A month ago, most of us did not know about “Saiyaara” or the people who starred in it. Fast forward to now, and the film has slowly creeped up on everyone’s collective timelines, whilst raising a storm at the box office. Not only has it turned eyeballs, but its surge has made it bigger than it was ever supposed to be. So, although the mystery of this phenomenon remains largely unknown, it’s not difficult to understand why the Indian audience would flock to an old-school romance, loosely fitted to imperfection for the new generation.
I mean, after being served with jingoistic, testosterone-fueled bullshit for years, the recent resurgence of going back to basics has sparked some newfound hope in the movie-going audience. Only a few weeks ago, we were dipped in nostalgia with Anurag Basu’s “Metro…In Dino,” and now Mohit Suri has offered another call-back to the decent times of Bollywood musicals.
I don’t know what a Suri film would mean to a younger audience, but since most of us have grown up on them, you can gaze through them like the fleetingness of every repetition he offers. All of them are either inspired by some South Korean film or have such a strong resemblance to a pre-existing piece of filmmaking that it’s often impossible to make them apart.
Most of them feature a strong undercurrent of tragedy that befalls two characters in love, and the central conceit is placed in square with love ballads that sing to their audience about ache, longing, and the eternal nature of love. For years, this formula worked – both for mainstream Bollywood romances and the slightly rebellious movies that fell under the Bhatt banner. Mohit Suri has honed this narrative of rehashing tragic love stories by grounding them with desi plot points and melodrama so well that doing this now may feel like a cakewalk. With “Saiyaara,” he does much of the same. He casts two fresh faces, borrows the main plot thread from the Korean drama “A Moment To Remember,” and ignites fire to it with a tired but hefty drama about the poetic union of memory and the beats that help us recognize it.
The story follows Vaani Batra (Aneet Padda), a young writer who is left at the altar by her boyfriend on the day of their marriage. The heartbreak became so soul-crushing for her that she secluded herself from the outside world for over 6 months, trying her best to forget that she loved someone dearly, only to have them randomly drop her out of their lives. Every heartbreak is severe, but Vanni’s heartbreak has rendered her present feel like fleeting moments that she forgets, and her pen has stopped supporting the poetry that flows out of her.
However, that gradually changes as she encounters Krish Kapoor (Ahan Panday) – a super rowdy young singer whom she encounters during her first job interview. In true alpha-male fashion, Krish K is introduced to us like the toxic male hero that you can recognize with the flair of his driving skills and no-bullshit attitude. He growls at the world, lights up cigarettes mid-ride, and sings with all his heart even when no one is there to support him. He is the typical bad boy of Bollywood, but since he is also in an old-school romance situation, the plot somehow redeems him.
But yes, like all great love stories, “Saiyaara” hinges heavily on the conflict that arrives mid-way into the romance that blossoms between Vanni and Krish. The film will make or break it for you depending on how you take that conflict, which can feel deeply insensitive, for it is also used as a plot twist of sorts. Like most eternal romances, the bond between the two literal star-crossed lovers is based on their shared love for the music that they create together. While he is the rhythm, she is the beats and words, and when words start fading, the rhythm can’t find its beats.
“Saiyaara” works as a romance between two young people. The younger reel-watching audience that is the target here would lap it up, much like how “Aashiqui 2” did in 2013. The two young actors have great on-screen chemistry, making the pair feel fresh and their connection sincere. Although the film is showcased as a star vehicle for Ahaan Panday, it is Aneet Panday who won me over with her innocent rendition of Vaani. Even with the hyphenated melodrama that is thrown her way by the writers, the young actor manages to make Vaani feel real. Ahaan, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily know that growling or over-acting doesn’t equal good acting. Although Krish also manages to win you over with his transformation from a toxic, angry-at-the-world singer to a lover who would drop everything for the love that helped him.
The music is also full of bangers that may help shape how you feel about the movie. The title track, “Barbad” and “Humsfar,” may not be as memorable as the tracks from “Awarapan,” “Ek Villian,” and “Murder 2,” but they help as a form of dissonance from the film’s otherwise triet writing. The dialogues are phenomenal, but the same can’t be said about the screenplay, which offers over-the-top character moments that often deflate the already running-low-on-fumes drama. The circle-jerk of ambition, poetry, love, and their intermingling nature is offered to the audience in messy, repetitive beats that often make the same point from multiple points of views.
The film’s third act plummets with the weight of how these two people may have to fight with the unfathomable and unplanned barriers that come their way, in order to find the strength that will heal them together. However, it gets overtly sentimental and cloying, and the more you think about the film, the more it feels like it could have done wonders with a rewrite. Visually, the film does very less to stand on its own, only adding to the flaws.
That said, it is always good to see a full-blown romance that is age-appropriate, with a star-cast that cares about what they have been given to work with. Eventually, “Saiyaara” is a somewhat sincere love ballad peppered with familiar Mohit Suri-isms that doesn’t take its viewers for granted.
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