Saathiya

This film -- which I had heard almost nothing about before seeing it -- turned out to be a powerful, moving, and important love story. Rani Mukherjee's performance as Suhani -- the young M.D. and wife struggling to reach out to her husband after they elope -- is top notch and clearly deserving of an Oscar. Likewise, Vivek Oberoi does a wonderful job portraying her husband Aditya as he oscillates between playfulness and workaholism. Ali and Rathnam's story is superb -- combining drama and social commentary in a complex and satisfying tapestry. As always, Anil Mehta does a fabulous job lensing the story -- his cinematography captures a wide range of urban landscapes that subtly adds depth and context to the story (and be on the lookout for an in-joke concerning his name in the film). And, of course, A. R. Rahman's score is terrific -- particularly when pouring out of a theater's surround-sound system! Not to be missed!

Remakes, remakes and remakes. Some from Hollywood and some from South India. And the results at the box-office are mostly the same. FLOP! But why? Because these remakes can't achieve the status of the original versions (although good story, good performances or good music). Therefore directors are remaking their own films in Hindi but are failing, as well, because there is too much South Indian touch (Nayak – Mudhalvan; Rehna Tere Dil Main – Minnale; Dil Hi Dil Mein – Kadhal Dhinam; Doli Sajake Rakhna – Aniathiypravu etc.).

Saathiya, a Mani Ratnam creation, is a great movie. The film's strength is that it is suitable to North Indian milieu but fails to reach the quality that `Alai Payuthey' spread.

So where is its weakness then? Vivek Oberoi? Certainly not! It's a difficult job to top Madhavan's great performance in `Alai Payuthey'. Vivek won where Madhavan failed.

Rani Mukherji then? She portrayed her character, Suhani Sharma, completely different as her counterpart Shalini did in the original version. Both were great and for me difficult to say who was the better one.

So A.R. Rahman? He was the one who gave the wonderful scent to `Alai Payuthey' which you won't forget so easily. The songs and the background score which is filled with soulful tunes are absolutely great. It's one of Rahman's best works and he knows that he can't top it. As a result he didn't bring too many new songs which would destroy his early work. His new songs are nice to hear and fit to the North Indian milieu. The orchestra in the climax where Vivek apologizes to Rani is absolutely mind-blowing.

Gulzar then? I must admit that I don't understand Hindi and not much Tamil (thanks to English-subtitling) but the songs have good meanings and are as good as Vairamuthu's work for `Alai Payuthey'.

Perhaps Shah Rukh Khan and Tabu? Shah Rukh Khan is fantastic in his 10 minutes and portrayed the role differently as Arwind Swamy did. Tabu is unfortunately not as good as Khushboo who has done a superb job in Tamil.

But where is then the problem? It's certainly unfair to compare a youngster's work like Shaad Ali's with that one of a genius like Mani Ratnam's. Ali's direction is very good and is the best debutant director since Farhan Akhtar for Dil Chahta Hai. But small scenes which might be unnecessary are missing to achieve a very good quality. For example, in Saathiya `Aditya' has no one whom he can tell all his sorrows and lands up as a depressed husband. `Karthik' in Alai Payuthey talks with his Malayalee neighbour/houseowner (in Hindi Tinnu Anand) about love, marriage etc. and gets new hopes to set a new beginning in his marriage. The climax also in Tamil which has a more realistic look is better than in Hindi which is too filmy despite Vivek's performance and Rahman's orchestra. A clear parallel between Shah Rukh Khan/Tabu and Vivek Oberoi/Rani Mukherji could not been attained, as well.

But Ali has given the film a more youthful look than Mr Ratnam has done (more hanging out with friends, parties etc.) and like mentioned before, a suitable film to North Indian audiences and it is a film that is worth watching (though not as good as `Alai Payuthey').

Alai Payuthey 9.5/10; Saathiya 8.5/10

All same old stuff...love love and hell lot of songs.. Pata nahi kab sudhrenge yeh loooooog.. Now a days all the love stories are the remake of the movies from south india.

Shaad Ali's Saathiya is one of the best films of 2002. Everything about it -- from the story line, the cinematography, locations, emotions, performances to A.R. Rahman's beautiful soundtrack -- makes it a worthy film. The film marks the directorial debut of Shaad Ali, and it shows he has not gone far from his father (the great Muzaffar Ali) in terms of talent and imagination. He extracts good performances from his actors, he has a sense and understanding of emotion and clearly has a knack for capturing the complexity of marriage and relationships, which are infused with impressive lifelike sensibility in this film. Basically the story's success boils down to the fact that Ali portrays it with authenticity. This is a fantastic directorial debut (although he would ruin that image in his future projects BAB and JBJ). Rani Mukherjee is the main highlight of the show, the soul of the entire film. This is her career-best performance. She is simply flawless in every single scene - beautiful, vibrant, natural and convincing. Vivek Oberoi is a talented actor and acts very well, though he is not as good as his female costar. He does have to work on the more emotional expressions, but otherwise gives a complete performance. Gulzar and A.R. Rahman give life to the film with a superb list of songs, each of which is a gem. My favourite songs include "Saathiya", "Aye Udi Udi", "Chhalka Chhalka Re", "Chupke Se" and "O Humdum Soniyo Re". To sum it up, Saathiya is a very impressive, entertaining and realistic picture on relationships and marriage. I highly recommend you to see it.

With Mani Rathnam and A R Rehman linked to a project, one cannot be in to much doubt that if nothing else the music is going to be mind blowing.

But that was not the case with Saathiya. It not only had mind-blowing music and score it was one of the best movies of 2002.

The music and the respective picturisations are excellent, especially in the case of the title song ‘Saathiya'. My other favorite song is the tongue in cheek song ‘Choori pe Choori'. However all the other songs are very pleasurable as well. The main question was how would first time director Shaad Ali perform on this story, that would be a remake of Mani Rathnam South-Indian movie be as good as the original? Would he produce an art movie piece as his father (Muzaffar Ali) has done with movies like Umrao Jaan, or would he deliver a commercial piece? What one can be sure of is that Shaad has taken the craftsman of his fathers art movies and put them to commercial use, and delivered a movie that is unique, professional, modern and outstanding.

The acting is excellent as is the story line. Having liked Rani from Ghulam to K3G, is wonderful to see her finally taking the lead in a role that does her justice. Her realistic portrayal of Suhani, a modern genre women dealing with the trials and tribulations of married life is excellent. Having not seen anything of Viveks before, is was a surprise to see an actor of his young caliber holding such presence on screen, that it overshadowed SRK. It is evident that this actor will reach high strides in his coming career.

For a change this movie actually delivers a subconscious message, something not commonly done in bollywood movies. The message is ‘lifes to short, tell those around you how much they really mean to you'. Taking this to heart, I can truly say that I loved Saathiya.