Saawariya Blues
How did such a sub-standard script get past the director? Especially when along with a Prakash Kapadia, SLB himself gets mentioned in the end credits for the screenplay? writes Deep Pal
Saawariya Blues
Not that SLB will not find a movie to direct on his own after this, there are directors far worse than him who are still trusted with scripts. The problem lies elsewhere. Let’s face it. SLB is NOT a director. If you had any doubt in your mind after Black, you wouldn’t, after his current offering, Blue, a film that has been released under the title Saawariya. He is too in love with shapes, colours, hues, angles, light and the rest to direct his movie. Reports say Saawariya has been left behind Om Shanti Om (OSO) in initial response. That is not because OSO is a better film, but because Saawariya is not a movie, a feature-film. What is it then? It is a vision, a fantasy, a poem put to pictures. Which would be okay, for as someone said, poetry is best understood when half understood…but the problem with this poem is that it is too full of incongruencies.
Incongruity that has been SLB’s undoing in this ‘movie’. If you were trying to show a perfect world, a fantastic world, why would the prostitutes you show be so old and haggard? Or a Sakina (Sonam Kapoor), who seems almost ethereal in her mannerisms, her costume, her language, take leave with an ‘ Ok, byeee’ like a 1st year college student would? Or Gulabji (Rani Mukherjee), the perfect prostitute, express her admiration with a ‘I likes it’? A Javed Jafri in Salaam Namaste can say I likes it, not Gulabji! And how much longer must we put up with the idea of a prostitute being the narrator and the conscience-keeper? Is all the wisdom their prerogative? In fact how did such a sub-standard script get past the director? Especially when along with a Prakash Kapadia, SLB himself gets mentioned in the end credits for the screenplay? Or was it a result of over-involvement? Along with direction, he’s responsible for editing, music and as mentioned before, the screenplay of the film. Though the credits don’t say so, as one would suspect he had a fair bit of say in the art direction too.
The only actors who manage it past the incongruencies are Zohra Sehgal and Begum Para. As for Ranbir and Sonam, this is not the movie to judge them, for there is no character sketched out for them. Like in a fantasy, things happen. People fall in love; no whys, no wherefores. Which is what makes it so difficult to feel for them, whether good or bad. Ranbir, though, seems to have been brought up on a steady diet of Kapoor movies. And by Kapoor I do not mean Anil Kapoor or Pankaj Kapur. He walks, talks, talks, sings, dances, nods like someone or the other in his family. But then, may be SLB wanted snippets of all the Kapoor actors down the ages in this film of his.
Though it is indeed difficult to make out what Bhansali wants. In fact that is what must have made his job as the editor of this film difficult. There is nothing that cannot be taken out of the film. Nothing here makes a crucial difference. The song featuring Rani for example – ‘Chel chhabeela, rang rangila’ what was the purpose of that song? Is it to make the movie more appealing to a wider audience? And I suppose the frames in the song that feature the area between hemline and neckline also serve the purpose? How can the same person who gives lyrical, lilting frames of a Sakina half-lying in boat as it floats past Raj also allow these frames to stay? Or have we just witnessed the two ends of the spectrum within which SLB works?
Net, net, what do we have? 130 minutes of art for art’s sake. The film ends up hollow, soulless. It seems like something made out of the arrogance of being able to visualise the grandest sets in Indian movies. It’s as if the director says, I will not develop characters, I will not take things to their logical next step, I will not tie-up loose ends, all conventional cinema wisdom be damned.
One final way out. If no one agrees to keep Bhansali in their rolls, can we ship him off to Broadway? May be he will find his calling in the world where Andrew Lloyd Webber’s brand of creativity is taken for face value. But we need to be quick with it, for if newspapers are anything to go by, he has plans of remaking Khamoshi. After last Friday, I’m not sure that is going to be a happy experience.
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(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)
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Hi Deep, i really agree to the idea that SLB should be hired as the Art Director by other directors. while he is committing a crime by making you sit through this very slow theatrical version of White Nights, he forgot the fact that there should be something called a sensible narrative in film-making. i think he should take a break, before he starts working on another Inspired film or a remake.
I do really hope that what you said about Khamoshi being remade, Deep, is not true - it’s one of those rare Hindi films for which my heart bleeds afresh every time; I won’t be able to stand the mutilation.
Anyway, never planned to watch “Saawariya” since Black itself was nothing but opulence, and now Bhansali thinks designing sets is films. He has lost all sense of storytelling, which is the prerogative of a writer or a director. Who would take Shahrukh Khan as a Devdas - if a director can’t visualize this much, nothing much right is happening with him.
I saw the film today…it lulled me to sleep….it is good in portions but the logics of the storytelling are missing…
i watched the film firstdayfirstshow and was left both mesmerised and haunted.
i admire ranbir kapoor’s antic-filled performance and appreciate the way his character has been written. like any SLB movie, the aesthetics bowled me over.
the music is palatable.
i will say only this much : )
just wondering…how would people compare self indulgent film making of bhansali in saawariya and that of anurag’s in no smoking?
Yes, seems indulgence is in the air….even OSO is highly indulgent…only that SRK is always “like that”,
Quite an interesting idea for a post.
I would agree Bikas…SRK is highly indulgent in his film/s…even in OSO…but honestly, I enjoyed the film, although I am not sure if enjoyment by the viewer absolves the creator of the stain of indulgence…in fact I think, every intelligent film is, at some level, indulgent…I think what matters is its presentation and appeal to the viewer…I’d have paid money to watch OSO in theatres had I not even got an invite to the theatre…similarly, I’d have paid for No Smoking but not for saawariya