Partner Blu-ray

Partner

 (2007)

Partner Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
The only male child in the family that sired six daughters, Prem has empathy towards the fair sex and decides to assist males to woo women so much so that he becomes popular as the 'Love Guru'. Amongst the men he assists are Bhaskar Chaudhry and Neil Bakshi. Klutz-like Bhaskar has fallen head over heels with his boss, a model and heiress, Priya Jaisingh. A disbelieving Prem refuses to assist him, but subsequently relents. Bhaskar uses his own charm to woo Priya successfully, and is introduced to her dad, Raj. Prem himself falls in love with a widowed single mother, Naina Shahani, a Journalist. Both men are satisfied with her respective lives not knowing that a scandalous secret will surface in the media - changing their lives forever.

For more about Partner and the Partner Blu-ray release, see the Partner Blu-ray Review

Partner Blu-ray Review

There's a 'Hitch' in 'Partner''s getalong.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, December 24, 2009

At first blush Will Smith and Bollywood might seem like strange bedfellows. And yet if you really think about it, maybe it's not so odd after all. Smith after all began his long career in music and proved in several music videos he has dance moves. And he regularly brings the sort of self deprecating goofiness which is part and parcel of a lot of Bollywood extravaganzas. So why, then, would Sony Pictures threaten to sue the makers of Partner, one of the most successful recent Bollywood comedies? Maybe because director David Dhawan forgot to hire Will Smith to reprise his role in Hitch, a film which obviously inspired Partner, evidently even according to Dhawan, who perhaps unwisely admitted as much in an interview. Cue the Hollywood litigation machine, which is apparently now "reviewing the situation." Partner is both wonderfully enjoyable and also impossibly bloated, so your personal mileage may vary in terms of how much time you're willing to spend with characters whose actions don't always make a whale of a lot of sense, and who are likely to break into complex song and dance routines at any moment.

If you've seen Hitch, you already know the basic premise of Partner. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan portrays Prem, a self-made "Love Guru," who dispenses invaluable advice on how to attract the opposite sex to the nerdier element of Indian society. His newest client is the hopeless Bhaskar (Govinda), a slightly pudgy, accident prone oaf who's asthmatic and tentative, and yet has the chutzpah to want to hook up with one of India's biggest heiresses, the gorgeous Priya (Katrina Kaif). Even Prem doesn't think he can help poor Bhaskar, until Bhaskar literally hounds the Love Guru into agreeing to at least try. Along the way Prem himself starts to fall for an ice princess journalist named Naina (Laura Dutta), who is investigating a gangster (who also happens to be a dwarf) named Chhota Don (Rajpal Yadav), a career path which repeatedly puts her in dangerous situations from which Prem always seems to be on hand to save her. Convoluted enough for you yet? It only gets more labyrinthine as the film weaves and wends its way through almost two and a half hours, believe me.

Govinda is stylin' on his scooter.

The positive aspects of Partner include its incredibly colorful production design, which is full of so many eye popping sequences it brings to mind such CGI-fests as Speed Racer. This is a riot of color and beautiful location work which provides a virtual nonstop feast for the eyes. Aside from the five or so "big" production numbers, which feature the typical massed dancing moves of most Bollywood features, even the putative "straight" plot segments contain some unbelievably stunning locations, including an oceanside mansion I wouldn't mind spending some time at. Also making the film bright and breezy, at least most of the time, are the extremely appealing performances by the lead quartet. Khan is an athletic and charismatic star, at the top of his game in both the performance and dancing categories. If Govinda is alternately endearing and annoying, that's the gist of his character and he can't really be faulted if by the 90 minute mark annoyance has permanently gotten the upper hand. What really can one say about two women as unbelievably beautiful and graceful as Kaif and Dutta, other than that they fill the film with enough eye candy to temporarily distract the viewer from the gorgeous sets and costumes, which is no small feat.

On the minus side, Partner is simply too long and ultimately too convoluted for its own good. Any fan of Bollywood romances knows going in that we're ultimately heading for happily ever after, and we really should be able to achieve that in well under two hours. With only one handful of big production numbers to break up the film, there's simply too much dithering here, leading to a certain amount of entropy that the film's goodwill can't ultimately overcome. When it looks like we're at the denouement close to two hours in, a whole new set of obstacles suddenly rears their ugly heads and we're in for another frankly interminable half hour or so of convoluted efforts to resolve the plot strands. When added to Bhaskar's almost scream inducing idiocy in this final coda, it really deflates what had been a mostly superb soufflé. (I won't even bother with the frankly ridiculous and largely listless subplots of the "little person" don and the unruly son of Naina).

Whether or not you personally come down on the "yea" or "nay" side of Partner, it can't be denied that the film is sterling example (at least for the most part) of a certain inescapable joie de vivre which seems to be an inherent quality of a lot of Bollywood films. There's a joy and spirit to these films which recalls the best musicals of the Hollywood Dream Factory, especially those golden examples from the vaunted Freed unit. It really didn't matter then, and obviously still doesn't now, if the plots didn't make perfect sense. Audiences in the 30's, 40's and 50's were elevated by sheer star power and technical craft into a world of wonderment and escapism, and that's exactly what the best of Bollywood provides to current day filmgoers. What tends to weigh down efforts like Partner is too much of a good thing. It's almost as if director Dhawan was having too much fun and simply couldn't let go of the film. If Partner had been trimmed by 45 minutes or so, it would have retained all of its charm and lost most, if not all, of its dead weight. It still managed to be an absolute blockbuster in its home country, but I think it's probably fated to be an occasional rental around the rest of the world. That said, it's hugely bright and colorful, with all around appealing performances, so there are certainly worse ways to spend an evening. In fact, some people may actually prefer this version to Hitch.

Partner Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

Partner arrives from Eros Entertainment on a really crisp, colorful looking AVC encoded Blu-ray, with a sparkling 1080p transfer. Anyone who's a fan of Bollywood knows there's never a lack of bright, colorful moments in films like these, but I was really blown away by the awesomely saturated colors of Partner. You might expect this explosion of hues in the production numbers, but the entire film is filled to the brim with unbelievably deep reds, blues, purples, and greens. There are a couple of issues with blooming, notably the red shirts of the backup singers in the "Maria, Maria" number. Also there's some very brief shimmer in the brightly beaded costumes some of the leads wear in the wedding sequence. But these artifacts are few and far between. As you will see in the screencaptures, this is really an amazingly colorful film, and the Blu-ray offers a scintillating picture which aside from the few passing artifacts is near reference quality.

Partner Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

Two Hindi soundtracks are offered, a DTS-HD MA 5.1 and a compressed Dolby Digital 5.1. I've mentioned this before in other reviews, but anyone who wonders what the fuss is all about regarding lossless audio should simply toggle between these two mixes to hear for themselves. While the Dolby Digital 5.1 in and of itself is perfectly fine, with decent fidelity and good directionality, switching to the DTS-HD MA 5.1 is like peeling a level of compression away from the soundtrack, revealing whole new layers of frequencies, especially on the extreme low and high ends. For a musical, you're probably going to be a little surprised at how robust the low end on the DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix is, courtesy of such ethnic percussion instruments as the tabla. The "thunk thunk" of bass is omnipresent on all the production numbers. Surround channels are utilized very effectively in the musical sequences, but also spring to life in several other moments, notably a couple of sequences taking place in a lot of traffic and confusion, where the listener is transported to a busy cityscape soundfield. Dialogue is always crisp and clear and smartly directional. This is a very, very appealing soundtrack which should delight most audiophiles.

Partner Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

Aside from Eros trailers, the only other supplement is a 28 minute SD interview with Govinda and Khan. Unfortunately it's in Hindi with no subtitle options, so I can't comment on what they're talking about.

Partner Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

Too long and too convoluted for its own ultimate good, Partner is still a riot of color, song and dance, featuring a very appealing quartet of lead performances. Sony shouldn't sue, they should hire Dhawan to trade in an H for a B and make a Hollywood musical.

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