Prem Ratan Dhan Payo — a delightful take on The Prisoner of Zenda

While recovering from an assassination attempt four days before his coronation, a stern prince is replaced by a romantic lookalike.

I love The Prisoner of Zenda, a classic adventure novel where a king has disappeared so a foreign "look alike" is called upon to impersonate him. Naturally, the impersonator can't help but interject some of his own personality in chance encounters, such as with the king's fiancee, and soon sees where the king's deficiencies lie.

This movie is a fun, frothy fairy tale loosely based on that story, tweaked to become Indian and, thus, much more family oriented. Salman Khan plays the double role of prince and loyal imposter. He's intelligent, good natured, and sweet. He already revered the king's fiancee and this is his big chance to meet her face to face. But what effect will that have on the princess?

I first saw this in 2019 when we were fairly early in our Bollywood watching. This rewatch was just as charming and beautiful as the first time. The gorgeous shots and the spectacular location raise this to a visual treat. However, now I realize I didn't appreciate it enough the first time. A real treasure and one that I'll be rewatching.

Hannah and Rose discuss this movie on An American's Guide to Bollywood.

Raanjhanaa [Beloved One]

A small-town boy needs to break through the class divide to gain acceptance from his childhood sweetheart who is in love with big city ideals.

Between the poster and the description we were expecting a light romance. I mean, look at how much fun they're having during the Holi celebration!

So we were really surprised when this began taking some dark turns, but it was good and I really liked Dhanush's performance. Both the main characters are really stupid about each other when it comes to romance which was rather realistic when you think about their different backgrounds. However, as the film goes on it takes a turn into something different which is more interesting than a standard love story. We see Dhanush's character, Kundun, suddenly think outside his own desires after he makes a big mistake. Simultaneously we see Zoya's twin desires for vengeance and paying tribute to a loved one result in a fascinating journey. The movie becomes an interesting look at selfishness versus true love in what will we do for our beloved ones.

My favorite scene was when he's picked up by the student political group as a thief. They are trying to figure out why he was stealing with discussion on a high intellectual level while not realizing he is hungry, thirsty, out of work, etc.

Anyway, good with several surprising twists which gave it depth.

Rating — for viewers with medium Indian film experience. (It's not rocket science, but without any cultural background at all you might feel kind of lost.)