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Toilet: Ek Prem Katha Early Review: Socially Relevant but Preachy

Take a look at the movie review of Akshay Kumar starrer, ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’.

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Movie Reviews
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Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar starrer Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is all set for release on Friday (today). The socially relevant film tackles the important subject of building (and using) toilets in the country. The film, which has already released in the Middle East, is getting mixed reviews.

While the premise of the film has been lauded, a review in Gulf News described the Akshay Kumar starrer as a “satire which takes a nick at the unholy, but prevalent practice of open defecation in India, comes across as a star-driven propaganda vehicle”.

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According to both reviews, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha which is 175 minutes long, could’ve been shorter in the second half.

The first half of the film is crisp and tightly packed but the same can’t be said about the other half. After interval, the film tends to get a bit preachy but that is expected if you have a much-debatable topic like open defecation to be addressed. It might feel a bit predictable but it is not something you can’t sit through. Neeraj Pandey, after his last film, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story doesn’t disappoint with this one.
Excerpt from Khaleej Times
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According to the review in Gulf News, the ‘prem katha’ doesn’t disappoint either.

Since it begins as a love story, a lot depends on their chemistry and they don’t disappoint. They are charming as a couple and their romantic escapades are endearing. It may be a bit disconcerting to see 49-year-old Kumar play a bachelor who is 36 and being smitten by a twenty-something woman, but since the actor is age-defying he seems to pull off the role. Even the bits where he follows her relentlessly is a questionable way of courtship, but Kumar manages to make it less creepy with his charismatic on-screen presence.
Excerpt from Gulf News

A review in NDTV describes Toilet: Ek Prem Katha as a “ten-minute public service film” turned into a “two-and-a-half-hour, patience-testing, yawn-inducing Bollywood puff-job for a government scheme”.

The film’s flimsy approach and flaccid structure do not help matters one bit. By the time it lumbers its way to an entirely predictable and unconvincing climax, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is crying out to be flushed down the very drain it has popped up from.
Excerpt from NDTV 

A short review of the first half published by Republic TV described the “patriotic” film as “a winner”.

The first half is entertaining and powerful at the same time. Relatable to the rural masses. Appears to be a ‘paisa vasool’. Realistic settings and punchy dialogues. This patriotic film is possibly a winner!
Excerpt from Republic TV

The review in Hindustan Times described Toilet: Ek Prem Katha as a film “furthering one of the ruling government’s most widely publicised social change campaigns”.

The patriotism in Toilet Ek Prem Katha is primarily in furthering one of the ruling government’s most widely publicised social change campaigns, even if the rural hero exposes some of the scheme’s pitfalls. Anupam Kher, a BJP sympathiser, plays a character akin to the real life hero of India’s sanitation crusade, Bindeshwar Pathak. It is the love story of a man played by Akshay Kumar who has to save his marriage by ensuring there are toilets in his village. The goofy protagonist turns activist-vigilante. There’s no better time to release a film about sanitation miseries than now; the producers can leverage the Swachh Bharat brand equity for all its pre-release marketing requirements.
Excerpt from Hindustan Times

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