Saiyaara
ends
up
a
bland
rehash
of
old
ideas
served
in
an
older
bottle,
notes
Arjun
Menon.
Director
Mohit
Suri,
known
for
his
pulpy
love
epics
(Aashiqui
2,
Ek
Villain),
is
back
with
yet
another
romance
that
focuses
on
the
frailties
of
a
doomed
relationship
between
rugged,
out-of-sorts
men
and
struggling,
undecided
women.
This
formula
has
worked
well
for
Suri
in
the
past,
with
films
that
have
examined
love
stories
with
a
level
of
passion
and
intensity
often
missing
in
mainstream
Hindi
cinema.
But
he
retreads
his
past
ideas
for
Saiyaara
and
has
run
out
of
any
new
direction
in
his
artistic
instincts,
capturing
self-possessed
love
stories.
His
films
often
deal
with
thinly-drawn
caricatures
with
emotional
trouble
falling
into
desperate
love
affairs
that
put
them
through
the
wringer
and
test
their
passions
to
the
fullest.
His
films
are
more
music
video
adjacent
and
flowery
as
opposed
to
real,
breathing
vessels
for
melancholic
love
adventures.
The
stylised
glossy
aesthetics,
song
placements
and
dreary
mood
sometimes
can
be
found
in
Saiyaara,
but
with
diminishing
returns.
The
hot-headed,
‘lost
cause’
hero,
falling
madly
in
love
with
an
angelic
leading
lady,
is
the
gist
of
Mohit
Suri’s
artistic
touches,
and
Saiyaara
reconfigures
the
formulae.
Krish
(Ahaan
Pandey)
is
a
loose
cannon
who
can
go
berserk
at
the
mildest
provocation,
and
the
dreamy,
hustler
Vaani
(Aneet
Paada)
clearly
won’t
put
up
with
his
boyish
tantrums.
The
film
is
an
endless
barrage
of
hollow,
plainly
conceived
conversational
scenes
between
the
two
leads,
and
you
sense
the
lack
of
experience
with
the
performers
clearly
showing
in
their
intimate
scenes
on
screen.
There
is
no
sense
of
clear
trajectory
in
their
changing
dynamics,
but
merely
a
paint-by-numbers
checklist
for
a
‘Mohit
Suri
Self-Destructive
Romance’
pointers
that
is
supposed
to
stand
in
for
any
conflict.
Life
goals
and
flashbacks
to
past
flames
emerge,
and
the
conflict
between
the
leads
soars
high
with
no
emotional
resonance.
Krish
suffers
a
heartbreak,
becomes
a
rock
star
in
the
course
of
a
dreamy
montage,
and
reels
under
self-imposed
melancholy
breakdowns,
and
you
see
the
film
crumbling
under
the
weight
of
its
lack
of
interiority.
The
attempts
at
registering
the
fiery
intensity
and
smoldering
passion
between
the
two
fall
flat
as
they
merely
recontextualize
cinematic
cliches
and
story
beats
with
no
innovation.
You
see
shades
of
Mohit
Suri’s
work
in
films
like
Malang
and
the
exhausting
one-note
nature
of
the
meandering
screenplay
is
not
helped
by
the
washed-out,
digital
look
of
the
film.
No
colours
pop
out,
and
emotionally-charged
romantic
encounters
are
shot
with
the
wry
novelty
of
a
toothpaste
commercial
on
steroids.
The
unrequited
gazes,
symmetrical
blocking
of
heads
pining
for
one
another
like
stacks
of
deck
arranged
in
frame
over
each
other,
looking
smitten
at
each
other’s
eyeballs
define
Saiyaara.
There
are
some
moments
when
the
music
does
the
heavy
lifting,
as
with
many
of
Suri’s
films.
The
flashy
hollowness
of
the
non-existent
emotional
stakes
is
underlined
by
the
songs
by
a
team
of
composers
like
Faheem
Abdullah,
Tanishk
Bagchi,
Arslan
Nizami,
Sachet-Parampara,
Mithoon
and
Vishal
Mishra,
bringing
some
urgency
to
the
bleeding
heart
of
Saiyaara‘s
vacant
romance.
The
rockstar
who
rises
to
fame
with
the
lyrics
jotted
down
by
his
lover
in
her
diary
is
an
idea
that
can
only
be
stretched
so
far.
This
film
could
have
easily
been
called
Aashiqui
3,
going
by
its
similar
artistic
ambitions
and
story
structures.
Despite
the
mundane,
rough-around-the-edges
nature
of
their
performances,
the
two
leads
salvage
this
tropey
love
story
with
dedicated
conviction.
The
grit,
flavour,
and
timber
of
their
commitment
to
hold
interest
even
in
the
dullest
of
exchanges.
Ahaan
Pandey
and
Aneet
Padda
are
made
to
work
hard
at
selling
the
pathos
of
a
convenient
romance.
Films
like
Rockstar
and
Aashiqui
worked
for
many
reasons,
but
the
most
important
being
the
film-makers
and
storytellers
going
the
extra
mile
to
tell
a
story
that
they
deemed
honest
and
real.
Saiyaara
never
derives
from
that
truthful
soul
and
ends
up
being
a
bland
rehash
of
old
ideas
served
in
an
older
bottle.
Saiyaara
Review
Rediff
Rating:
