Bollywood is slowly opening up and attempting topics that were considered taboo not too long ago. Sauda also looks at issues that haven’t been tackled in the past…In the film , the husband pushes his wife to sleep with another men and make a money in the process. Piping hot topics, must say.
But how one wishes the execution of the subject would’ve been path-breaking/contemporary as well. Director Jaiprakash takes a modern-day plot, but, unfortunately, tackles it like most ordinary film-makers did so in the 1970s.
Sameer [Aryan Vaid] and Devika [Preeti Jhangiani] are married to each other. Though they are middle class, they are happy in their lives with immense love for each other. Both Sameer and Devika are professionals and while Sameer feels he is not getting what he richly deserves, Devika is an upcoming painter.
Meanwhile Sameer, in his quest to reach the top gets into a messy situation as he is unable to return the loan that he had taken from a gangster Dayabhai [Makrand Deshpande] in order to start a new business.
This is where Vijay Oberoi [Sanjay Kapoor], a flamboyant business tycoon, comes up with a proposal! He offers the money in lieu of Devika spending a night with her.....
Sauda pales in comparison to the director’s earlier works – Market. And that’s primarily because the storytelling is not as compelling as one expected it to be.
What could’ve been a hard-hitting expose on the sadistic attitude of men in a segment of our society, fails to captivate your attention. That’s mainly because the film suffers on two levels:-
One, the scripting leaves a lot to be desired. But the most glaring shortcoming in the script is depicting Preity Jhangiani meek and helpless till the last scene of the film. Despite suffering physically and emotionally at the hands of her husband, she shows no signs of revolting against him or even divorcing him on grounds of physical and psychological abuse.
On the performane front , Preity Jhangiani lends credibility to the role of a battered wife and walks away with the honours. The pathos she conveys through her expressions makes you realise that she’s a performer of substance.
Suman displays her anatomy without inhibitions.Aryan Vaid is wooden .Sanjay Kapoor is plastic.
On the whole, Sauda is a poorly scripted film with just Preity’s performance as the sole saving grace.