Before I even begin, I must say that all of you who have
loved your Dhamaals and Mastis, please do not even think of entering the movie
halls where Sawariya is being shown. If you want a movie where you can stretch
out your legs, put your hands behind your head and give out loud guffaws at
vulgar comedies, please spare dear Mr. Bhansali’s creation. Also, Yash Chopra
and Karan Johar fanatics stay out. You are not going to get romance in a
caramel cup here. But those who loved Black, welcome by all means.
So what does Black have to do with Sawariya? There are many
parallels, aside from having the same director. I will be shortly into that.
Sawariya – I don’t know the meaning of the word precisely,
but think it means’someone who improves someone’s life’. That certainly goes
with the theme of the film. The overly used greens and blues right from the
promos until the final scene of the film are apt too – the whole movie revolves
around Id. And I am sure Sanjay has given the grand festival of Id the most
opulent salute in the history of cinema, anywhere in the world.
I won’t spoil Sanjay’s beautiful story by leaking it out to
you. Just the premise is what I will divulge. It is an almost verbatim
adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s White Nights. It is the story of Ranbir Raj,
a vagabond from nowhere, who chances upon a girl, Sakina, by a bridge on a
pool. He stumbles in love, doesn’t fall yet, but Sakina is not for his taking.
She is there, on the bridge, because she is waiting for someone. That someone
is a lover, Iman, who has loved her once, a year back, and then promised to
meet her on the same bridge when the Id moon can be seen. So, Sakina waits. Raj
is madly in love, and hopeful that she will turn her attentions on him. He
plays the regular wooer, but Sakina doesn’t fall in love. She has the fondest
of feelings ever seen in cinema for Raj, but her feelings for the shadow of her
previous lover are stronger. And so she carries on. Carries on for four nights.
The fourth night is Id.
The story spans just four nights and five characters. Within
these four nights, you see things unfolding right in front of your eyes. It is
made evident from the beginning that the story is set in no particular place,
and the narrator even says that the story is only in her imagination. The characters
are from nowhere; they have no last names, they have no histories(except for
Sakina’s romance of last year) and they have no other lives described apart
from the events in the story. This is what makes the story unique. It is only
the love that is projected, and magnificently at that. It’s like how a romance
would be written in the style of a fairytale. The characters are made only for
the fairytale, and they have no lives beyond that. Did anyone ask which school
Snow-White or Cinderella studied in?
When it is Sanjay Leela Bhansali, people look forward for
visual grandeur. And that is present here in full measure. You do not see the
sham glorification of sets you did in Devdas, but you see picture-postcard perfect
sets. The first visual itself shows you an arabesque town, clearly reminiscent
of a Faerie Tale Theater Production of the Arabian Nights – there are lots of
domes and minarets. Then there is the set by the poolside where most of the
action happens. Quite smartly, Sanjay has given a family profession for Sakina
as that of a carpet weaver. That gives him the opportunity to film one of the
greatest visuals ever seen in Hindi cinema. I am referring to a carpet dusting
scene, where the carpets are hanging all around her. Sheer cinematographic brilliance!
Incidentally, Sakina is very happy in that scene, and that is the only scene in
the movie with a yellow-gold color. The rest of the movie is filmed in the
trademark colors of blues and greens.
So why is the movie much like Black? For pure cinematic
triumph. Sanjay has broken the mould once again. Check out the climax to find
out. The conventional rule doesn’t apply to Sanjay. He will show what people do
not want to see; what other filmmakers do not want to show. And both the films
are optimistic. While there was a clear optimism in Black, you will see a
resonant optimism in Sawariya, even if the events do not unfold the way the
viewer would want them to.
Enough about Sanjay. Let me now discuss the actors. After all,
it is a launch pad for the next line of the Prithviraj Kapoor generation, and
another very significant Kapoor line too. Both Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor
rock. The have the acting passion that can ignite screens. In his first film,
Ranbir Kapoor has shown that five years down the line, he can do what Shah Rukh
Khan and Hrithik Roshan have done. He has emotive eyes, a very expressive face,
and an outstanding dialog delivery. Give him some years, and he will bring much
greater glory to the Kapoor name. Sonam Kapoor is a dazzling addition to cinema
too, though she is more Tabu than Aishwarya Rai, if you know what I mean. She
has a pretty face, a prettier smile, and she is powerhouse when it comes to
acting. Both kids have carried the film on their shoulders magnificently; they
have carried off minute-long soliloquy in the movie with élan. Ranbir has
spoken out huge chunks of dialog without flinching(it might have taken several
takes to get them perfected, though). I particularly liked his soliloquy about
life being like a boxing match.
Rani Mukerjee introduces the film for us, and does a very
good job of whatever she has been given. Salman Khan comes twice in the movie,
and he excellently plays the part of the enigmatic silent lover, for whom love
is not the most important thing in life. And if you do not love Zohra Sehgal
yet, you will love her after this film. The camaraderie between Ranbir and
Zohra Sehgal is fabulous, to say the least.
I won’t say much about the music, as you have already heard
it several times, and you know what the music of the film is like. But I will
certainly say this – the whole movie is a song. It is a true fairytale, where
the music becomes a part of the whole thing, not just a kind of entertaining
diversion. Each dialog, each pause in the movie is accentuated with music that
simply fits in the entire scene. That’s what good background music should be;
it becomes an inseparable part of the scene, and still adds to its appeal in a
tremendous manner.
If you are in love, watch Sawariya with your lover. If you aren’t
in love, still watch Sawariya to know what true love is all about. Do not
expect a sugar-coated romance with this picture postcard musical fairytale. You
will be disappointed if you do so. But if you want to spend several cozy hours
with your lover discussing about love, this movie will give you enough grist to
talk about.
Thank you, Mr. Bhansali, for not letting us down. Our hopes
in you have only increased.