Saathiya is a remake of Tamil movie Alai Payuthe. Before its release its Director Shaad Ali (who was earlier assistant to Mani Ratnam) had given interview that he has presented Saathiya in an entiirely different way and those who have already seen the original Tamil movie can realise the difference. However after watching Saathiya I could realise that the difference between Alai Payuthe and Saathiya is nothing but the language in which dialogues are spoken. Each and every scene is nothing but a photocopy of Alai Payuthe.
Saathiya opens with Aaditya searching each and every compartment of the Mumbai Local Train for Suhani. He remembers how he first met Suhani. Saathiya is about Aaditya (Vivek Oberoi) and Suhani (Rani Mukherjee) who is a medical student. Aaditya falls for Suhani in their first meet itself. He keeps on chasing Suhani and conveying his love for her and finally Suhani too falls for aaditya. However Financial status and ego of their parents becomes an enemy of their love and they are forced to get married without the consent of their parents.
Saathiya is not about how Aaditya and Suhani love and get united but it is about what happens after they get united. Saathiya is about the petty quarrels in life of couples. Saathiya is nothing but a magnifying glass which magnifies the petty quarels and shows it to the viewers as a big fight which leads to separation of Aaditya and Suhaani. Once because of such quarrel Suhani tells Aaditya that because of his behaviour she may have to go away from him. The day she tells it to Aaditya she never returns home from work. Aaditya gets tensed and starts hunting for Suhani all over. He searches for her at each and every compartment of Mumbai Local trains, bus stands, etc. During the course of his search he realises how much he loves Suhani and how much he misses her. He remembers each and every incident right from their first meet.
Saathiya is about too many flash backs and current day scenes.
Where has Suhani gone? Is she alive and safe? Does Aaditya get her back? Has Suhani also missed Aaditya as much as he has missed her? All these questions are answered in Saathiya.
Vivek Oberoi in the role of Aaditya has done a very good job, there is nothing great about the performance of Rani. Tanuja as Rani’s mother and Sharad Saxena as Rani’s father has done a good job. It is great to see Swarup Sampat back in big screen as Aaditya’s mom and she has done her role in a good way.
Music of A R Rahman was superb and a mega hit in the original Tamil version, hence the same tune has been copied as it is. Unfortunately lyrics could not match up with the music hence music and lyrics seems to be wasted.
Surprise Christmas Gift for viewers are Shahrukh Khan and Tabu for a 15 minutes scene each. Shahrukh has done justice to his short role. However Tabu does not have a great role other than weeping.
In short Saathiya may be a hit amongst college students but amongst the matured audiences it may not be a crowd puller.