Women power, women capacity to the fore
Abhinay Dev works on an interesting premise. He ensures he keeps the viewers’ interest even if he misses a trick or two. ‘Savi’ is said to be inspired by a French film, ‘Pour Elle’. The Indian connect to the Savitri-Satyavan who saves her husband from the “jaws of death”. The plot of a woman trying to save her husband is not the biosphere we have hitherto worked out. Interestingly, crime — the central factor — slips effortlessly from the backdrop. There is little time on the good or bad. It is a thriller simplicator. This works. Works well for most of the time. In fact, given the low expectations, you realise, ‘Savi’ is not a bad choice.
Savi (Divya Khossla), hubby Nakul Sachdeva (Harshvardhan Rane) and their kid Aditya (Mairaj Kakkar) are happily ensconced in Britain and Facetiming senior Sachdeva (M.K. Raina) when the cops land up – gatecrash to be precise — and arrest him in a murder case. Even while he is in denial mode he is sentenced to life imprisonment in a British jail. After the near-mandatory scenes depicting the domestic front having gone haywire, the film escalates to the thriller state when Savi decides to replicate Savitri — the epic character.
She first finds inspiration from friend Simrit (Raageshwari Loomba), “Helplessness is like quicksand” she says inspirationally with perfect punch and diction — almost navigating Savi from diffidence to resilience and determination.
No textbook teaches you to break into a Brit prison and execute the great escape of a murder convict. Savi reaches out to Joydeep Paul (Anil Kapoor), a guy who has been a jail-breaker of repute. From here, the film walks the path of her acquiring the physical, mental and emotional wherewithal to achieve her aim. You don’t have to be told that she is going to succeed, you have to only watch how she does it.
She takes the clue: Bechari Mat Banna! Truly and takes her chances with the goons, the police, the prison authorities and life itself. Brought up from childhood with the belief that perseverance helped Savitri regain Satyavan from Yama, our contemporary story requires faith in the central character. Interestingly, Nakul plays arguably no role in the planning and execution of the plan. This is a film on women power — nay women capacity — and kudos for saying it without much ado and keeping it simple.
Anil Kapoor as the slim, sly, professional is getting wonderful screen space when his contemporaries are near-forgotten. He is predictably good and genuine. Even the contrived “fancy dress” facet of his character does not hurt his credibility. Mention must be made about the support cast particularly M.K. Raina, child actor Mairaj Kakkar, Himanshi Choudhary and Raageshwari Loomba. Harshvardhan is as good as ever warranting more attention and space in Bollywood. Divya Khosla tries hard but is not enough. She falls short in converting to reality, the fear, anxiety and emotional trauma that Savi undergoes. A more thoughtful casting could well have made a huge difference.