Saaho movie review rating: Two stars out of fiveÂ
I got through the utter silliness and big-budget numbness of Saaho thanks to the company of two other movie-loving friends to laugh with at the ‘whatever’ tone of this random-churning, empty-hearted movie.
In fact, we were so busy making jokes and having many good unintended laughs through the almost three-hour running time, it came to me a couple of hours later just how trying, unsatisfying and hollow a movie Saaho is.
For those who get the stylish, shallow, violent, and ‘anything will do to not make it boring‘ kind of crass commercial Telugu movies will know why I and my friends laughed at the many deja vu moments that fill these kinds of movies.
Ironically, Saaho is never boring because of the sheer sincerity and conviction with which its mega epic silliness is played out. Heck, it may end up earning a lot of money, but since we the audience are not the film’s producers, let’s talk about viewing merits rather than box office records.
The (hahaha) storyÂ
Crime leader Roy (Jackie Shroff), is shot dead in Mumbai, causing other ambitious criminals to scramble for wrestling control of the Waaji City underworld.
Meanwhile, a two lakh crore robbery takes place in Mumbai and the police set up a special team lead by Ashok Chakravarthy (Prabhas), aided by Amritha Nair (Shraddha Kapoor) and others. The two strands of the story, straight and simple? No damn way.
There is talk of a village massacre, the don’s son, a ‘black box’, millions of double crossings, a minister, a signature, something about “difference between a vacation and a kidnapping,” something about a undercover cop, a monster under the bed, double-crossings and more double-crossings, mayhem, uncovering of secrets, dances, swimming pools, bikinis, cigarette lighters, conmen, and finally a revenge story that winds it all up.
The sheer number of plot elements seems to be a tribute to India’s massive population, there are so so so (yes, three so’s) many things happening all at once.
Saaho ends up as a huge confusing muddle in which the bewildering action sequences make no sense.
Overheard: “Typical Prabhas movie”
The makers must have sacrificed the DVDs (and Blu-Ray discs) of a thousand Hollywood action capers and the plot of a zillion average action Telugu films into a huge ‘inspiration’ bonfire to come up with the script for Saaho. Think The Dark Knight, the Fast and Furious franchise, KGF: Chapter 1, and many, many more popular action flicks.
For those who know lead actor Prabhas’ Telugu filmography, this is a “typical Prabhas movie” (as my co-moviegoer friend summed it up), his magnified magnetic macho presence ballooned up ten-fold, thanks to the alleged 350-crore budget. Director Sujeeth didn’t need to do a Rajamouli here, but he fails right at the storytelling basics. Clearly, the Baahubali movies are a hard act to follow, considering the disastrous results here.
Saaho review Â
Saaho‘s biggest downer is the unconvincing action. Barely about ten minutes of the action registers, the rest are all lazily executed, with the little details done away with. Some hilarious moments:
Bullets never get me!
Vintage commercial movie unrealism: Machine gun-wielding men on motorcycles keep shooting with a bloody aim (I assume) and not a single bullet hits the hero. Instead, the hero beats the shooters with his bare hands, because…he is paid to be invincible, silly!
Good idea, bad executionÂ
A man dives off a cliff with his parachute bag falling alongside him because he loves unnecessary danger? This sequence could have worked had the special effects not gone with so many clouds into this one. The whole thing ends up like a videogame with poor graphics.
Just because we have the money
A tank rolls over two cars in the background, while Prabhas swag-walks with a puffing cigarette in the foreground, just for the heck of it, just for kicks, nothing to do with the story.
Hilarious moments: Honourable mentions Â
Dance & forgetÂ
Police officer Shradha Kapoor is assigned to track a criminal at a party. Instead, she decides to dance to ‘Psycho Saiyaan’ and (because dancing is her actual passion, and somebody forced her to join the police department?) forgets she has a criminal to catch!
Sex fingers!Â
Classic Telugu mega hero macho touch: Our tall, lanky hero is a chick magnet, he touches white women and they go crazy. They either fall into the pool or make orgasm-gasp faces…at a mere touch or neck grab…what ultra-sensitive, sensual fingers.
Pythons and PumasÂ
These two creatures make it (why oh why?) to the most improbable part of the story, the ‘smash everything in your way’ Prabhas entry-fight sequence and just disappear out of view. Magical creatures, anyone?
..and there is a lot more, in dialogues, action sequences, song sequences…Saaho is a gem of the outlandish, way off the mark wannabe action movie of errors.
Prabhas stands alone Â
Prabhas is the only shining star who survives the messiness of Saaho, with superb Hindi dialogue delivery, kickass action chops and majestic screen presence, despite the stiff dance moves. What he needs is a director who can be as good as the visionary, yet commercially-inclined and immensely gifted S Rajamouli.
Wrapping upÂ
Saaho is bloated hot air mostly, with a hundred crazy dumb twists and some miserly minutes of impressive action.
If you are a brave and adventurous movie-goer, go watch Saaho playing at multiple shows at the theatres this week. Good or bad, dear movie lovers, would you deny that experience… is experience.
I can promise you this much. If you get all the unintended Saaho jokes, you are going to have a LOL blast at the theatres.
