Reviews of Saawariya and Om Shanti Om

A teenage girl beside me was shouting at the top of her voice for the first ten minutes of Saawariya. And then she went into an interminable lull. That pretty much sums up Saawariya. After the initial euphoria over the newcomers subsides and the movie unfolds at its own languorous pace you very well understand that this is Bhansali’s grand turkey. Dostoevsky is a difficult writer to interpret on screen and that is the reason why we don’t see many of his works.

Apart from Kurosawa’s Idiot and Visconti’s White Nights I don’t recall any other movie, which was entirely faithful to the writer’s imagination on paper. Even Columbia Pictures, the producers of Saawariya, made a poor adaptation of Dostoevsky’s monster hit “Crime and Punishment”. Saawariya is also that- a poor adaptation. The short story “White Nights” is a personal story but Bhansali being Bhansali bases the film amidst an idyllic city, which thanks to the opulent sets of Omung Kumar and eye-catching photography of Ravi.K.Chandran stands as the sole redeeming point of the movie.

The narrator of the film is Rani Mukherjee, who is very much visible unlike the story. Her campy nature lends the movie the much-wanted believability. Because the entire movie poses more questions than answering about the soppy wait of Sakeena (played by Sonam Kapoor, who will soon enter the thesaurus as synonym for cardboard). Ranbir Kapoor as Raj, insinuating towards his grandfather, is affable and his boyish charm was worth all the whistles in the theatre. He carries himself well and this must be the best debut on Indian screen after Vivek Oberoi. Music of Monty Sharma will be talked for long time.

How I wish Salman Khan had a more well etched role and pray why dint Rani act so effortlessly in Laaga Chunari Main Daag? There are some cutesy moments in the film when the Raj and Sakeena walk together with an umbrella holding them together. Or that scene where Raj equates problems with a boxing match. Alas! These scenes could not lift a movie, which is inherently hollow.

Do not get deluded expecting sparks to fly between the youngsters, it’s at most a fifth-grade chemistry. If you don’t want to spend 200 bucks on this film just take a DVD of Ahista Ahista. Both have striking resemblance story-wise. The denouement is very much sad as it happens in most of the Bhansali movies but still it does not make you empathise with Raj’s misfortune.

P.S: Why did Bhansali have to pay homage to Raj Kapoor with that huge RK symbol? Even though he did he could not pull off a Bobby.


There is a school of thought in Indian filmmaking, which says that leave your brains before entering the theatre and we will entertain you thoroughly. This school’s dean is Manmohan Desai and its star alumni includes names like David Dhawan and Priyadarshan, who with their slapstick humour created their own putative reputation. However, these gentlemen have to make way and allow Farah Khan to share the dais with them.

Her Main Hoon Na was a tribute to the era gone by and the first half of her latest offering Om Shanti Om (OSO) is a homage to those “golden” days of 70’s. This is a better movie than that now an almost cult hit of Shah Rukh, Chak De India. This movie is not pretentious like Chak De and it is very much proud to be so. The way Farah recreated the entire late 70’s era is worth applause. Those digs at Keshto Mukherjee, Manoj Kumar, filmi Maa, the entire Murugan episode, imaginative choreography in 70’s “ishtyle” are such a treat to watch.

The very fact that the photography in those days is called Manmohan Desai angle as said by Arjun Rampal is all in the right spirit. The first half reminded me of the effusive milieu in “Boogie Nights” where Mark Wahlberg calls his pecker as “bright, shining star” and here Shreyas Talpade calls Shah Rukh as “superstar”. The second half falters at many levels and a sloppy adaptation of Subhash Ghai’s Karz did leave me a bit disappointed. However, Dard-e-Disco and Deewangi are sheer crowd pullers and maintain the tempo of the film.

The piece de resistance is the one-minute appearance of Akshay Kumar. Vijaykanth, Rajnikanth and Sharat Kumar should promptly make a bow. In a nutshell, the hubris of Bhansali has to bow before the sensibilities of Farah Khan.

Recommendations:

Bin-Jip: Kim Ki Duk is one of those rare “new wave” directors who always experiments and never disappoints. Minimal dialogues in this particular movie only elevated the mood of the film.

That obscure object of desire: Luis Bunuel always befuddles the viewer but his loyal fans will always understand the underlying emotions. Discrete charm of bourgeoisie is another such Bunuel film.