Saawan The Love Season
Interesting ideas don't necessarily translate into interesting
films!
Saawan Kumar's SAAWAN - THE LOVE SEASON tackles a novel theme. It tells the
story of a man who predicts the future. Whether it's the death of a person at 9
p.m. or a major accident on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway or the leading lady's
death on a dreadful Friday, the man knows it all. He's a modern-day Nostradamus.
An exciting concept, isn't it? Sure, on paper, the concept does sound
fascinating, but on film, the concept goes for a toss. Actually, the film rests
on a thin plot. It starts off as a love story, continues to have the hero and
heroine romancing in Sun City for the first 40 minutes, till the desi
Nostradamus enters the frame, minutes before the interval.
Again, after the intermission, the hero and heroine break into songs in Dubai,
till our Nostradamus drops a bomb: He tells the heroine she'd die two days
later, on Friday. Obviously, the lady is shattered, but instead of going into a
depression who'd like to rejoice after you've known of your impending death?,
the hero and heroine break into two songs and make merry.
All this while, the heroine keeps hammering 'Friday' into the hero's head. On
the fateful day, the lady is mistakenly shot by the cops outside a shopping mall
and dies. The hero blames Nostradamus for it, breaks into his house, bashes him
black and blue and Nostradamus dies. When Nostradamus dies, the heroine, who is
already pronounced dead, wakes up. She's alive now?
Hindi movies have often tackled issues such as reincarnation, ghosts and
astrology and the moviegoer has embraced those themes if they're handled
convincingly. Unfortunately, in SAAWAN - THE LOVE SEASON, the screenplay is
amateurish and by the time the story reaches the finale, you've already lost
interest in the goings-on. To sum up, SAAWAN - THE LOVE SEASON is a good concept
gone awry!
Raj Kapil Jhaveri and Kajal Saloni Aswani, both from Mumbai, meet in Cape Town.
It's love at first sight for Raj, but Kajal doesn't reciprocate. But Raj wins
her over and all's well.
Raj confides to his father Ranjeet about Kajal, while Kajal tells her father
Prem Chopra about Raj. The two fathers meet and realize that they're actually
childhood friends. The engagement date is fixed -- on Kajal's birthday -- but
Kajal bumps into an unexpected man Salman Khan in the day, who not only saves
her from an accident, but forewarns her that her father would die at 9 p.m. that
same night.
The father actually dies at 9 p.m. Kajal starts believing in the unexpected man
and wants to know her future. That's when the man tells her that she would die
on Friday, two days later. The remainder is about the girl wanting to live life
fullest in those two days, before her demise.
The film has two plots running parallel -- the love story and the Nostradamus
aspect. While the love story is like any other love story, the portions
involving Salman are slightly watchable, although there was scope to make them
far more interesting.
The comedy track -- involving Johny Lever and Bobby Darling -- is crude and
appears forced in the narrative. It doesn't even raise a chuckle, forget a
laugh.
Saawan Kumar isn't in form this time. The veteran has tackled drama amazingly in
the past SAAJAN BINA SUHAGAN, SOUTEN, SANAM BEWAFA, but even the dramatic
portions in SAAWAN - THE LOVE SEASON lack the by-now-famous punch. Music is
another sore point. Aadesh Shrivastava's music is uninspiring and barring the
title track, the remaining tracks are plain monotonous. Cinematography Rajendra
Prasad is eye-filling, especially the locales of Sun City and Dubai.
Salman Khan's role and performance are both strictly average. Kapil doesn't get
any scope to display histrionics, but he does the conventional hero's part with
ease. Saloni gets more footage and she does leave an impression. Prem Chopra and
Ranjeet have miniscule roles. Johny Lever doesn't entertain. Ditto for Bobby
Darling.
On the whole, SAAWAN - THE LOVE SEASON is a weak fare, which has some scope at
the single screens and in the Hindi belt primarily due to Salman's star
presence. That's it!
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