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Swagger and style is no replacement for a solid, coherent story is a chief take after surviving this testosterone charged drivel. While you admire the beautifully, perfectly-timed car chases and vehicle explosions, your mind is likely to be blown away by the lack of content.
#Saaho #FilmReview #Prabhas
See more at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Swagger and style is no replacement for a solid, coherent story is a chief take after surviving this testosterone charged drivel. While you admire the beautifully, perfectly-timed car chases and vehicle explosions, your mind is likely to be blown away by the lack of content.
#Saaho #FilmReview #Prabhas
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00:00There are some Bollywood movies which are so high on style and swagger
00:04that they seem to have forgotten about a very important thing called the script.
00:13Perhaps this is what happened with Saaho starring Indian superstar Prabhas
00:17and Bollywood heartthrob Shraddha Kapoor.
00:20If you are a fan of action sequences like car chases and trucks being exploded,
00:25this is testosterone charged.
00:27So perhaps if you love these adrenaline charged action thrillers,
00:31then you might actually root for Saaho.
00:34But for others, it's as painful as a tooth extraction.
00:37In fact, I prefer sitting in a dentist chair than to suffer through 3 hours of Saaho.
00:42I think it felt like 3 years of my life.
00:44Saaho is a heist film which is set in a fictional city called Waji City
00:49that seems to have players who seem to be having a perennially bad dress day.
00:55They all seem to be like in some bizarre costume party
00:58because all their swanky blazers, chains, it just feels hammy
01:02and it's so tiring to watch veteran actors like Jackie Shroff, Mahesh Manjrekar,
01:07Malayalam star Lal all ham it up.
01:11I mean this is one of the films where they are given such poorly written lines
01:15and if things are going really bad, they insert a very bad song as well.
01:20I mean there are lyrics like you are a bad boy, so I'll be your bad girl
01:24and with women gyrating around him.
01:27It is just an assault on your senses
01:29and if you look at it, I was trying very hard to find something redeeming about Saaho.
01:35I am a Prabas fan.
01:36I mean Bahubali was one of my favourite films.
01:38Perhaps what worked was it was set in an era where big shoulders,
01:42being slightly sexist, being mythological worked.
01:46But this Saaho is set in the modern times
01:49and then you have an actor like Prabas,
01:52have all the swagger, he walks in slow motion,
01:55there are cars exploding behind him,
01:57bullets being sprayed but he escapes unscathed
02:00and that's one of the downfalls.
02:02It's not a very believable film at all.
02:04In fact, if you ask me what the story is,
02:07I can tell you there was a black box
02:09which I am told that everybody wants a part of it, a share of it
02:13and then there's a group of gangsters who are vying for the throne.
02:17They want to rule the fiefdom.
02:19They want to be a crime lord.
02:21So I don't know why they seem to be fighting for this black box.
02:24I still have no answers really.
02:26And then there is Prabas.
02:27I have to say that Prabas does have the swagger to pull it off.
02:31Like there are parts which you truly enjoy when he's walking in slow motion
02:36but how much can you take it?
02:38I mean in three hours at some point you were like
02:40is there more to the film than this?
02:42Cars exploding, trucks exploding etc.
02:45As far as the movie goes, it's very cheesy.
02:48Saaho is one of the cheesiest movies I've seen
02:50and to know that at least Dirham 170 million was spent,
02:54it almost feels like a crime to spend so much money on a film
02:59which has a lot of cut sequences but there's no story whatsoever.
03:04In fact, there's no coherent storyline at all.
03:07Towards the climax, there is a section
03:09where there are villains that are stereotyped heavily.
03:12In fact, if you see men with dreadlocks, men who are coloured,
03:16men who are from Russia or from Eastern Europe,
03:19then there's a good chance that they are villains of the piece.
03:22This kind of ethnic stereotyping is hugely problematic
03:25and to see Saaho, a movie which had Kenny Bates,
03:29the Hollywood action director,
03:31actually pander to the stereotype along with director Sujit
03:35is very problematic.
03:36And to see actors, bankable actors like Prabas,
03:40endorse such stereotyping is hugely problematic.
03:43Another thing that I thought was
03:45the romantic angle between two undercover agents.
03:49There are many portions in this film
03:51where I'm sure that in this modern day age,
03:54it will be counted as harassment
03:56if the men make such moves about
03:59why is she so pretty and but why is she a cop.
04:01I mean, these are lines that will not fly with anybody
04:05and I could see many women in the theatre
04:07shifting very uncomfortably at such lines.
04:09I mean, if you can spend 170 million on a project,
04:13then why not have a team of perhaps editors
04:17or perhaps cultural experts just telling you
04:19that there are some things that are just wrong
04:21and stop peddling those stereotypes.
04:23In terms of acting, I have to say that
04:26Prabas does have the style and swagger,
04:28Shraddha Kapoor does a bit
04:30but all the villains are uniformly bad.
04:32There's not a single villain which really stuck with me.
04:35Perhaps it was Mandira Bedi as Kalki
04:38as a legal advisor to this syndicate of crime lords
04:42that made a bit of sense.
04:44But even her character seems terribly underdeveloped.
04:47There's no focus on characters or on depth of character.
04:51There's so much focus on style
04:53that the maker seems to have forgotten
04:55about adding some substance and some soul into the film.
04:58I walked out of the movie exhausted.
05:00The first screening in the world was in Dubai
05:03and we were supposed to watch the Hindi version of it
05:06but due to some technical errors
05:08we were shown the Telugu version.
05:10Perhaps some of the charm was lost in translation,
05:12I will admit, because I was hooked on to the subtitles.
05:15But having said that,
05:17a movie irrespective of the language,
05:19if it appeals to you, it appeals to you
05:21but if it exhausts you, you feel so cheated.
05:24I think there are times when
05:26Prabas is trying to be this modern day superhero.
05:29He's swooping from buildings
05:31and then there are sequences which make no sense.
05:34In fact, there's a shirtless scene
05:36where he jumps off a mountain
05:38and then decides to open his parachute way down.
05:41There's at least 5 minutes of us watching him glide down.
05:44It's so inconsequential, you wonder
05:46why did they waste 5 minutes of our life.
05:48Why was so much money spent on a movie without any soul?
05:51After 2 hours, the movie is almost over
05:54then there are these bunch of villains that come out of nowhere.
05:56And you're like, there's another half an hour of this
05:59and you have to sit through it.
06:01It takes you at least 3 hours for them to reach a conclusion.
06:04From the climax, it's evident
06:06that they plan to make a series out of it.
06:08Which is not good news for the fans.
06:10Unless you're a Prabas fan
06:12and you like car chases
06:14and some good DOP, like some great photography
06:17you are unlikely to enjoy this movie.
06:19I've gone with a very generous 2 out of 5.
06:22I was thinking of 1.5
06:24but I added another 0.5
06:26for the Prabas fans, that's for you.
06:28But for others, steer clear from Saaho.