My take on Saaho

Saaho – Loud, Lurid and Lame, for all the dazzles are nothing but shame.

Release - 30th August 2019

Starring - Prabhas, Shraddha Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Niel Nithin Mukesh, Arun Vijay, Chunky 

                Pandey, Mandira Bedi and others 

Written and Directed by Sujeeth

Screenplay  - Sujeeth

Producer - UV Creations

How much more grandeur can you fit in a story? How much more deviated can a movie be from the plot? How much does one buy into the world that is shown? Are some pressing questions where Saaho slipped in its run. Saaho!! India’s answer to the Action-Thriller Genre is the most anticipated and awaited of the year. The country waited for the film’s release for 2 lasting years, but the team wants you to wait for another 3 hrs, testing your patience badly. Was it worth the wait at least after the butt-numbing 3hrs? Answer is...

Saaho, at a skeleton level, is 2 storylines twining onto one another. The first is a hierarchical imbalance at the criminal syndicate, the city of Waaji, the second is the 2000 crore Bank robbery at Mumbai. The movie has these two storylines paralleled in the narration. The movie tries to etch on its main themes like Gangster Drama, Crime, Suspense, Cop thrill with the light-hearted tones like Romance, Comedy, melodrama etc. Sadly, the trials have their chips down.

The storylines in the movie are wafer-thin in their establishment and unapologetically broken. We don’t mind for the characters as they embark through the course of the story as their motto or definitions don’t fitly get placed. Prabhas feels mundane and sluggish with his lazy attitude and dialogue deliverance, which, beware, should e perceived as Swag. Shradha Kapoor and Jackie Shroff have slim scope to perform. Apart from them, its Niel Nithin Mukesh, Arun Vijay and Chunky Pandey who impress. The main theme, Gangster Drama lacks the hooking interest. The dialogues also feel bland. It’s only the high-rises and the candelabra that we care more for. Even its subsidiaries like Romance, comedy etc also create nothing but apathy.

 Every theme gets either deviated or not satisfactory. The central problem is not the story. Had it not being for the extravagant canvas on which it builds up, the movie would’ve ended more pleasing. It was not a wise choice to stuff the movie with cash in every frame as there is no room for subtlety in the flick.

The movie also gets marketed as a screenplay based movie, to amplify the thrill. Next, to the project’s money, this story-telling method of planting and pay-off tricks gets extensively used. The movie is a whirlpool of twists and turns being thrown at our face at every juncture. Firstly, the movie requires to connect due to its rushed and lack of depth plot. Add to this the unwanted soap-opera setting and the abrupt fairytale songs (which fail to impress tunefully) and drenched, heavy background score(by Ghibran, though, at times is riveting). It’s a disconnected saga which comes back to the main story with its twist, which, by the time they come, is no glee. As the twist keep on coming, the audience is merely left to buy into them rather getting engaged as there is no gravitas shift or rib ticking feel as they pass by. If the movie would have removed its songs and outcast scenes, Saaho could’ve got crisper.

Action sequences in the movie have greater prominence than normal. The firing of bullets, the tossing of cars or buildings demolished, the act prolongs at an exhausting pace with loud sounds clamoured into our ears. The creativity of the action directors and choreographers is admirable and impressive with the limits marked and the celluloid crosses all of them with its sheer force of budget sagging the episodes. The surroundings in the action look pale and simulated as the beauty of action gets lost with its VFX. The film’s USP of Action with its naturalistic VFX gets a glitch.

Saving the day is DOP Madhie, Production Supervisor Sabu Cyril, which stops us from running out. The visuals by Madhie are rich, virgin and befitting the story. Madhie captures the movie with aptness and deft-touch properly presenting the songs, action and drama with zing. Sabu Cyril puts the money to good use by erecting outlandish and eye feasting sets like the Waaji city and Interval set. The production design of the movie gets a higher standard with top-notch quality.

Production, Publicity and other technicalities can buy tickets for the movie, but ultimately its the story for which audience step into the theatre, which in this case, is partially satisfying. Again, Had it not being for the extravagant canvas on which it builds up, the movie would’ve ended more pleasing.

UV Creations might have hopefully noted their mistakes and learnt that cutting an onion definitely will bring tears even if cut with a Samurai Sword or a Kitchen Knife. With the former being more painful and further adding to those tears.