What follows does not purport to be a review of Saawariya -- the premiere last night, at the Adlabs theatre in Wadala, left me in too enfeebled a condition to attempt such a hazardous task.
So what you get are random riffs, a selection of isolated thoughts that occurred while I was watching the film. With that for preamble, here goes:
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's latest film, Saawariya, raises the bar of the cinema aesthetic to dizzying heights. Using a predominantly blue palette leavened on rare occasions with greens and magentas, writer-director Bhansali and art directors Omung and Vanita Kumar Bhandula have created a surreal backdrop against which the director, aided by nuanced performances by raw yet surprisingly competent lead stars, uses magic realism, surrealism and other forms that haven't even been invented yet to tell a stirring story of love, hope, longing, loss and redemption...
At some point in the future -- the very distant future, because the evolution of sensibility is a painfully slow process -- a film historian might write in that vein about the latest from the SLB dream factory. What contemporary historians and the paying public, not similarly gifted with 20/20 hindsight, will say is likely unprintable.
Text: Bolly Woods | Design: Reuben NV
Also read: Saawariya's stars descend on TV
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