Saiyaara Movie Review

Director Mohit Suri is a master at making romantic drama films with great music. After the not-so-successful last two films(i.e. Malang & Ek Villain Returns), he teamed up with Yashraj Films for yet another romantic drama, Saiyaara. Debutants, Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda were roped in to play the lead characters in the film. After grabbing the attention of audiences with chartbuster songs, the film was released in theatres in theatres today. Did the director, Mohit Suri, deliver a hit yet again with a love story? Did Yashraj films deliver yet another memorable romantic drama film? How did the two debutants perform? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Krish Kapoor(Ahaan Panday), is an upcoming singer & musician with anger issues. He aims to make it big in the music industry and wants to become a superstar. Months after her dramatic breakup with her boyfriend, Vaani Batra(Aneet Padda), an aspiring writer meets Krish and falls in love with him. Just when everything is going well between the couple, Vaani gets to know that she’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. How did Alzheimer’s disease impact Krish and Vaani’s relationship? Did Krish become a superstar? Did Vaani become a writer? Did their love story get a happy ending? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Ahaan Panday, the cousin of Ananya Panday, in his debut film, delivered a very commendable performance. His performance was a bit shaky in the initial portions of the film but after the initial few minutes, he looked confident and delivered a Avery good performance. Especially in the second half, his performance deserves a special mention. With the right selection of scripts, he has a good chance of becoming a bankable hero in the coming days.

Aneet Padda as Vaani Batra delivered a decent performance for a debutant. But, a bit more effort from her in acting would have made the film memorable for a long time. She looked good and her chemistry with Ahaan Panday, was very good as well but her performance would have been better. Geeta Agarwal in the role of Vaani’s mother is first-rate. She delivered a very heartwarming performance in at least three sequences. All other actors performed well but none of their characters were developed well. It is not the actor’s fault but the director’s and writer’s fault.

Technicalities:

A total of seven music directors(i.e. Mithoon, Sachet–Parampara, Tanishk Bagchi, Rishabh Kant, Vishal Mishra, Faheem Abdullah, Arslan Nisami), composed the songs of the film and all the songs are very good. Special mention to all the singers who crooned the songs soulfully. John Stewart Eduri’s background score is a huge asset to the film. His score complemented the mood and emotions so well throughout the film.

Vikas Sivaraman’s cinematography is first-rate. He captured the intense emotions so beautifully with his camera through out the film. Editing by Rohit Makwana & Devendra Murdeshwar would have been a bit better, especially in the second half. Dialogues written by Rohan Shankar are very good. His dialogues perfectly complemented the script and intense passion & pain between the lead characters. Lets discuss more about the director, Mohit Suri’s work in the analysis section.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Songs
2.⁠ ⁠Intense Drama
3.⁠ ⁠Ahaan Panday’s Performance
4.⁠ ⁠Dialogues
5.⁠ ⁠Cinematography

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Slow Pace
2.⁠ ⁠Underdeveloped Supporting Roles
3.⁠ ⁠Predictability

Analysis:

Until a decade ago, most of the songs in an Indian language film used to have a duration of at least five minutes. But, in the last few years, filmmakers and music directors across the industries in India are coming up with songs which hardly have a duration of two to three minutes. The reason most of these makers were giving is – ‘In an era of Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, the audience does not have the patience to sit through a five or six-minute-long song in a movie. Were they right? The answer is a ‘No’. Audience will never run out of patience to sit through a five to six-minute song if the song has a soul, is composed well and is picturised well with beautiful visuals. Saiyaara has five songs(i.e. excluding the two female version reprised songs). Four out of the five songs have a duration of about five minutes and the remaining one song is almost five minutes long. Each of the five songs has a soul and a purpose. They were beautifully composed and were conceived very well. In an era, where most of the audience starts looking at their phones during the songs in a film, the songs in, Saiyaara, make the audience fall in love with the songs instantly and let them wait for the next song in the film as soon as the current song is finished. Kudos to the music directors for coming up with such soulful songs and to the director and cinematographer for coming up with beautiful visuals for each of the five songs. It is not an exaggeration to say the ticket price is totally worth it just for the songs in the film.

‘What if they(audience) hate me, Vaani? Kuch farak nahi padta… because I love you’, ‘To hell with the future. I want to live this moment and live this moment with you’, ‘It’s ok if you forget our beautiful memories together. If you forget ten memories of us together, we will make a hundred beautiful new memories’ – There were many more heartwarming dialogues throughout the film apart from the aforementioned few dialogues. Inarguably, the second-best thing that happened to the film after the songs, was the dialogues written by Rohan Shankar. The dialogues written by him were intense and apt for a romantic drama. Especially, the dialogues written for the sequence where Vaani says an artist can’t create magic by sitting in a state of an art studio and the payoff sequence to it in the climax, deserve a special mention.

On the flip side, the entire film revolves around the lead actors. Although there are multiple other characters in the film, apart from the lead actress’s mother character, none of the other characters make any impact on the audience. Especially, the ending given to the lead actor’s father character should have been much better and more impactful. Intense romantic dramas usually have a very slow pace. Saiyaara also suffer from a similar issue. The proceedings in the second half move at a lethargic pace. Also, the screenplay of the film is a bit predictable and at times feels too convenient.

The director Mohit Suri proved his mettle yet again with a musical romantic drama. He is one of the very few directors we have currently who can conceive love, passion and pain, so well on screen and he delivered a bonafide blockbuster yet again with a love story. Overall, Saiyaara is an intense romantic drama with great music, beautiful cinematography, and intense drama along with two debutants in the lead roles. It is certainly worth a watch in theatres and it has a very good chance to become a blockbuster at the ticket window. As mentioned earlier, the ticket price is worth it just for the songs. And, everything else in the film is a bonus.

Bottomline: Soulful & Intense

Rating – 3/5