Featuring Ranbir Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee. Written by Prakash Kapadia, Based On White Nights By Fyodor Dostoevsky. Directed By Sanjay Leela Bhansali. (G) 143 min.
It’s no secret that India consistently produces more movies that any other country, yet they are rarely screened outside of the local cinemas. Sony Pictures is attempting to rectify this situation by releasing the lush, romantic musical Saawariya in 85 theatres worldwide. Certainly the Bollywood industry deserves more attention but sadly, Saawariya is not a film that will win over the masses.
Saawariya highlights both the strengths and weakness of the Bollywood musical. On a technical level the filmmaking is tremendously accomplished. The visuals equal and often surpass the beauty of a glossy Hollywood blockbuster. However, the central love story is weak, relying on clichés and melodramatics that would have been laughed off of Hollywood screens decades ago.
Ranbir Kapoor stars as Raj, an irritatingly content young man in search of true love. He meets a woman one night and is convinced that she is his soul mate, only to learn that she spent that night and every other anxiously awaiting the return of her former lover. The script was based on Dostoevsky’s White Nights in an attempt to give the screenplay more substance than the standard Bollywood venture. The filmmakers may have stayed true to the tragic finale of the original story, but there are too many stretches of unbelievable dialogue and poorly conceived characters for the movie to work.
There are many Indian directors who have produced powerful and important films (one need only look at Bandit Queen or the work of Satyajit Ray to see that), but Bollywood musicals just don’t seem play for international audiences. Saawariya boasts some accomplished filmmaking and impressive dance sequences, but the dramatic arc and characters feel tired and dated. There’s no question that the exposure Saawariya has received is long overdue for a Bollywood production, it’s just a shame that it didn’t happen to a more worthy title.