Saawariya Movie Review 

Saawariya is not your typical dancing around trees romance but a mood piece exploring nostalgia, melodrama, loss, loneliness and love in various forms - first love, obsessive love, physical love, and heartbreak.

To put it briefly, the film’s beautiful form obliterates the inherent love and pathos in the story. And ‘Saawariya’ ends up as a unique study in the art of cinematography, but an average film that falls short of providing what it promised.

The anonymous town of ‘Saawariya’ is like a dream world where houses and buildings stand beside wide canals with gondolas rowing by. Ranbir Raj ( Ranbir Kapoor ) , an amateur singer, cycles in straight into a red light area and sings a song that brings some cheer to the prostitutes. That is his character. A smiling handsome lad with hair falling over his forehead, he brings smiles on the faces of those he meets. Among them is prostitute Gulab ( Rani Mukherjee ) who begins to like, even love, him in the course of the story.

The central character is Ranbir Raj, a throwback to Raj Kapoor’s persona from the 50s’ - the loveable tramp, a bit of a goofball, who usually gets his heart broken.. There are many references to this , from the bowler hat to the umbrella . Ranbir does do a very good job portraying the complex emotional arc of his character from the “thunderbolt” of love at first sight to unrequited love. Sonam bears more than a passing resemblance to Waheeda Rehman in this film, especially the Waheeda from Chaudvin ka Chand and her character seems to be a direct inspiration for Sakina in this film, as she obsessively waits for her lover to return. .Sonam has a complex many layered role, and she comes through in a more than adequate manner, considering that this is her first movie. Salman is an appropriate object of desire in his brief appearance and Rani steals the show with her clever one liners.       

   

The music is melodious and woven easily into the film. It is truly a concept album, reflecting the various shades of love, from the dizzying heights of first love (Masha Allah, Jab se Tere naina), to playful romance (Thode badmash) ,to intense romance (Yoon shabnami, Jaan-e Jaan) to heartbreak( Daras bina) .The many years spent on perfecting this soundtrack show and how! The fantastic and poignant song “Pari” which is beautifully picturized on the ladies of the night stands out in particular. However, some of the choreography of “ yoon shabnami”was rather disturbing.

          

Of course, the movie is visually spectacular with many “Bhansali” moments. The lighting and cinematography is entirely suited to the theme , mood and atmosphere of the movie. At times the pacing is decidedly slow but just at the right moment, the movie picks up. A special mention should be made of the lyrical quality of the parting scene between the two protagonists. Ranbir and Sonam handled this scene beautifully, both with words said and unsaid . The ending could easily have become a maudlin affair, but it was genuinely affecting leaving a bittersweet aftertaste.

Despite the flaws of ‘Saawariya’, Sanjay Leela Bhansali ought to be praised for his technical finesse and his sense of visual representation. The look of the movie will be a subject of discussions and debate for students of cinematography and art direction. And it is for this overwhelming visual appeal that I chose to give the film more than two stars. Otherwise, ‘Saawariya’ is a film with emotional moments few and far between.

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