Bhansali's Got The Blues

SLB’s tale of love is buried beneath grand, cold ornament. It's an expensive self-indulgent stage play that has lost it's soul

SALONI PURI

THE CURTAIN PARTS. A fantastical Arabian-Venetian landscape of azure and peacock green. An ethereal moonlit endless night. You sink into the chair, ready to savour Sony Picture’s 50 crore Diwali gift. A staged musical begins to unfold. Did I just see a chorus of prostitutes singing beneath a bulb-lit windmill/brothel? A hero serenading his heroine in the rain? A flashing marquee of RK studios? Walls, doors, lanes, havelis painted the same hue? Did I see a Chaplinlike figure cajoling an Anglo-Indian landlady? Hmmm. Raj Kapoor’s Anari, Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, MF Hussain’s Meenaxi, Luchino Visconti’s White Nights. Neurons fire, connecting with familiar references. Never mind. This is Saawariya, ‘A Sanjay Leela Bhansali film.’ Patience, the movie will begin soon. Pay attention — in that flash cut, did you see how beautiful Ranbir Kapoor’s butt was, in what is surely Indian cinema’s first homoerotic song? The Kapoor khandaan’s genes revealed. But, hasn’t the media told you this director has vision? His vision compels him to portray the joyousness and freedom of first love by filming the young hero dancing almost in the buff.

Can’t you see? The prostitute has fallen in love with the hero who has fallen in love with the heroine who has fallen in love with a ghost of a man who has disappeared doing duty for his mulk. Remember, it’s a classic story of unrequited love by a Great Russian Author and SLB, after all, is considered an ‘auteur’. Hush, don’t fidget. This director is a master manipulator of emotions, sure to soon have you cheering for the hero and yearning for unfulfilled love.

Film>> Saawariya Director>> Sanjay Leela Bhansali Starring>> Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee

But no, SLB is too busy showing off. Too busy colour co-coordinating his gorgeous heroine, he forgot to invest her with character. Too busy painting lotuses and Mona Lisas he forgot to write strong dialogue. Too busy referencing Raj Kapoor’s films he forgot to direct his grandson. Having spent Rs 30 crores on sets and space lights he forgot to portray the emotional fragility of a simple love story. The only thing that works for Saawariya is its cast. Rani’s mature portrayal of the prostitute, Gulabji; Ranbir’s fresh, energetic and unselfconscious performance as an idealistic lover, Sonam’s graceful, old world beauty.

Saawariya is an expensive, self-indulgent stage play, overburdened with embellishments such that its soul is completely lost. You notice every frame, but don’t care about the two lovers for whom the backdrop is intended. Bhansali’s tale of idealistic love is buried beneath grand, cold ornamentation. The television media, losing all sense of proportion and taste is calling it an “art film”. After three hours of patient watching I can only say, “Saw your ‘art’ Mr Bhansali, but pray, where is the ‘film’?.