Saiyaara - A Film Review

Unpacking the amazing writing of the film and more

I know I am late to the Saiyaara bandwagon, that said I am wholeheartedly cheering for it.

This movie stirred up a lot of emotions, not because of some great music and performances but also because of how well written it was. The love that the movie got was unprecedented. Let’s try and unpack what worked for it.

The Emotions

Indians traditionally are emotional folks. Traditionally advertising has been targeting this emotional aspect of the audience. Lately there was a dry spell of movies which really talks to the audiences emotionally. Saiyaara has found the need gap and delivered on it. From the very first sequence it picked a tone and committed to it. You won’t see the film breaking its rhythm even once.

The very first sequence hits you. It sets the tone and gets you invested. Vaani Batra is waiting for her fiance at the registrar office with her family, when he calls her and tells her that he found someone else hence he is calling off the marriage. This leaves Vaani heart broken. Aneet Pada is such a perfect casting here. She is sweet and played the part of a simple and naive girl so well. You could feel that it was not a frivolous love for her but something far, far deeper.

The Music

The music of the film is its definite USP. A great original album — again something which the audience was missing for quite some time. The storyline itself voices the concerns the connoisseur of music has today. Krissh Kapoor is a struggling musician who stumbles across Vaani and asks her to write lyrics for a song he is composing. When he takes her to a recording room and pressurises her to write Vaani calls out, I paraphrase, how music is associated with an emotion that you are feeling. It’s your feeling that flows in words on an empty paper, which then stays with the listener as an emotion for a long time. This one thing differentiates between songs which are popular for a short while versus a song , which passes the test of time, which you keep going back to time and again.

There was a time when the songs of the film were actually part of the story of the film and lyrics were used to express feelings which remained unsaid otherwise. After a long time I have seen a movie leveraging lyrics as a part of the plot well and the songs are actually melodious. The best example of such a song would be Channa Mereya. Otherwise for most such songs either they add weird lyrics or comically fail with the music. Unlike recent films, the music of the film was a hand in glove fit with the story.

The Character Arc

Krissh Kapoor

Agreed that Ahaan Pandey can act well, has a star presence and played the role really well. I don’t know if he is like in real life, but he picked the note really well for Krissh and stayed honest to it throughout the film. Which is a commendable feel for a new commer. Also, Kudos of the director for keeping the beats consistent. That said, for me the real hero was the well written character evolution of Krissh with a strong back story to support it.

When we meet Krissh for the first time, he is a very passionate singer whose main aim is to get famous & earn a lot of money.

If you go about the logic of psychology, one of the reasons why people pursue fame is because they were invisible during childhood. Many people who chase fame grew up feeling unseen, unheard, or unimportant. Fame finally becomes a way to shout to the world, “Look at me. I also matter.” Krissh’s childhood is a direct definition of this syndrome. He loses his mother early. His father could bear the pain of her death and ends up becoming an alcoholic. Since he had no one to look after him instead he used to take care of his father.

Later when he finds love, he is able to heal himself. At one point Krissh himself says — I always wanted to earn the love of the people, but that girl has given me so much love that I don’t need anything else anymore.

Now that he is healed, he helps in healing Vaani time and again. Now if you look at it from the psychological point of view, because he had experienced being unseen early on, he had developed a deep sense of empathy and awareness of other’s emotions, Vaani in this case. Now instead of “Look at me” his approach has become “ I see you, therefore I see myself “. That is the reason why he could never stop looking for Vaani in the end.

Personally I have a soft spot for “an arrogant bad boy who is good at heart” trope. So maybe I am just biased.

Vaani Batra

Similarly, the character of Vaani is way too naive and trusting in the beginning. She could never read the signs about her fiance that’s why his confession came as a shock to her. It happens to most of us with sheltered upbringing, because we have never experienced rejections and failure in life, the first big one challenges the very foundation of our identity. Ideally this is the place from where a person grows. Crisis is a disguised opportunity. Even in the case of Vaani, she reaches an understanding where first she is able to confess to Krrish about her past and how he is helping to get over it. She has acknowledged it, hence she is able to speak about it without violent pain. She evolves into a much confident person. Even later in the film she speaks about how she had made the mistake of making her fiance’s dreams her own and lost her identity in him. She even requested Krissh to not make the same mistake and rather chase his own dreams. What led to Vaani’s doom was her inability to find closure and acceptance. At times we do develop understanding for our grief but we keep spiraling back into old patterns. In Vaani’s case, whenever she meets her fiance, it triggers a relapse in her. It was happening because her sense of identity which was with her fiance earlier was replaced with that of Krrish but she still needed to find herself. Her condition makes it worse. Ideally it’s all about having a healthy self talk. In the end she reaches a point when, even after her condition, she realises that she is enough. Her identity comes from herself and not from anyone else hence now it’s easier for her to finally accept Krrish. Now she doesn’t see herself as a liability but as a partner in a relationship which is going to demand a lot from both of them. Then that’s how healthy relationships are they demand both the partners to put in a lot of effort every day.

The Mother

There is another character that really left an impression on me. It was that of Vaani’s mother. Her character is used extremely effectively all throughout the film. Geeta Agarwal Sharma gives an impactful performance.

Parents have no clue how they affect their kids. In one scene she tells her not to shred all the tears by herself and leave some for her fiance who has wronged her. It’s a beautiful gesture which gives Vaani the strength to move forward in life. In another scene when she sees her hanging out with Krrish — all hell breaks loose. She is scolding her, reminding her how last time she made a mistake. She is concerned about what people might say. This behaviour of parents we have normalised over the years where we don’t sit with our kids and ask them about their life and choices, rather they project their assumptions on them and harshly punish them for it. At first as parents we keep them overtly sheltered and then later when the kids are not able to handle the pressure of the world we chid them for it. There is a very thin line to thread. Not to put all the blame on parents, but every parent screws up their child in one way or the other doesn’t matter how hard they try. The idea is to just do your best as a parent and let the child come of terms with the person they are rather than mould then into something we believe is right.

When she confronts Krrish she says “ Time pass nahi hai meri beti “ — my daughter is not the one you would just frivolously pass time with and move on. She is the protective mother who could have done anything for her child.

My Favourite Scene

Then comes my absolute favourite scene of the movie where Vaani’s mother finally accepts Krrish. In the scene, Krrish is taking Vaani to a place to rehabilitate her as it will help with her condition. Traditionally when kids are going out to do something important their mothers usually see them off with Dahi-Cheeni ( Yogurt and Sugar) for protection and good luck. When Vaani’s mother, as a gesture of acceptance, offers Dahi-Cheeni to Krrish. His mother died when he was really young so nobody had ever done this for him. He has absolutely no clue how to accept it. In a fun sequence finally Vaani’s mother teaches him how but the sequence makes me tear up even while writing about it.

This is a prime example of the depth of the writing. I think this is just the right moment to do a hat tip to Sankalp Sadanah, the writer, and Mohit Suri, the director of the film.

What makes the plot stronger is that twist is not based on whim and fantasy of humans which is usually the case. Albeit it is almost a tryst against fate. Vaani is going through a condition which doesn’t have a cure to it. The characters don’t have any escape they would have to live through it.

In the end when Krrish finds Vaani in a viral video, he runs towards her image on a big screen. Ahaan Panday can act man, when he comes closer and confirms its her, he doesn’t cry just gave her look, see i found you. Lived the arrogant yet kind heart boy to the core.

Parting Thoughts

Because “aur kuch pal abhi hai mere pass”  — I still have some time left with me — a running sequence in the film.

I was also thinking about why don’t we fall so madly and deeply in love in real life. May be we do. In films the characters end up being unidimensional, they just have one or two main conflicts they are solving for. In life we are multi dimensional beings who have surrounded ourselves with so many distractions. Love becomes a prime problem for us for a certain duration of our lives after which it stops being about grand gestures but just about small things in our daily routine.

This long post is a testament to the numerous moments of inspiration triggered by the film otherwise it gets really difficult to write a few coherent lines for the review of a movie these days.