Movie review: A familiar tale of love and loss

Movie review: Saiyaara 

Cast: Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda

Director: Mohit Suri

Rating: 6/10

Saiyaara is one of those films that walks in wearing the scent of every other Mohit Suri romance and then tries to convince you it is wearing something new. Spoiler, it is not. But it does wear its emotions well, even if they come with frayed cuffs.

Krish Kapoor (Ahaan Panday) is a moody musician with anger issues and a tragic backstory, because obviously, a functional childhood is not allowed in this genre. It's the kind of film where heartbreak is inevitable and music is medicinal. Love here is best served with a side of tragic backstory.

Vaani Batra (Aneet Padda) is the woman who inspires him and is a poetic soul recovering from her own romantic wreckage. She writes in a diary. He turns her words into chart toppers and that’s when the sparks fly. What works in Saiyaara are the leads.

Panday (cousin of Ananya Panday), in his debut, has enough screen presence to make you forgive his early jitters. Performance wise, he is surprisingly watchable. While his early scenes wobble between earnest and overcooked, he finds his footing in the film’s quieter more introspective moments when he’s not shouting.

Padda lends Vaani both grace and grounded vulnerability. Together, their chemistry feels refreshingly unforced. There are moments between them that are truly tender and not just because the background music is used to make it feel so. It’s in the writing where Saiyaara stumbles like a poet trying too hard to rhyme.

Sankalp Sadanah’s screenplay dabbles in familiar tropes of troubled pasts and teary monologues. The dialogue sounds more suited for a post on social media than in actual conversation. The emotional beats are there, but they often feel like deja vu. The script is riddled with emotional shortcuts and narrative conveniences and Alzheimer’s is used more as a storytelling map than a real illness.

Characters remember or forget exactly when the plot requires it and not a moment sooner. By the third theatrical flashback, it doesn’t hit as hard as it was intended and the second half nosedives into melodrama. Yet, there is sweeping cinematography, a stirring title track and the charm of two promising newcomers.

I look forward to what they bring to the movies in the future.

Suri knows how to shoot heartbreak and he’s had enough practice with his previous outings at the movies with film’s like Aashiqui 2 and Ek Villain and his knack for crafting visual melancholy remains intact. At times, it’s affecting. At others, you wonder if he is stuck in a creative time loop.

There’s a tenderness to the framing and scenes have a music video gloss that sometimes feels indulgent but undeniably pretty. Still, for all its flaws, Saiyaara has soul. You can feel the sincerity behind its imperfections. It may not break new ground, but it doesn’t fake its feelings either. It’s a film that tries to say love is messy, healing is harder and sometimes songs say what words can’t.

Saiyaara is like an old song on a new playlist. You’ve heard it before, but if you're in the mood, you might just hum along. Catch it now showing at a cinema screen near you.

Keshav Dass is a presenter on Lotus FM and hosts The Night Café, Monday to Thursday, 9pm to midnight.

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