Saawariya (2007)

साँवरिया

No one can say that Sanjay Leela Bhansali lacks vision - meticulous, elaborate, rich vision.  If he were apply that vision to a story with some depth and potential, the result could be astonishing, but Saawariya ("beloved") is not that film.  It's not as awful as his Devdas - but it's hard for me to find more than that faint praise for this film that manages to be dull despite all the sparkle.

Young loner Ranbir Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) appears one night in the red light district of some nameless fantasy town.  Late at night at the grand RK Bar he meets a melancholy prostitute Gulabji (Rani Mukherjee) and she is instantly taken with him.  Looking for a place to stay, he works his charm on Lillian (Zohra Sehgal), the elderly matron of a local flophouse.  He also wins over all of Gulabji's downtrodden colleagues.  The one person he has some trouble getting through to, though, is a young girl he meets in the street late on night, the dreamy Sakina, whom he falls for thoroughly.  Sakina is by turns amused and annoyed by Raj; her heart belongs to a mysterious stranger, Imaan (Salman Khan), whom she met and fell in love with a year before - now she anxiously awaits his promised return. 

The chain of longing and desire is taut - Gulabji is tenderly protective of Raj, Raj is manically in love with Sakina, Sakina waits breathlessly for Imaan.  And for all the fantasy of the settings, Raj and Sakina embody a fairly faithful portrayal of teenage obsession.  Raj spins an elaborate fantasy of the progress of his courtship of Sakina, and when it doesn't measure up to his expectations, he seems to think his world is coming to an abrupt end.  Saawariya captures the mood swings and manic intensity of adolescent longing.  The trouble for Saawariya is that these elements just aren't all that interesting.  The characters are distilled archetypes - Sakina the distracted romantic, Raj the happy go-lucky charmer harboring a lonely heart (his origins, and the reason for his wanderings, is left a complete mystery), Imaan the darkly sexual mystery man.  But since the characters are totems, rather than people, their loves and losses are unengaging.  The fantasy city of Bhansali's setting - an all-indoor construction that is part Moulin Rouge, part Devdas, part Singin' in the Rain, and part Dickens - is pretty, but doesn't make up for the dull stretches of the narrative.

Much of the hype surrounding Saawariya was the introduction of its two young stars, especially Ranbir Kapoor, the newest scion of the venerable filmi dynasty.  Bhansali has loaded his film with references to Ranbir's grandfather, the legendary showman Raj Kapoor: the sign adorning the RK Bar evokes the logo of Raj Kapoor's production house, and Ranbir's vagabond clothes evoke the man himself. While these homages are charming, they are also unnecessary and distracting.  Ranbir may have the talent to carry his family's mantle but constantly reminding the audience where he comes from doesn't make him any more appealing on screen.  At any rate, his performance in Saawariya needs toning down; in his character's most manic moments he resembles a crazed ferret on speed, substituting Snoopy dancing for real emotion.  There is a fine line between charming and annoying, and if the audience has to ask itself "is that charming, or annoying?" then chances are it is not charming.   Meanwhile, Saawariya's other debutante, Sonam Kapoor (a distant cousin to the Prithviraj-Raj line of Kapoors) is given precious little to do other than look pretty and run dramatically through the fairy-tale sets. 

Saawariya is the most engaging when Rani Mukherjee is on screen; her portrayal of Gulabji captures a melancholy resignation and a bittersweet air that makes her the least caricatured of all the characters in the film.  If Saawariya has one foot in reality, it is Gulabji's foot,  and the character says as much as the film opens.  A film about her mature suffering, instead of Raj and Sakina's growing pains, could have been a thing of beauty. 

One thing that Bhansali did beautifully even in the execrable Devdas was the songs, and there are some gems here as well, especially Gulabji's very cheeky turn in "Chhabeela," in which she praises Raj's sexy youthfulness, and the gorgeous "Yoon shabnami," a qawwali in which Raj compares his love to the new moon rising to signal the end of the Ramadan fast and the start of the Eid celebration.  There was one song that struck me as an utter failure, though others have liked it:  "Padi," in which Raj cheers all the neighborhood prostitutes with the promise that some day angels will come from the sky and save them from their degraded state.  I find this appalling, an absurdly patronizing sentiment.  It is a major wrong note struck very early in the film, and a missed opportunity to expand on the story of the compelling Gulabji  - the film would have done better to focus on Raj shining some light into her life, instead of making him a cheesy magician winning depressed hearts by spewing pablum all over them.

Comments

[maxqnz]

Once again, I am in your debt, Carla. I have been reading many reviews of this film, some from people who didn't like Black or Devdas but did like this one. Your review has sealed the deal for me. With around 20 interesting old films sitting around home to watch I'm not going to waste time on another SLB OTTfest. I will look out for Yoon Shabnami to feed my addiction to filmi qawwali, but thanks to your judgement, I shall spare myself the rest of this film. One query: Isn't Sonam the daughter of Anil Kapoor and Sridevi? I would have thought that was a greater "claim to fame" than the distant connexion to the RK clan. Anywy, I shall look out for both the new Kapoor's in their future works, and hope they escape the clutches of SLB.

[maxqnz]

Sorry! I guess I've seen too many Anil/Sridevi movies, and forgot that she's married to his brother, not to him.

[carla]

The daughter of Anil and Sridevi - that would have been a good story! But you are right that Sonam Kapoor is Anil Kapoor's daughter; I had that in there, but it got lost in some editing accident. Thanks.

[maxqnz]

You're welcome. I guess it's a sign of my agitation at the mere thought of an SLB film that I slipped in a supererogatory apostrophe when pluralising the Kapoor name, so the editing accidents were not yours not alone.

[Rum]

I love all your reviews, but you were too harsh with this film, i think it accurately represents all that is in dostoesky's white nights? sorry carla, but i am die hard fan of this website!

[yves]

Hello Carla,

Thanks for the review - I'm pleased to hear that even in a bad movie, Rani still shines, this comforts me in my opinion of her! But I won't see the film.
About "execrable Devdas": didn't you appreciate some of Madhuri Dixit's role? I quite agree with you there wasn't mush more to shout about.
cheers

[Aung Phyoe]

Despite of bad reviews, I love this movie. Rani is the best in "Saawariya" . SLB try of show the meaning "Beloved" in very beautiful way and I think just few realized this.

[Sanni]

I sort of want to see this movie, since it's one of those that everybody is talking about. Also, I feel like I haven't given SLB a fair chance. I saw songs from Devdas but had no interest to see the actual film, same with HDCCS. So thus far I've only seen the one big SLB film you haven't seen - Black - which I found, well, I can't quite put it into words. Simply put, I wasn't fond of it. I believe Aamir put my problems with the film better than I could. :P

So now I'm just trying to decide whether this would be worthwhile. Your thoughts on Rani's performance make me awfully curious if nothing else..

[carla]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Rum, I'm sorry you thought I was harsh - it's okay to disagree though! :) Here I admit my woeful ignorance of the source material - I haven't read "White Nights" and I've no idea how evocative or not SLB was to the content of the original.

At any rate, it doesn't change the unfortunate fact that I was bored and rolling my eyes through much of the film. It may have been deep and poetic, but it was also boring and unengaging. To me, of course.

Yves: We should probably talk about this on the Devdas page, but, no, Madhuri doesn't come close to saving the film for me. A wonderful actress in a mediocre role in a terrible film - describes most of Madhuri's career, sadly.

Aung: I can't agree about the concept of "beloved" - I saw lots of teenage angst, infatuation, and obsession, but not a lot of love going on in the film. To his credit, Raj shows signs of growing up it at the end of the film.

Sanni: It's not a total waste of time; I wouldn't give either a negative recommendation or a positive one, I think. It's a film I'll soon forget once this discussion of it fades.

[Meera]

Hi Carla

Happy New Year 2008.

You have very rightly summarised this movie as "boring and unengaging" - my sentiments exactly.

The melodious songs are wasted in the movie. I liked jabse tere naina tere naino se laga re esp on an audio CD.

Meera

[Meera]

Hi Carla

Happy New Year 2008.

You have very rightly summarised this movie as "boring and unengaging" - my sentiments exactly.

The melodious songs are wasted in the movie. I liked jabse tere naina tere naino se laga re esp on an audio CD.

Meera

[Nida]

Hi Carla!

Happy New Year from Nidanisa @ Jaman!

I love how detailed your reviews are, and this one was no exception. I also thought Rani was excellent in the film, along with most of the music and Ranbir(hyperactive as his is). You are right on target by saying that since so much effort was given to turn out a beautiful product, one would expect a much stronger story.

Your review also made me realize that the Gulab/Ranbir/Sakina triangle was eerily similar to the Chandramuki/Devdas/Paro story. How many times are we going to see a prostitute pine away for the hero without him giving her any love in return? I'm just surprised SLB would revisit this theme once again.

Anyways, thanks for the review!