Saaho review: Just a glamorous stylised ‘fan service’ by ‘Baahubali’ Prabhas

There is glamorous, impressive, show lot of glitter and money, lots of plotting, scheming, action, but all starts sounding boring, monotonous and jarring after a point.. That's what happens when we so devoutly try to copy Hollywood. You see, the thing with Hollywood is that in their classic stylised films, there is a more subtle undertone, finer nuances that keep running throughout the film, but when we make such films, we, more often than not get stuck in the shallowness of the superficial.

The Baahubali-fame Prabhas of course has an impressive screen presence in this action flick directed by Sujeeth, but his so heavily accented Hindi, at times sounds cute but also ridiculous, particularly in romantic scenes.

Neil Nitin mukesh is a good actor but unfortunately, he hasn't got the kind of roles he deserves. However, the real applause goes to Chunky Pandey, who steals the show with his impressive screen presence and understated acting.

Shraddha Kapoor and all others are like shadows in the film necessary to highlight Prabhas. One thing I must mention about his screen presence. No matter however I may criticise the film, his presence with the natural, dusky complexion is impressive; surprisingly, it is the only thing that provides humane element to his otherwise super manly character. Fair-skin-obsessed heroes of the Hindi film industry should learn a lesson or two from Prabhas about the advantages of this natural complexion.

Back to the film. Well, it doesn't have much to tell about. Ironically, it is a revenge drama within the world of gangsters to which police is also a party. And in this world of villains in search of the real successor of their don, arrives the cunning, shrewder and more conniving (anti) hero, Saaho.

In between there is, predictably a lot of (at times ludicrous) action, explosions etc. There are some fabulous chase sequences apparently showing the excellence in special effects. But Prabhas challenging the rules of gravity was a little overboard, I must say.

Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy, Mohamaad Ghibran, Tanishk Bagchi, Guru Randhawa and Badshah is extremely mechanical and 'unmusical', kind of out of place too in this action ridden flick.

In brief, Saaho is an action thriller rather too stretched with a very predictable mystery, poor narration and direction. People look more like robots, than real flawed people- they either have chiselled bodies or a physique meant to be ridiculed but invariably all have stone-cold faces, including even Shraddha Kapoor who has shown some sparkles of facial expressions in her earlier films.

The film can be summarised in two dialogues of Saaho, when amid a volley of gunshots, heroine Amrita (Shraddha Kapoor) asks Saaho, "who are these people shooting at you?"

He says, "fans."

She responds, "but they look as if they are out to kill you..?"

He says, "yes. (They are) die-hard fans."

The film seems to be a 'fan service' for Prabhas fans.

So, guys, if you are a die hard Prabhas fan, and if you have not as yet come out of the stupor of Baahubali, or if you just want to forget the burdensome, cruel and violent present social circumstances in the idiotic world of guns, magnificent locales, go and watch Saaho. Otherwise, it’s just a waste of time and money