Saavat: A Hunt for Closure

Saavat is a brilliantly engaging film. Built as a thriller, it ultimately transcends the genre. Saurabh Sinha is a sure-handed director with an eye for minute details. His cinematographer fills the frame with many local details that imparts the film a rare scenic quality. Like horror films, thrillers are a genre that make stars not so necessary, but Sinha has a great empathy for performance. He peoples his cast with some superb actors. Smita Tambe is pitch-perfect as the lead investigator. Shwetambari Ghute also shines. But the film's triumph is Shitanshu Sharad, whose sheer presence alights the screen. The debutante's body language and his range of emotions seems to be that of a mature, well-oiled actor and is worth beholding.

The thrill is relentless, the frames are taut, and the story slick. The film isn't just about subsequent killings, but something more. It evokes the feeling of a noir. A neat and clever film.

What I love about the film is that it's a woman centric story. The protagonist and so called antagonist all women.

Without revealing much of the film I want to emphasize that it's not your everyday thriller films. It's mostly centered around the crime theme and has a social message attached to it. Very rarely do we see a filmmaker and writer in Indian cinema to make a film that's not just engaging in terms of script and idea, but also something that's dealt in a unique way.

Saavat is a uniquely designed film, everything is thought out to make the story compelling with a twist Of a message in the end. It's almost tricking people into thinking it's a horror or thriller only to then reveal its social message about injustices committed against women in India.

I think if you choose to watch this film, do so with an open mind, it's a new interpretation of crime and thriller genre and I think it should definitely get some respect in terms of its uniqueness and new point of storytelling.

The story starts with a death/ murder in a village. The visiting police investigator is told that there have been totally eight deaths, on the same date each year, in the last eight years. But, the villagers think that there is a witch afoot, and this is her work. This is followed by an elaborate narration for the witch theory.

This is a good story told very badly. The makers could not decide whether it was to be a scary movie, or a suspense movie or both. It is not any of these due to poor direction, poor acting and confusing screenplay. Given the good story, they have managed to tear it down in practically all aspects.

Frequently, the scenes were put-downs, amateurish and illogical. Consider the following:

-- There was emotional upheaval in the personal life of the protagonist, the senior lady police officer. Was there some connection between this and her successful cracking of the crime, or was it some kind of some kind of emotional release for her? From the movie, there seems no logical connection between the two things. In fact, the emotional upheaval seemed peripheral. There was no perceptible link of that upheaval driving her to take extraordinary pains to solve this complicated crime. Nor did the story suggest a situation that the police officer plodded on with great effort in spite of being slammed by her personal crisis.

-- One of the actors confesses to having committed certain crimes. Why would he confess that, when the police had no evidence to actually implicate him. There are no scenes of clever questioning by the police, or using of 'brute force', to trap that him.

-- The story is based on certain pre-Harappan archaeological finds in some village in Nanded district of Maharashtra. Why give a definite name or period for the archaeological finds when such a find has not been made thereabouts at all? It would have been better to have mentioned only that the archaeological finds were extremely ancient and ground breaking.

-- All the eight witnesses to the eight deaths over eight years scream in the same fashion, arch their bodies backwards (in fright) in the same fashion and fall down unconscious (face down) in the same fashion.

-- Each of the single witnesses to the eight murders is branded on his skin at the back of his torso by the so-called witch. How could those branded words survive so starkly on the human skin for so many years? There is growth, repair and rejuvenation of the skin all the time.

-- A digital image of a scary woman appearing at the narration of each death by the respective witness is just insipid. It does not succeed in creating a scare and weakens the mystery element in the story. So, it does no good to the narration.

-- They show the protagonist talking to her boss, the Police Commissioner. The PC is out of uniform and standing at the side of a busy road. He does not look anything like an imposing senior police official. Perhaps they could have shown him with proper shoulder medals or epaulets, sitting in his imposing office, with photos of a few past national leaders hung on the back wall?

-- The protagonist, a senior police officer, arrives in the village in a swanky (by Indian standards) Volkswagen car. She moves around on site in this car. This is incongruous, as an Indian policeman would have a vehicle of a certain kind usually. They could instead have got a 'POLICE' painted (or not painted) Scorpion or other Mahindra SUV usually used by senior Indian police officers.

Due to the muddled narration, in fact, one may struggle to understand the or parts of the story. So, here is a good story, clearly blotched by the movie.

The acting of all, throughout the movie, was poor, jerky, sometimes strange and awkward.

This is a totally avoidable movie. One need not see a bad movie to get a good story.

Absolutely amazing movie...marathi movies need such genre...good acting..good direction and story...

Pleasantly surprised to come across this gripping crime thriller on netflix. They do not drag the story .. the story keeps flowing and has you waiting for the answer of whodunit.. ends on a sad-positive note ..