‘Satyaprem Ki Katha’ Review: Did the Film Overdeliver or Were Expectations Low?

When you look at the film that is hiding under the actual one in Satyaprem Ki Katha, you’ll realise that the film would’ve been significantly better if it embodied a more Katha Ka Satyaprem approach. Satyaprem (Kartik Aaryan) is a good-for-nothing bachelor who has had seemingly horrible luck with love. But then, Katha (Kiara Advani) enters his peripheral vision and his life. 

Despite the fact that she’s dating someone, he insists that they’re meant to be together because their names fit together in a hashtag.

To its credit, the film rises above what its initial premise looks like but I wonder if I placed my expectations too low. They use the Bollywood formula to talk about themes like sexual assault, consent, and the need to believe survivors. All that is good and almost lulls into a false sense of security but that is soon shattered as the film continues. 

Sattu is growing up in a middle-class family in Ahmedabad. He and his father share the household chores, with him doing majority of the work, and his mother Diwali (Supriya Pathak Shah) and sister Sejal (Shikha Talsania) teach garba and zumba respectively. Something that could have been a commentary about the division of labour is instead used for comic relief and somehow presented as the women of the house inconveniencing Sattu.

With trolls often telling women to “go back to the kitchen,” do they talk about how the situation Sattu is seemingly in is unfortunately normal for women across the world? No. Do they explore the pressure patriarchy puts on men to be breadwinners which contributes significantly to the skewed division of labour? Also, no.

Jeo Baby’s The Great Indian Kitchen and Neeraj Ghaywan’s Juice are such astute works in the theme and I implore you to go watch them. 

Not surprisingly, Diwali and Sejal start doing chores around the house once Sattu gets married, almost like they’re ashamed that their family doesn’t follow the same patriarchal conditioning that most others do. Does this mean that they’ve stopped earning for the family? Not at all. 

After Katha’s relationship with her boyfriend ends, Sattu believes it’s the perfect chance for him to declare his love for her but when he sneaks into his house (don’t ask), he finds that she has attempted suicide. An actually well-written male character would try to provide emergency care and comfort and actually try to help, if asked.

But this is seen as a chance for Sattu to become the hero he needs to be in this film. Naturally, he’s the male saviour that saves the heroine’s life. 

Even as the film proceeds, there are several moments where you’re forced to wonder if Sattu is actually a good person or just an incel in Nice Guy ™ clothing. Despite all of this, Sameer Vidwans and writer Karan Shrikant Sharma get some things right. In a world where marital rape is still a matter of debate (it shouldn’t be), the duo have tried to take a strong stance and that’s commendable, especially considering that Bollywood hasn’t had a great history with portraying consent. 

Even the way the film handles the conflict within Indian families is worthy of mention. What the world sees is often not the reality of what happens inside closed walls. And this is shown pretty well through Katha’s equation with her father and how quickly Sattu’s family turns against her without giving her a chance to explain herself (does she even need to?).

As Satyaprem aka Sattu, Kartik Aaryan does what he does best; find the endearing in a bad-boy image. But haven't we seen this before? I would find it difficult to separate his character here from the one in Shehzada.

Kiara Advani's performance, however, is earnest and effective. Portraying a character trying to deal with her past trauma even as her life continues to present newer challenges isn't easy but the actor captures every emotion almost instinctively.

When it comes to the technical aspects, Satyaprem Ki Katha is a beautiful film; the camerawork by Ayananka Bose is refined and captures the spirit of a Bollywood romance. The music, considering this film was marketed as a musical, fits in most places.

Most of the songs are catchy and some soulful, and the credit goes to the long composer list consisting of the Meet Bros, Tanishk Bagchi, and Payal Dev among others. The remake of Pasoori would've been a good song did it exist in an universe where the original doesn't.

Satyaprem Ki Katha’s biggest issue is that it loses its decent messaging under the loudness of the hero’s journey. In creating a “hero” out of its protagonist, it forgets who the actual survivor is. More than once, Satyaprem claims he will be a side-hero to Katha’s journey but that doesn’t materialise in the film itself.

This leaves you feeling shortchanged.