Saiyaara Review: Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda make a promising debut in Mohit Suri’s cliché love story

Bollywood is going back to classic romances after years and it feels refreshing. The audiences in the past month have been treated to love stories and anthologies in Anurag Basu’s Metro In Dino and Vivek Soni’s Aap Jaisa Koi recently, and now Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara focuses on young love. Suri, who has made a name for creating musicals and angsty love stories, returns to his comfort zone and collaborates for the first time with Yash Raj Films- another name synonymous with Bollywood romances. The film marks the debut of Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda and looks and feels like Aashiqui 3 with similar romantic ballads, drama, angst, and love. But is Saiyaara a Gen Z version of Aashiqui? Let's find out.

Saiyaara Plot

He is hot-headed, she is shy, calm, and timid. They are chalk and cheese and predictably so, sparks fly between Krish Kapoor the wannabe composer-singer and aspiring journalist Vani, who eventually writes lyrics for him and an aging rapper (Shaad Randhawa, a Suri regular) to is craving to be relevant among the Gen Z. The two may be different, yet they both are drawn to each other due to troubled past. She is heartbroken after a broken engagement; he has an alcoholic father (Varun Badola) to take care of. Their collective pain brings them together as they learn to love and laugh together. But will love halt Krish’s flight to superstardom? Will Vani be able to shed her inhibitions and make it big as a journalist?

What works

The good news that that Mohit Suri and casting agent Shanoo Sharma have been able to find two actors who seem to have a very promising future in the Hindi film industry. Ahaan Panday, a known face from Dubsmash days, is charming and good-looking and reminds you of his uncle Chunky Panday from his younger days. Ahaan off screen charming persona is familiar to those who are regular on social media, but on screen, he plays a troubled and arrogant man who has too much angst to make it big. It's only when he meets Vani (Padda) that he realizes his true calling and finds love. Ahaan plays the part well, even though at some point, one feels his dialogue delivery needs more work.

His co-star Aneet Padda is a revelation. The young, petite actress holds her own throughout. Having worked in OTT before making her screen debut, Padda delivers a mature and restrained performance and emotes through her eyes. She obviously has a more difficult role than Panday and she delivers to her role well.

The two actors also share an organic chemistry; they look their part and are not the usual YRF leads, clad in designer clothes. There is a certain amount of relatability to both of them and their debut seems like a stark contrast from films like The Archies, and Naadaniya- both launched debutants and were backed by big banners.

Since it is a Mohit Suri film, the music is soulful and the romantic ballads are all hummable, even if they are slightly in excess. Actors Varun Badola, Rajesh Kumar and Geeta Agarwal are underutilized as the story solely concentrates on the lead pair. Alam Khan plays the cliché best friend to Krish, and his voice of reason.

Saiyaara Photograph: (X)

What does not work

Mohit Suri sticks to his template of troubled men and women, who are too emotional and sappy in love. It’s a trope that he has used in too many of his previous films and hence the plot of Saiyaara is predictable to an extent. A lot of plot points do not make sense. Krish is shown to be struggling in the beginning, and because of his temper, he often loses out on lucrative deals. Vani is from a middle-class family and is now interning at a media house. However, the two seem to be able to afford a dreamy villa by the beach as their love nest. Vani’s overprotective parents seem to be okay letting go of their daughter with a problematic man to live in as a grave crisis hits the family.

The film's ending is underwhelming and slightly abrupt and so is the climax, almost convincing me that writer Sankalp Sadanah got exhausted after writing such an emotionally heavy story.

The film, however, rises above these flaws. It has a solid lead pair who, despite being new, ably carry the film on their shoulder. They can act, and they are unlikely hero and heroine of YRF – Panday is able to rise above the nepo kid tag with his performance and that’s a plus. So, does it serve as the new age Aashiqui for Gen Z? Yes, it does.

Saiyaara is now playing in theatres across the country.