Love and punishment – Dostoevsky’s Saawariya

I have never really enjoyed Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films. He is a rather egoistic director, who blows his canvas way out of proportion. He has the right intent every time he makes a movie, his heart is in the right place, but his brain is all screwed. Be is Khamoshi, where he beautifully segments the story of a girl who sings when her parents are deaf, be it the story of a love between the person who teaches a girl how to love and her husband who teaches her how to hold love in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, or the story of a deaf, dumb and blind girl who makes it in this world on her own in Black, each of these movies he has messed up with his over the top direction. I always felt that SLB would make a very good writer, and a very good maker of fantasy tales – not that he can make a Pan’s Labyrinth because he does not have that vision, but he weaves tales around love and hope and that too appeals quite a lot in this dark world.

So I watched Saawariya, because I had nothing better to do and it’s alright just to give him a look. It wouldn’t hurt me. And even this time, the story was right on the block hole, credit to that should first go to Fyodor Dostoevsky and since this is a semi-fantastical setup, he managed to hold my attention in bits and pieces. Yes, he does drag as always, but if you can keep skipping forward, you can make something out of it. At least you can see it once.

But the point in this movie that really appealed to me was the storyline. Dostoevsky’s White Nights is credited right at the beginning and this is a wonderful story. It is a little larger than life and the problem with these tales are that they are too filled with the milk of human kindness – we do not see such characters around us. But I like it. We don’t see these characters may be, but it feels good to know that there could be people like this. Like Federico Fellini had once said, “Only the idealist is the true visionary of the world,” similarly it is such idealism that gives us a faint hope of a better tomorrow. Not that it will happen, because there are too many selfish loafers in this world, currency has gained the first place as a class divider and corruption manager, and because people just care for themselves – they couldn’t give a damn to spread a smile (unless they get full credit for it and make it to Page 3, or any small 2x2 column somewhere).

And when the boy and girl fall in love for a couple of minutes, only to find that her lover has finally arrived, she asks him whether she can go... and he sends her off, with a smile. It was beautiful. His love and his punishment – he spent all his life making others happy, today he was left to do that once again. It’s a painful story no doubt, but those three minutes make up for it. You can be one with the guy – and you can feel his pain, his joy and his suffering. Really, a Pandora’s box.

What SLB does well though, is he gets Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor to fill in the characters and they bring a wide array of freshness into the whole film. RK takes off from where his father left off, including his father’s “Kya tumne kisi se pyar kiya?” line. He has the looks and the talent and he’ll make it well on his own. Sonam Kapoor though on the other hand has one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. Her character’s innocence and childishness have come to the fore because of her. Though Deepike Padukone’s hot air tricks may have edged her out in award ceremonies, Sonam Kapoor will go a long way in films. She has the makings to be a legendary actress – her down to earth looks, he laugh, her smile, her emotions are all in the right place.

SLB seems to have repaid Salman Khan from taking away Aishwarya Rai in Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and he does not have much to do in the film anyway. Maybe that’s why he has done well. Rani Mukherjee, as the film’s narrator has done rather well, though she isn’t on the scene all the time. She left her mark each time she came on. But the real darling of the whole film was Zohra Sehgal. She was simply amazing and she brought the real essence on screen. Be it her clipped English, or her amazing tantrums, she is the Kohinoor in the queen’s crown.

It’s an alright movie. But this is Dostoevsky’s movie. SLB is just a facilitator. So see it only if you can skip through a lot of the movie and see it only for the writer and the actors. Some songs are good, the rest you can skip. I’d give it 2.5 stars, the remaining 2.5 being murdered by SLB alone.