Review Saiyaara / सैयारा , directed by Mohit Suri

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

I recently fell into a spell of unemployment probably during the worst time to be unemployed, as it was very hard to find a job. I was applying to hundreds of jobs, getting interviews, but no offer was manifesting for me in the near future. So during this time, I had a lot of free time, and spent a good chunk of it chipping away at the blog.

Once upon a time I worked as a film critic professionally at an outlet, and I did that for about three years before departing to work on this blog and another opportunity that unfortunately did not pan out. During that time though I watched a ton of new releases to the point where I was kind of burned out of watching everything new, and I didn’t watch anything I actually wanted to see that was older.

I was in New York City and in need of things to do when I realized I had my newly acquired AMC A List. For our friends outside of the United States: AMC is a local chain where you go to see movies throughout the US, and for about $28 USD a month I can see up to four movies a week. It’s a pretty sweet deal if you go twice a month to the movies, as you got your money’s worth.

My subscription is specifically for areas outside of New York and California, as you have to pay more for those states, but they do allow up to four out of state visits per year. I decided to use up my four visits at the Times Square movie theater, as it shows a lot of foreign movies that I’m interested in.

So during this trip I impulsively booked a ticket for Saiyaara because I had heard about the hype behind this movie. I knew pretty much nothing about it but decided to give it a chance, and that’s how I ended up being the only person who wasn’t Desi in the AMC Empire 25.

And oh man was this movie a wild ride! Let’s get into the review.

A wild singer weighed down by his past falls in love with a poet/journalist with her own personal issues.

We begin this movie with agony in the female lead’s life: Vaani, who is excited to get married to her beloved Mahesh, waits at the court to seal the deal and do the paperwork. However, when Mahesh calls her as her parents show up, it turns out he has decided to marry another woman with business connections. Devastated, Vaani passes out on the spot.

She spends the next few months depressed and unable to write poetry, which used to flow from her so easily. When she gets an interview at an online entertainment magazine, she runs into Krish Kapoor, a musician who found her poetry journal and diary downstairs. Krish then beats up the guy who interviewed her because he didn’t like how he framed an article about his band.

Krish is someone who is pretty unstable in different ways throughout the course of the movie (which means I was not the biggest fan of him, but more on that later). He throws himself into his music to cope with his mother’s death and father’s descent into alcoholism, but when he takes Vaani’s poetry journal as she appears at an event to get an interview of the singer Prince, it catches Prince’s and his manager’s attention when it’s sung out loud.

Krish convinces Vaani to work with him, as she would be able to get an exclusive interview and podcast with Prince if the deal goes through with the song. She still has writer’s block, but when Krish takes her out to a cricket ground to hit balls, Vaani finds inspiration in the world he’s showing her and writes a song.

However, things go awry when Krish’s alcoholic father needs treatment. This comes after he rages at his father and blames him for everything, then Vaani talks to him at the cricket grounds and tells Krish that he inspired her to continue writing. Prince’s manager demands a rap added to the song, then Krish agrees to sign away the intellectual property and copyright in order to pay for his father’s treatment.

They complete the song, then Krish tells Vaani to forget about him. But when they’re both at Prince’s concert, they realize they have feelings for each other and go home together. They start passionately dating, but when her parents spot them together, it leads to Vaani’s mother lecturing her about what happened with Mahesh.

Vaani passes out and they all take her to the hospital. Krish comes with them, and her mother tells Krish that if he wants to be with Vaani, he has to stay with her genuinely and marry her. Krish does ask Vaani to marry him when she wakes up, but she tells him he needs to focus on his music career first. But there’s another big twist: Vaani is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when she goes to the doctor later, and she doesn’t tell anyone.

Her memory is going out, and when Krish leaves for an event and she meets Mahesh at a party, she’s unable to remember what happened between them. Mahesh acts like she’s a crazy employee and security goes after her, but when Krish calls her phone before boarding a plane with his band, the guard picks up. He runs down the tarmac to rescue Vaani, then finds her at the cricket grounds.

He saw her medical paperwork in her backpack, so he knows, and she admits it and tells him she doesn’t want to forget everything. He tells her he will always be there for her, and, with the consent of her parents, takes her to the seaside to build a routine and her memory. Lots of cute scenes happen here, but then Krish asks the band and label to come to the area to have a concert.

As he gets ready to go on stage and Vaani reaffirms how proud she is of him, she spots Mahesh and her memory loss is sparked. She thinks they’re still together and Krish freezes on stage when he doesn’t spot Vaani where she said she would be. Mahesh attempts to take advantage of her, but then Krish beats him up violently in front of everyone and Vaani, still having memory loss, stabs him int he arm.

Krish’s father, who Vaani called to be there, tells him that night not to sacrifice everything for her. The next morning, Krish tells a story to Vaani (who can’t remember the concert) about a friend in the same situation as him (he’s talking about himself), and she writes a song called Saiyaara. As he leaves her alone to quit the band off the island, she disappears completely, sparking an investigation.

Krish rejoins the band with the song “Saiyaara” and performs it all over India and the world in hopes that Vaani sees it. It’s in London, looking at fan videos, that they realize Vaani is in Himachal Pradesh, and Krish leaves the concert behind to go see her. There, the employees at the ashram give him a letter written by her in a lucid moment, and she explains she wanted to leave so he could be free to achieve his dreams.

Whenever she hears the song, she remembers their past and gets emotional. The caretaker leads him to Vaani, who is unable to write, and he offers to show her a world where she can remember. He takes her to play cricket, and she remembers slowly who they once were. The movie then ends with them performing together in England, then their marriage occurs during the end credits.

Overall Thoughts

For me, I thought this movie had such a strong start with them playing the poet and the musician, even though I was not a fan of Krish’s violent tendencies and thought that should have been a major red flag for Vaani. Yes, he doesn’t end up hitting her or anything (and she does stab him in a moment of memory loss), but his rage and anger is not something any woman should subject themselves to.

It was after this narrative arc and when we entered the Alzheimer’s portion of the movie that it began to really lose its focus in terms of story and character development. It got too messy to the point where I was scratching my head and forgetting where we even started with this story. There are a lot of plot holes (like why did Krish get away with leaving so many times and the label and people just took him back??) and random moments (where did the kids playing cricket with them go?) that felt messy as well, and I wasn’t a fan of those moments.

Both the lead actors did a fantastic job though with the material they were given. I was impressed with both of their performances and felt like I would watch movies with both of them again. The soundtrack was also incredible, and the projectionist in this theater cranked it up so it felt like a concert at certain moments.

There are pros and cons to this movie. I definitely think it is flawed, so give it a chance if you’re interested in it. If not, maybe skip this one. Like I’m glad I watched it personally, but I don’t know if I’ll be returning to it.

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