Jha (as Lallan), Supriya Mishra (as Latika), Ajay Parekh (as Sohanlal), Gagan Gupta (as Ramlal conductor), Raj Sharma (as Bhanu Prasad), R.C. Pathak (as Ganga Prasad), and the rest are passable.
Chinmay P. Purohit’s direction is ordinary. Vicky Prasad’s music is functional. Lyrics (Sanjay Dhoop Mishra) are so-so. Saahil Goradia and Sumeet Goradia’s choreography is nothing to shout about. Vinay Kapadia’s background music is average. Pratap Rout’s camerawork is okay. Udai Prakash Singh’s production designing is ordinary. Aseem Sinha’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Ek Kori Prem Katha is a disastrous fare as it holds little relevance for the youth of today.
Released on 5-4-’24 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Filmastra Studios. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.