Saawariya - dvd review

Up for some Bollywood? Anyone?

Granted, this film is from 2007 and its earlier work of bollywood young stars like Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor (no relation but they had worked with the director in the film, Black). Still, you've got a fabulous set. A story based on Dostoevsky's classic story White Nights.

There is plenty to see and listen too. Ranbir has a wonderful voice and he's pretty cool on his feet too. And there's that one scene when he's just in his towel..well, that alone is worth checking out. Its PG. And very much a romantic movie, definitely Bollywood style.

Ranbir is the orphan who befriends a prostitute in a bar when he asks for a glass of milk. Naturally, she invites him home, but he refuses. Later, he does fall in love with a carpet weaver, but as this love-sick puppy finds out, she has her own love woes to worry about.

Rani Mukherjee as the prostitute does some fantastic dancing in the movie, as well. The costumes are so colorful. Its just a gorgeous movie. If you haven't found a new genre to enlighten you, this might be a movie to help you get started.

Sonam Kapoor is so sweet and of course, simply gorgeous in the film as Sakina who Raj falls mad for.


STORYLINE: Orphaned and homeless Ranbir Raj re-locates to a small town and orders a glass of milk in the RK Bar. He befriends a prostitute by the name of Gulabji, who invites him to spend the night with her, and when he refuses, she re-directs him to Lillian who rents out rooms. Ranbir meets with Lillian, who has been living alone for 37 years after her son, Vincent, left to join the army and did not return, charms her, and rents a room from her. He gets a job as a singer in a local restaurant. On the occasion of Eid, while returning home, he comes across a woman standing on the bridge. He finds her very attractive, befriends her, walks her home, finds out her name is Sakina, who is a carpet weaver and lives with her aunt and blind grandma. Just when Ranbir is about to confess his love, she tells him that she has already given her heart to Imaan, a former tenant of her grandmother's. Imaan had left...

TRIVIA: Cinematographer 'Ravi K Chandran' used as a reference the works of art by the famous artists Frederick Arthur Bridgman, Fred R Wagner and William Louis Sontag to make the shots resemble paintings and thus look more poetic.

credits!