Saiyaara, Review: Forget it

Saiyaara, Review: Forget it

Saiyaara or Sayyara or Sayyaaraa, Saiyaaraa is a word derived from Arabic and an integral part of the Urdu language. It could refer to a star, a planet or anything that travels. The word saer/sair, which means ‘taking a tour of’ or ‘wandering’ is derived from this root, or maybe the other way round. Saira is a common name among Muslims, and the most famous Saira in India is Saira Banu, the wife of acting icon Dilip Kumar. There was a song in the film Ek Tha Tiger, titled Saiyaara, sung by Mohit Chauhan and Tarannum Malik. Ek Tha Tiger was a movie from the YashRaj Films stable, released in 2012. Looks like the YashRaj bandwagon liked the word so much that they named their 18th July 2025 release, Saiyaara. Only Saiyyaara, the film, is not about stars or planets or travel. Oh, yes! There is a lot of travel, within and without India, and there are some long shots of real stars in the sky (no close-ups, please). Then what is it about?

In the beginning, there was a registered marriage going to take place. The bride-to-be, Vaani Batra, and her parents, were at the Marriage Registrar’s office, waiting for their token number to be called out. Meanwhile, marriages of different linguistic couples were being performed, in due succession. That is a great one for secularism. But there was no sign of the groom-to-be, Mahesh Iyer. At the eleventh hour, or, rather, at the 11.59.59th hour, the bride-to-be gets a call from her groom-to-be, her long-time boy-friend. She asks him why hasn’t he arrived yet. He answers that he is at the airport, about to board a flight for San Francisco. How come? Asks the bride! Doesn’t he know that they are to be married in a few minutes? He says he is aware, but he has to rush to San Francisco, to meet two VCs. For those who are not familiar with business terminology, especially those do not possess BBA or MBA degrees, VC stand for Venture Capitalists. Oh! says Vaani. So should she take an appointment for a later date? No, says Mahesh. He is not going to return and not going through with this marriage, as he has found someone else, so forget it! Forget it? The screen then swirls, and the bride to be faints. Ok, so where’s the story?

Is it here? Why was it going to be a Registered marriage, when Vaani and Mahesh had been seeing each other for years, with at least Vaani’s parents’ blessings? Why was nobody else invited to the marriage, even as witnesses? Who and where were Mahesh’s parents and family? Were they against the marriage? Were they alive or dead? Were they abroad? Why did Mahesh time breaking his betrayal to his wife-to-be with clockwork precision? Why weren’t Vaani and family in constant touch with Mahesh and his family, if he had one, hours before the marriage? Why was Vaani, a gifted writer and poet, and a college graduate, so dumb as not to flare-up when Mahesh told her that he was boarding a flight to San Francisco? Could nobody be contacted after Mahesh’s call? Vaani goes into a shell. Mopes and sulks. Her mother lectures to her that she must stop grieving about being dumped at the altar. She must forget it. Ok, so where’s the script?

She forgets it, and agrees to go for a job interview at a celebrity/gossip magazine. On the way, she notices a young man on a motor-cycle, smoking while riding. Something about him catches her attention. It so happens that he is head for the same office and the two bump into each other there. Forgetful Vaani forgets her precious diary at the entrance, which he discovers and recovers, reads her name on it and gives it back to her. She asks his name. he said she will soon find out. He then proceeds to bash-up one of the staffers at the editorial office of the publication, abusing him for writing trash and not giving credit where it is due. The entire staff, of some 10-15 persons, watches in stupefaction as their colleague reduced, and some furniture, to a wreck. The intruder tells the victim to remember his name: Krish Kapoor. As he leaves, someone calls for the security, but one push from Krish sends the hapless professional out of the frame. The publication does not bother to call the police, or take any legal action. Vaani Batra bags the job of an intern at the publication, and one of her first assignments is to interview the Pop King, Prince. Turns out that Krish Kapoor is a budding singing star and Prince wants him to be the supporting act, preceding his arrival on the stage. But brash, arrogant, brazen, conceited, self-centred hot-headed and impudent Krish, who is the lead singer of a band/crew, all in their twenties, wants to team-up only on his own terms. All this while, Vaani, who has turned-up late for her interview with Prince, and denied it, by his Manager, who tells her that she will have to wait another two months for the next appointment, is watching, and, apparently, impressed. So, this is the screenplay? Forget it.

Krish has a run-in with his band-mates almost every day, and, on one occasion, when they refuse to join him on stage, he decides to go it alone. Jumping up on the stage, he sets the laptop, picks up a microphone. No orchestra, nobody else on the stage but him, and the next thing you see is the audience eating out of his hands It is an open air concert, and what worse fate can befall a performance than the rain Gods showering their blessings. It begins to pour. The torrential rain sends the audience scampering. But it does not affect the equipment at all: mike, speakers, laptop, et al, which must have been water-proof, so Krish Kapoor continues unabated, like the rainfall. This works wonders for the audience, who return in hordes, with most of them carrying identical umbrellas, and go ga-ga. Krish Kapoor has arrived. Videos go viral, social media posts are rising in geometrical proportions. But that just about exhausts the stock of lyrics that he has obtained from unidentified sources. He finds Vaani taking a keen interest in him and his performances, and asks her to pen their next song. She lectures him on the creative process of poetry-writing, the motivation required, the anguish brought out, the empathy with real-life situations, and more. He says, “Forget it.” So this is the scenario that has been pitched?

 Krish heads for a pitch…correction, cricket practice ground, with Vaani pillion-riding on his motor-cycle. He ties her to his wait with his pullover. At the ground, he faces a barrage of tennis balls, hurled at him by a bowling machine, and the southpaw hits them all cleanly. He stresses the importance of playing on the front-foot, compares the creation of an inspired song to the way King Kohli, India’s star batsman, hits sixes, especially on the last ball of a match, with 5 runs required for victory, in a pulsating India-Pakistan match. The analogy and motivation does seem to get Vaani thinking, but would appear totally illogical to audiences, who might take it as an example of taking too much for granted. But isn’t the film all about taking too much for granted? Will all this resonate with real-life lovers or discerning moviegoers? Forget it.

Forget it she does! And how! Vaani is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, which usually occurs after the age of 65, but she is among the 0.4% persons below 65 who has fallen victim to it. Her forgetfulness is not merely forgetfulness, it is a disease, Alzheimer’s, which can be slowed down by drugs, but cannot be cured. One of its symptoms is the inability to recognise your family and friends and the other is to mix the past with the present. By now, she is madly in love with Krish. But Krish has an alcoho0lic father, who could not bear then shock of losing his wife, and abandoned his son, to seek solace in liquor. He has the habit of getting dead drunk and stumbling on to cars as he crosses roads. He is picked up by the police after his latest car-stopping act and taken to Krish. The police tell Krish that his father is a habitual offender, and if he repeats his act once more, they will arrest both father and son. Now that is a first. Can a son, who has been abandoned by his father, be arrested if the father tries to get under a car? On to Return of Mahesh Iyer, as Vaani’s new boss. So, where is the direction? It is going in which direction? Logic, rationale, credibility…Forget it!

Director Mohit Suri, screenplay writer Sankalp Sadanah and dialogue writer Rohan Shankar have infused the film with oodles and doodles of love, both sublime and of the sexual variety, and exotica, in terms of locations, and song picturisations. They have tried to rework the Love Story (1970) potion, and succeeded only in serving a hangover, a là Krish’s father’s love for the slow poison. The name Krish Kapoor, later abbreviated to Krish K in the film, is likely to have been inspired by a real-life playback singer, who goes by the acronym, KK. Mahesh Raj is a name that is perhaps a nod to an Indian TV entrepreneur, who made it big in another country, playing a key role in setting-up a channel in India, with Hindi content. And Prince, almost certainly, comes from Prince, the American singer who later changed his name to mouthful, ‘The artiste formerly known as Prince’. 

If Chunky Pandey’s daughter can make it, why can’t bro Chikki’s son do the same? Yes, he can, and he might. But not in this film. Unclear diction, express delivery dialogue, a uni-dimensional character, who shows a second dimension only to his girl-friend, he is made to belt out song after song, and yell out his love for Vaani, forever, and ever and ever, so loudly, that the stars must be reaching for their earphones every time he gets into the loud mode. As if that was not enough, Vaani does a ditto, so the earphones would have to be replaced by professional, sound-negating head-phones, of zero sound penetration levels, generations ahead of the headphones Krish plants on his pillion-rider’s head. Such repeated declarations limit the scope for Aneet Padda to exhibit any performing talent. Looking soft and confused in the first half, barely intonating her dialogue with a lower lip that barely moves, she has to get into the sick woman act, who not only shrieks, she also wields a knife, with which she stabs Krish’s hand. She is uninhibited, and has a figure worth exposing. So, Aneet Kaur Padda’s graduation from modelling, to a film extra, to a TV break, and now a chance to debut in a lead role, in a big banner production, is not likely to work wonders for her nascent career.

Geeta Agarwal as Vaani's mother flows with the character, with some genuine warmth and compassion. Rajesh Kumar, the Rishi Kapoor look-alike, as Vaani's father, is subdued and graceful. Varun Badola, as Ashok Kapoor, Krish's father, struggles with an ill-defined part. Shaad Randhawa, as Prince, is all costume and get-up. Siddharth ‘Sid’ Makkar, as Vinit Rawal, Prince’s Manager, is as slimy as they come. Shaan Groverr, named Mahesh Iyer in the film, plays his opportunist’s character capably. Anngad Raj Rudy (Rudransh), as Vaani's brother, is seen in one shot, for a few seconds, sans any dialogue, making you wonder what was the need to have him in the film at all. Meher Acharia Dar as Dr. Khyati is dignified and in character. The band members are played by Neil Dutta, Karan Barnabas, Shlok Sanjay Chiplunkar, Raunak Kumar Rawat and Mohit Wadhwa. Their confrontations with Krish, being contrived and stereo-typical, leave them little scope for histrionics.

Lyrics by Irshad Kamil, Mithoon, Rishabh Kant and Raj Shekhar range from the simplistic to the moderately inspired. With as many as eight music composers, try decoding who has composed which song(s): Mithoon, Sachet Tandon, Parampara Tandon, Rishabh Kant, Vishal Mishra, Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah and Arslan Nizami. Cinematographer Vikas Sivaraman does everything that he can do with a camera, on a tripod, hand-held or drone-prone. Editors Devendra Murdeshwar and Rohit Ajit Makwana cannot prevent Saiyaara from drifting along past at least three ending points, with a total run-time of 154 minutes.

You like mushy, passionate, illogical, irrational love stories? Go for it. After all, love is a condition of the mind when the mind is not in condition. You are looking for contemporary subjects, with a credible story and characters? Forget it.

Rating: **

Trailer: https://youtu.be/9r-tT5IN0vg