Saaho Movie Review – The sum total of Saaho, reportedly made on an Rs 350-crore budget is zilch. It is a bloated behemoth that stomps about clunkily and leaves behind a hardly edifying trail. The cops-and-robbers yarn does not contain a shred of originality. The film’s unrelentingly shrill pitch is aggravated by the ear-splitting background score and its never-ending action set pieces. Saaho has obviously been made by people who have no faith in tonal variations.
Cast: Prabhas, Shraddha Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Chunky Pandey, Mandira Bedi, Evelyn Sharma, Vennela Kishore
Director: Sujeeth
Rating: 2 Stars (out of 5)
Saaho Story: All over the place. A huge empire, crores at stake and too many villains. No one can be trusted. So will the balance of power be restored and can one man do whatever it takes to restore the balance of power and defeat the bad guys?
Screenplay: Maddeningly muddled.
Execution: Strictly by the numbers.
Outcome: Appallingly atrocious.
Saaho Movie Review: Writer-Director Sujeeth takes you through a maze of twists and turns before he gets there. Pegged as India’s biggest action thriller, ‘Saaho’ gets into the action mode pretty early on. The film begins with signature wide angles of massive structures and grim-looking men, who mean serious business. All through the first half, the narrative travels through cities trying to connect high-stake robberies in Mumbai and the search of a missing black box that is the key to a fortune.
Enters the film’s leading man, Prabhas, with a loud, high-octane fight scene that sets the stage for many more such confrontations. With his towering screen presence, Prabhas fits the bill perfectly in this larger than life role. However, if you’re expecting his ‘Baahubali’ charm to rub off again, then his avatar in this one is a far stretch. His dialogue delivery seems deliberately slow, but for the most part, the way his character unfolds, it keeps the viewer guessing.
Shraddha Kapoor looks glamorous, but her character is poorly sketched. Introduced as a tough-talking cop, she soon becomes a damsel in distress, who often needs to be saved rather than she saving the world. Even the chemistry between the lead pair is missing.
Among the many villains, Chunky Pandey as Devraj stands out with a very convincing portrayal of his evil character. The rest come off as mere caricatures, who fail to make an impact. The songs are untimely placed in the narrative, only adding to an already long runtime. Attempts to infuse humor fall flat as none of the jokes land.
The film’s second half picks pace but is marred by a weak narrative that requires constant suspension of disbelief. Also, the special effects and CGI often lack the finesse that a film mounted on such a grand scale deserved.
Saaho may, like so many other shrill, gory actioners of the recent past, end up make pots of money. But that will not take away from the fact that it is egregiously turgid. A Telugu superstar attempting to break into Hindi cinema should have chosen better. Overall, ‘Saaho’ attempts at being a potboiler that fires in all directions to entertain the audience. There are so many twists and turns that it leaves you more exhausted than excited.
