It has to be said - Saaho is unbearable ! Almost three hours long and with a budget of Rs 350 crores, what we have is Prabhas with a clear Baahubali hangover doing some lazy action sequences tied together with misogynistic and juvenile writing . What is the story, you ask ? Exactly this - to put Prabhas and Rs 350 crores together to see if anyone will call out writer - director Sujeeth’s bluff !
Almost three hours long and with a budget of Rs 350 crores, what we have is Prabhas with a clear Baahubali hangover doing some lazy action sequences tied together with misogynistic and juvenile writing .
In a fictitious place called Waaji, the Roy khandaan patriarch (Jackie Shroff ) presides over what looks like a parliament of goons and crooks with obnoxious amounts of money . Roy still wants more money , some other goon wants his throne and one after the other characters are introduced and twists and turns employed. However, it’s just too exasperatingly confusing to keep up with .
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Saaho doesn’t bother to have a script and it tries to compensate for it with testosterone . Bulging muscles , guns and grenades, blood and gore - all this and more but with zero sense . Some of the portions actually become incomprehensible because the characters and their motives fluctuate incessantly.
Bulging muscles , guns and grenades, blood and gore - all this and more but with zero sense . Some of the portions actually become incomprehensible because the characters and their motives fluctuate incessantly.
Also, the film never tries to hide its obsession with the lead man Prabhas. So much so that for such a crowded film teeming with characters everyone seems to be overstaying their welcome. Jackie Shroff evaporates in the first 10 minutes. Chunky Panday gets to scream a little. Neil Nitin Mukesh is huffing and panting . Prakash Belavedi is served a raw deal. Murli Sharma is in an extended cameo. Tinu Anand has three closeup shots, while Mahesh Manjrekar has two.
But the worst insults are reserved for the women. There are four female characters in total, and I’m not even counting the many bikini bodies we see in the disastrous songs that come our way . Sharddha Kapoor is Amrita , a police office sincerely investigating a case when she is asked by Prabhas “Tum jaisi sundar ladki police mein kya ker rahi hai? What’s your story ? (What is a beautiful girl like you doing in the police?) ”. Of course, the lady must furnish an explanation because, god forbid, do girls really ever want to do anything worthwhile? She is soon rendered useless, while the hero of the film throughout is shown to make sexual advances at her while she visibly disapproves. It’s cringe-worthy how the movie doesn’t want to treat its own female lead with respect. Suddenly one wishes not for a script but for the writers to at least read the Vishakha committee guidelines !
The other woman is Mandira Bedi, and she has been given a name ! Yay! She is called Kalki and is usually seen feverishly holding on to her inhaler in the most crucial scenes, as if praying to dear god to get at least half a line in!
Saaho is a colossal waste of talent , money and our time and expectations . An infuriating watch !
The third is Evelyn Sharma, who catwalks for five minutes and then there is Jacqueline Fernandes - here as a nameless figure gyrating to some raunchy song with lines like Baby I’m a bad boy can you be my bad girl. Why have women at all when having flying flamingoes instead would have been more entertaining !
Saaho is a colossal waste of talent , money and our time and expectations . An infuriating watch !
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