'Prem Keetanu' First Reviews Are In: Critics Find the Heart, Argue Over the Remake

The college romance has graduated to the review pages. Prem Keetanu, which arrived in theatres on October 2 as the official Hindi remake of the Malayalam blockbuster Premalu, is drawing its first wave of critical reactions — and the verdict, like the film's own love triangle, is complicated.

Directed by Apoorv Singh Karki, the film stars Veer Pahariya as Vishal, a carefree college backbencher whose easy life of hostel antics and friendship is upended when he falls for Suhani, played by debutante Aafiya Sayed. Aparshakti Khurana co-stars as Ranjeet, the well-settled rival who turns Vishal's infatuation into a full-blown competition, with Rakesh Bedi and Nikhil Vijay in support. It is a familiar setup — friendship, first love, heartbreak and the messy business of growing up — transplanted from the original's Hyderabad to the Delhi–Lucknow belt.

What the critics are praising

The warmest notices have gone to the film's sincerity. Multiple reviewers describe it as an emotionally attentive, honest coming-of-age story rather than a glossy star vehicle, with particular praise for its music and for Pahariya's visible growth as a performer — funny when required, and increasingly comfortable shedding his polished image to play a small-town boy in a hostel. Sayed's debut has been called confident and natural, and the father-son conversations — including a blunt, funny and poignant heart-to-heart about what Vishal actually wants from life — are being singled out as the film's emotional high points.

What the critics are questioning

The pushback, almost unanimously, is about the remake question. One prominent review argues the film tries so hard not to be a scene-by-scene copy of Premalu that it loses the original's charm along the way, calling the writing bland in places and the humour forced. Others note that the film leans too heavily on songs — dream sequences and musical transitions arriving so frequently that they start to interrupt rather than elevate — and that some screenplay choices, like giving every heartbreak its own hook step, feel more like music-video instincts than storytelling ones.

There is also the inevitable comparison problem. Premalu became a phenomenon partly because its city felt like a character; several critics feel the Hindi version never quite finds an equivalent flavour in its North Indian setting, and that the jump cuts between broadly written scenes make the seams of the adaptation visible.

A decent watch, with an asterisk

The consensus landing somewhere in the middle: Prem Keetanu is a sweet, breezy, harmlessly entertaining romantic comedy that works on its own terms — likeable leads, genuine warmth, a few lovely moments — but viewers who adored the Malayalam original may spend the runtime measuring it against a film it was never going to beat. For the young audiences it is actually aimed at, though, that may not matter at all. The film's real test begins now, at the box office, where the Drishyam juggernaut is occupying most of the conversation.