Rating: 3/5

There are some movies that you walk into the theatre, with not much hope, and it’s truly surprising how these films turn out to be better than one would have thought. Sometimes, preconceived notions can truly harm how you feel about the film after watching it. Divya Khosla Kumar, Harshvardhan Rane and Anil Kapoor’s Savi became one such film for me.

Am I saying Savi is a Bollywood masterpiece? Not quite! All I am asking you, as the audience, is to have an open mind and not automatically assume the worst. I watched the movie at a screening yesterday and here’s my honest review.

Is ‘Savi’ one of those stereotypical thriller films?

It’s very easy to believe, after the trailer, that this is just another movie where a lover goes rogue when their innocent partner is wrongly accused of something. And guess what? That’s exactly what it is. Divya Khosla’s Savi finds herself in a rather helpless situation when her husband, Satya, is accused of murder (of course, his luck is not in his favour) and then sent to prison for more than a decade. What happens is something that we all know.

However, it is actually interesting how everything happens, and things get interesting, thanks to Anil Kapoor’s character – Joydeep. Since we don’t want to spoil things for you, I will skip the details.

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Thankfully, Savi doesn’t end up being the story that’s very predictable, of course, there are parts where you know what might happen next, but you aren’t completely sure. Writers Parveez Shaikh and Aseem Arora have done a fair job in adapting the film, The Next Three Days.

What works in favour of ‘Savi’

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Savi is an adaptation of a book that narrates a rather interesting story of how things go down in a thrilling ride when a woman is wrongly accused of murder and the extent to which her husband goes to free her, by hook or by crook. While things are obviously reversed in this film, it is truly interesting how the idea of ‘just a housewife’ has been twisted and integrated into this story.

It is, honestly, a very Indian thing to do, and I think it partially works for the movie. Of course, some loopholes wouldn’t make sense, but that’s the crux of it. What also works for the movie is the second half, that’s short, crisp and engaging. Despite being a little over two hours long, the first half makes you want to skip a few seconds here and there because you just don’t want to. Thanks to binge-watching, it’s just sad how boring scenes and sequences make you feel.

Anil Kapoor’s performance steals the cake

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The very first scene where we see Divya, I have a feeling that this is not going to go very well. However, her performance does pick up to get better, and eventually, it is Savi the character that you give all your attention to and everything kinda makes sense. For a heist film, you cannot find too much logic every single time. However, some bits don’t sit well, indeed (enter: a spoiler I don’t want to give)

Moving on, many seem to be reminded of Sanam Teri Kasam looking at Harshvardhan Rane, and I think I see the resemblance. However, I’ve seen the movie in bits and pieces, so I cannot compare the performances. While Rane is not on the screen for too long or too often, he does decently. Nonetheless, had he gotten more screen time, we might have seen a better performance too.

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Last, but not least, Anil’s Joydeep is the star of the movie for me because his character beautifully manages to keep everything together the moment it is time for the thrill of the story. And well, you get to see Anil play a different kind of role, and kudos to him for constantly reinventing himself even after all these years. He’s everywhere and deservedly so!

‘Savi’ is not the IT film but could make it to everyone’s ‘one-time watch’

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We’ve been watching a lot of sub-par content lately, and this one’s not going on that list, because though not very high on performances, it’s an interesting story, one that I didn’t mind, also because it wasn’t extremely long. Between watching good films with bad performances and bad films with good performances, it’s been rather difficult getting everything at once.

There have been a few releases this week, and it looks like none has ticked all the boxes, so Savi can make the cut to the list of films you might watch over the weekend.

Our verdict

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Is it one of those absolute must-watch films? No! Will you leave the theatre and say it was a decent film that’s watchable? I’d say, yes! Since there are so many opinions that one generally has when it comes to adaptions, this is, what I’d say, a decent watch, and Anil Kapoor definitely gets half an extra point from me!

I am sure there will be people bashing the film left, right, and centre for no good joy, but well, everyone’s entitled to an opinion. After all, I am ‘just another journalist’.

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