Saaho Review: A Sheer Spectacular Disappointment!

After the Pan-Indian blockbuster success of the Baahubali franchise, deservedly so, all eyes are locked on Tollywood’s Rebel Star, Prabhas. Known for his stylistic action movies and family dramas, Prabhas has garnered quite a significant reputation amongst his fans and peers for all the right reasons. With Saaho, a bilingual Telugu-Hindi film, Prabhas came out of his comfort zone, dubbed for his role in Hindi and shot all the scenes with dialogue twice. That’s a lot! Nevertheless, directed by Sujeeth, Saaho is produced on a budget of 300+ cr and has a lot riding on its shoulders from the sky-high expectations and also the capability of elevating Tollywood cinema. However, despite all the crazy hype and the sound made by the fans, this film is a spectacular disappointment.

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The storyline starts with Ashok (Prabhas) – an undercover police officer investigating a series of perplexing burglaries with his newly formed team which includes Amrita (Shraddha Kapoor). Eventually, as the plot advances, Ashok learns that there is an open-ended internal dispute brewing between the mafia lords for the throne. The remainder of the film takes us through a series of utterly complicated scenes which showcases blood, violence and manipulations.

Few mandatory aspects/traits required for any movie to work is an entertaining or a decent enough storyline and a well-written screenplay which at least makes sense despite being deceptive. With Saaho, writer and director, Sujeeth, in the process of making a majestic movie with an enormous budget ignored the process of unfolding a compelling narrative altogether. The film is an utter mess comprised of overly stylistic and unnecessary scenes which are intentionally complicated and with no minimal sequence whatsoever. Over and over again, I was baffled with the nonsense happening on-screen as I reached a tipping point when I stopped thinking and connecting the dots.

More about the narrative, I watched the movie in a packed theatre with a considerable amount of crazy Prabhas admirers. However, surprisingly, the crowd remained calm throughout the entire film, not because they’re following proper theatre etiquette, but, because the movie was dull from start to finish. Additionally, I understand that there has to be a romantic angle involved between the male and the female lead as it is an on-going commercial Indian movie tradition. But, aren’t we moving past that daft trend nowadays? And I’m also not disputing romance and the picturesque dance numbers between the leads, as long as it serves some purpose, the filmmaker can make an exception. In Saaho, the in-between songs felt so unnecessary, and monotone as the entire things felt forced.

Also, besides incorporating a multitude of characters, which once again felt pointless, the main leads are presented with zero character development and memorable moments. The performances, on the other hand, were ordinary. Prabhas continued to be Prabhas by looking stylish and cool on-screen. The female lead, Shraddha Kapoor also didn’t offer something contrasting when compared to her other films. Although the primary antagonist, Chunky Panday, didn’t portray a diverse abominable character, he, at least, felt fresh and stood out from the bunch.

On the positive side, Saaho looked and felt like a movie Telugu audience had never experienced before. At least when it comes to the films produced by Tollywood. The production design, costumes and the overall presentation were spectacular. Everything from top to bottom appeared to have some decent budget behind it. Accompanied by some stellar camera work by Madhie and ambitious background score by Gibran, this movie at the bare minimum fared decently on the technical side.

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Overall, Saaho felt like an amateur movie with a pointless skyscraping budget, a typical storyline and an intolerably exaggerated and unclear screenplay. Writer-Director Sujeeth should’ve appointed somebody else to write the narrative for him as the guy at the least has a clear vision of showcasing something imperial and out-of-the-ordinary. Nevertheless, this movie is a wasted opportunity at every front and a lacklustre reward for everyone who paid for the over-priced ticket and waited three years to watch the final product.

Rating – 1.5/5 | Grade – D+

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