Style (surround audio & ambience) works only in 10% of theaters where they have proper equipment.

Most of the time you end up with a DD print in a theater that doesn't have full DD capability and if you get a DTS print for a DTS theater, you don't get DTS disc. And, even if print and theater audio format match, theater may not have powerful audio.

Hence, I I count my blessings when I get to watch a film, as the director intended, in a proper theater. Theater audio has to be commended if even a soft music fills up the theater with ambience and feels like rock music because of audio power and powerful subwoofers.

I'll be watching O S O today in the same cineplex but am not sure whether it'll have proper audio. Think again if you think that cineplex theater staff (incl managers) or the film distributors have any clue or pay any attention to audio format of the films they screen.

Variety review:
Saawariya
(India)
By DEREK ELLEYA Sony Pictures Entertainment release of a Columbia Pictures, SPE Films India presentation of an SPE Films India, SLB Films production. Produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Executive producers, Kuldeep Singh Rathore, Deepak Sharma. Directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Associate directors, Shailey M. Sharma, Vibhu Puri, Sangeeta Gala. Screenplay, Prakash Kapadia, Bhansali, based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story "White Nights."

With: Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Rani Mukerji, Salman Khan, Zohra Segal, Begum Para.
(Hindi dialogue)

A really small movie done up in a big, moody package, "Saawariya" entices, fitfully springs to life but finally outstays its welcome by a good half-hour. Based on Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights," latest design-heavy outing by Bollywood multitasker Sanjay Leela Bhansali falls somewhere between the lavish impersonality of his "Devdas" (2002) and the intimate chamber drama of his "Black" (2005). Pic has the same blue-noir look of the latter but, alas, none of its emotional hooks. Billed as the first mainstream Hindi movie funded by a U.S. major, Sony release will grab muscular initial biz but lack long-distance legs.
In the mano-a-mano battle over the Diwali period with Farah Khan's star-laden masala movie "Om Shanti Om," Bhansali's pic looks unlikely to go the whole 15 rounds. Like "Black," "Saawariya" is practically an art movie in Bollywood terms, and though it does possess some fine features of its own, it simply isn't as entertaining as Khan's splashy retro musical.

In key overseas markets like the U.K. and U.S., it's also going out on fewer screens than "Om" (dramatically so, Stateside: 85 vs. 114). Ironically, despite its weaknesses, "Saawariya" has more upscale crossover potential than "Om," which is laden with Bollywood references and inside jokes. However, in the U.K., "Saawariya" was not even screened for press.

Perhaps most impressively (and simply) directed by Luchino Visconti in 1957, "White Nights" leaves a lot of room for any adaptation to fail. Scripters Prakash Kapadia and Bhansali take the simple story -- shy guy meets an unhappy woman, falls for her, and then finds she's waiting for her absent lover to return -- and set it in an almost fairy-tale North Indian town that's a cross between Venice, an old Indian hill station and an Arabian fantasy, with facades that recall Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge."

Shot entirely on vast studio sets, and set almost exclusively at night, pic is saturated in blues, blacks and dark greens, with the occasional slash of red or white for contrast. Design is heavily Islamic, in the Persian-influenced Mughal style, and though set in the present day, there's a timelessness to the movie that fits the opening voiceover of streetwalker Gulab (Rani Mukerji), that it's a town that "lives in my dreams."

Deliberately stagy setting recalls Bollywood productions from the '50s and earlier, and was even employed more recently in Sudhir Mishra's "Chameli" (2004). However, in "Saawariya," the dialogue isn't strong enough to take on the production design.

Device of making Gulab the de facto narrator does give some shape to Bhansali's vast visual canvas. Problem is, the husky-voiced Mukerji makes Gulab the liveliest character in the movie, sidelining the putative leads, itinerant musician Ranbir Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) and lonely local beauty Sakina (Sonam Kapoor).

Latter are given pages of dialogue that would not disgrace a French metaphysical movie ("No darkness harms those enlightened in love," etc.). But it wears increasingly thin, especially during the mood-heavy first half, when not much is happening apart from Ranbir romancing Sakina in the darkly lit streets.

It's the kind of dialogue better suited to songs -- and the latter, which come thick and fast during part one, are thus robbed of any freshness or contrast. The samey tone of this half is relieved only by Gulab's appearances, in which her cynical take on love contrasts with Ranbir's boyish enthusiasm, and by scenes with veteran hotelier Lilian (vet Zohra Sehgal), who still pines for her long-absent son. Witty playing by feisty nonagenarian Sehgal also draws the best out of Mukerji in a memorable scene.

The two Kapoors (unrelated) are OK as the leads, with Sonam getting the edge. Daughter of thesp Anil Kapoor, she shows considerable screen presence in her debut role and even manages hints that Sakina may possibly be barking mad. Ranbir (from the fourth generation of the Kapoor film dynasty) looks rather silly in a bowler hat and more at ease when jiving to the title song than gushing platitudes about love. Star hunk Salman Khan (largely seen in flashbacks) is suitably mysterious as Sakina's beloved.

Balladic songs and score are sweeping but largely unmemorable, especially in part one. Much livelier are the numbers in part two -- luckily, as the story itself practically grinds to a halt -- notably where Mukerji leads a lively song 'n' dance by the town's hookers, and later when Ranbir goes to collect Sonam.

All other production values are richly appointed. Title literally means "Beloved," and is ironically used as a name for Ranbir by Gulab.

(color, widescreen), Ravi K. Chandran; editor, Bhansali; associate editor, Ajay Varma; music, Monty; lyrics, Sameer; choreographers, Shiamak Davar, Pappu Mallu; art directors, Omung Kumar Bhandula, Vanita Omung Kumar; costume designers, Anuradha Vakil, Bhansali, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Reza Shariffi; sound (Dolby Digital/DTS Digital), Anup Dev: sound designer, Resul Pookutty; visual effects supervisor, Merzin Tavaria; visual effects, Prime Focus VFX; casting, Amita Sehgal. Reviewed at Cineworld Shaftesbury Avenue 1, London, Nov. 9, 2007. Running time: 137 MIN. (I: 75 MIN.; II: 62 MIN.)

Movie Review : 'Saawariya': Bhansali's most tender ode to love



Producer: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Salman Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Begum Para, Achla Sachdev, Zohra Sehgal
Music: Monty Sharma, Sanjay Leela Bhansali

This work of art doesn't have the in-your-face flamboyance of 'Devdas' or 'Black' where almost every shot reached a crescendo, every passion peaked like a mid-summer sun, and every movement denoted drama. But 'Saawariya' is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's most tender ode to love yet.

Taking Fyodor Dostoevsky's minuscule play 'White Nights', Bhansali has built huge but unimposing emotions classified by dollops of awe-inspiring studio-erected architecture that represents feelings rather than physical forms.

This is the director's most subtle and mellow creation.

Prakash Kapadia's dialogues let Ranbir's character of Ranbir Raj speak in a language that is modern and yet timelessly lovelorn.

The plot, if one may call it that, is a story of unrequited love told in shades of blue. Bhansali's narrative spins its sensuous web around chance encounters in and around a square set in a timeless land where clocks chime to the rhythm of a besotted heart and neon signs straight out of a bright Broadway pay cheeky homage to Bollywood's past, including Raj Kapoor, of course.

Ranbir Raj sings and performs at a club called Raj's Bar when he isn't chasing the enigmatic Sakina (Sonam Kapoor) across an arched bridge that symbolises the end of hope and the beginning of love.

Sakina, if you must know, is on an eternal wait. A stranger (Salman Khan) walked into her home and life, walked out and promised to return. The lacuna between longing and fulfilment is filled by a young man who dances, sings, makes faces, writes love letters, protects Sakina from the rain, but alas, cannot protect himself from the heartbreak that awaits him under the bridge.

You can see reflections of Raj Kapoor's persona from 'Sri 420' and 'Chhalia' in Ranbir's acting in 'Saawariya'. And his relationship with his outwardly harsh landlady -- played by the gloriously spirited Zohra Sehgal -- is a wonderful recreation of the bond between Raj Kapoor and Lalita Pawar in 'Anari'.

Ranbir's acting is a dangerously extravagant and bravura performance that could've toppled over under the weight of the character's inherent exhibitionism. But with his director's help, Ranbir succeeds.

The emotions that run across the gossamer frames of this fragilely structured play-on-celluloid are woven with the delicacy that one associates with Kashmiri carpets.

Ironically, though requiring more attention than all his earlier works, 'Saawariya' is Bhansali's simplest story to date. The age-old boy-meets-girl format has been taken to the plane of purest expressionism.

The enchanting encounters shown in the film furnish the slim but haunting plot with the feeling of a play where the characters forget they are on stage.

The film's consciously created staginess is its biggest virtue. It lends an otherworldly quality to the frames. The wispy characters may or may not exist outside the prostitute-narrator Rani Mukerji's playful mind.

Maybe she's making up this beautiful tale of one-sided love and perhaps the boy-man she took under her wings is just a figment of her imagination.

The disarming delicacy with which art directors Omang and Vinita Kumar and cinematographer Ravi Chandran have built the blue foundations of the film's ravishingly romantic imagination lifts Dostoevsky's play to the sphere of poetry.

Monty Sharma's soul-stirring music adds an entirely new dimension to the story of waiting and suffering.

As expected from a Bhansali creation, the film is bathed in visuals that overpower the senses. The sequence where Sonam runs across a gauntlet of perpendicularly hung carpets beating a dust storm out of their beautiful fabric is a moment of sensual eruption.

In 'Saawariya', Sonam does not know what or whom she is running from or what she will run into. She is Nutan in 'Bandini', Aishwarya in 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' and Waheeda Rehman in 'Pyasa'.

'Saawariya' is like a dream where the characters themselves live in a dream world. Escape from this world is akin to death. No one dies in Bhansali's majestic make-belief world and nothing wilts. Not even love when it is taken away from the boy who loves to entertain the unhappy girl in distress.

© Copyright 2007 by MusicIndiaOnLine.com

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© Copyright 2007 by MusicIndiaOnLine.com

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There's something to be said for distance making the heart grow fonder.

I saw Saawariya a week ago, thought it was very good, not excellent, and then saw the childish and mediocre Om Shanti Om thereafter. All of a sudden today though, I'm inclined to go back and enjoy the visual opulence and mellowness of the Bhansali movie all over again. Frankly, I've never much cared much for sets, aura and opulence in a flick so much so that I'd want to go see it again in a cinema. (Perhaps because Devdas was so excruciatingly long???)

Or maybe there were some subliminal messages and images buried in those sets somewhere!?!?!?

I hope I snap out of it soon....

Pardon me fans of the movie but just take a break by this small but Hilarious review ...'jisme bande ne apna dard hatheli pe nikal kar hi rakh diya hai'... I bet u ll start doing 'Disco' to this particular expression of 'Dard'

To say Saawariya is a crappy movie would not be correct. Horrendously Ridiculous comes close, but it doesn't really capture the essence of the absurdity that this movie is. After watching this movie I felt like tying up Sanjay Leela Bansali alone in a room, forcing him to watch a cockroach chase a spider round-and-round a water fountain for 3 hours. That too in blue light. Because seriously, that's what this entire movie is. It's two grossly untalented kids, who probably got kicked out of college for lack of attendance and ended up on this set to spend the rest of the day. And for the love of God, I can't figure out why the whole movie is in blue! Maybe the director was trying to get every frame half-black half-blue so that the WinZip compression would work better to save some electrons(this is the best one), what with all the global warming and all. That's the best explanation I could come up with, because nothing else can explain the lack of daylight (or plain light, for that matter) in this movie.

Sawaariya is one long song with some breaks for dialog. And by dialog I mean girly giggling by the chic and some punch-me-in-the-face expressions accompanied by pig-like grunting by the hero. One wonders if all the actors are the props and the set is the real star in this movie. I came really close to concluding that the bridge-over-the-fake-river is the central star of the movie, because everyone of the other actors looks like they were made of rock. And the rocks had moss growing over them. And the rocks were painted blue

Appalling to see a talented film maker like Bhansali going to likes of choron ka chor Yashraj’s JBJ approach creating one long MTV razzle dazzle style song without proper dialogue, outrageous fake visuals, fake stage sets, caricatures and pretty boy to wiggle and jiggle in towel.

It's almost as bad as Hollywood going CGI, nothing is real anymore.

OMG! What was dat I watched for 2.5 hours non stop?

It was a long, blue, murky, misc created dream of SLB, at lowest edge of his phony creativity, to fool people into 2.5 hrs, 3 set, 3 act, musical play that keep on routing you again and again into same treacherous routines in the same area. I agree!It was very hard to sit through. Imho, SLB, went off ramp of reasoning, when he made HDDCS, after debacle of Khamoshi, then remade Devdas, and Black, all copied, inspired films with phony opulence and public showered their money and hearts on big wigs, big sets etc etc, and that gave this skewed man a gren chit to do whatever he wants in the name of film, just like wankas of ghaii and ramu choriya!

I thought JBJ was a stage drama! and was badly executed film recently, but NO, till you watch this HELLUVA CREATION!! I do not understand what film he should to SONY CORPORATION to get their ENDORSEMENTS It beats me.

Style is all and all, copying Mouline Rouge, that was million times better film imho.

I'll include this with some other BIG BANNER BORING AFFAIRS like EKLAVYA, PAHELI, SAAWARIYA, and some other recent biggie trash like Tara Rum Kum, Laga chunri main aag etc.

For courtesy may be some one can give this listing RAMU KI THANDI AAG too!

My 2 cents..Do not waste your money, Sony's dvd should be good!

BTW! Ranbir's expose was included in this print. I do not understand was he trying to give gays thrill by showing them Arnold's butt in Terminator style or what?????

I never regarded SLB as creative, good director, but just opportunist crook, another one!and whatever I had a bit left for Khamoshi! I am giving that away too today!

Thats one reason why I’ve started watching more commercial films to avoid the grandiose big pie in the sky hyped films.

I don’t get it either, whatever was his intention of the butt flaunt? Besides Rana, hehe don’t think general audience will be that impressed.

Reminds one of Oscar Wilde who put it very precisely: “all the world is a stage, but the play is badly cast”.

man, that was a "button" not even a well developed proper BUTT lol!I was wondering if it would be Ghaii or RGV he would use this kinda lights on female stuff instead of male . So may be it shows orientation type lol

For Pete’s sake, that didn’t match Bhansali's grandiose artistic style track record. Skimpy Ranbhir had guts but he is no Shahrukh in Maya Memsaab.

Saawariya is a copy of Tamil movie Iyarkai. Tamil director has sued Bhansali and the production company. I must admit that copying from a failed regional movie is a "brave" attempt though!

One more over rated director.

wana watch good musical, watch HAIR SPRAY, with Travolta, preferably on BLUE RAY

Saawariya is reported to be based on the Dostoyevsky story "White Nights," so Iyarkai must also be based on the same source.

Both Robert Bresson and Luchino Visconti have made White Nights before and I wouldn't be surprised to learn if SLB copied some scenes from their versions, just like he did with the fountain scene in Black, which copied the miracle worker. Shameless!

I saw Saawariya and no surprises that I found it disappointing. Style over substance is what's to be expected. I just don't think I like "Bollywood" any more. And I'm not even going to bother seeing "Om Shaanti Om" or "DDD Goal".