Over the last several years, mainstream Hindi cinema has been guilty of showing more than half or at least half of the film in the trailer itself. When the promo of Mohit Suri’s Saiyaara and the video of its title song came out, it gave a feeling about the film being in the Kabir Singh zone about a frustrated lover living a toxic life.

However, as it turns out, the film is nothing like that. It’s hugely different from its trailer. In fact, it’s one of the rare mainstream Hindi film to completely hide its main plot.

Saiyaara is based in today’s era in Mumbai. It revolves around a hot-headed and arrogant struggling singer and musician Krish Kapoor (Ahaan Panday), who is a part of a music group. He once roughs up the editor of a digital publication for mentioning only one person’s name from their band in their review of their album despite he being the lead singer. During this time, he comes across Vaani Batra (Aneet Padda), as aspiring journalist who was there for a job interview.

Vaani also possesses the skills of writing lyrics. Krish comes across her diary and is impressed by her poetry. She becomes a part of his musical journey and they both slowly fall in love. However, the road ahead of them isn’t as easy-going as their love for each other.

There have been countless films about a guy and a girl unexpectedly meeting and falling in love, not only in India but world over. But Saiyaara adds a lot of freshness to this part. The most challenging initial part for any romantic film is to convincingly show both the characters falling in love with each other. The film does that resoundingly well. Along with the direction and music, the movie is also blessed with a fast-moving and convincing writing by Sankalp Sadanah and Rohan Shankar.

Saiyaara becomes emotional once the story goes into the sad zone but doesn’t make you depressed because of its exploration of a medical condition. The makers have clearly taken creative liberties while exploring it. But you don’t mind this much as by this time, the film has had you emotionally gripped to its story and the characters. The medical condition also provides mystery and thrill elements.

Saiyaara is a rare Hindi film of today’s times where every song falls in the impressive category. Plus, all the songs by Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah and Arslan Nizami take the story forward and are not added just like that. The title song deserves special mention as it is a character in itself. You can’t help but applaud when it arrives in the film at the right moment. The writers have also handled the climax in a creative and moving manner.   

The two newcomers successfully carry the film on their shoulders. Ahaan Panday makes a terrific debut as a short-tempered musician who softens up later. He handles the transformation part convincingly. There is some rawness though in scenes where he has to scream. Aneet Padda, who plays a lead character for the first time, is nowhere behind. She handles the development of her character later on skillfully and comes up with a phenomenal act.

Alam Khan, Varun Badola, Geeta Agarwal, Rajesh Kumar and the rest of the supporting actors provide good support.

Everything, however, isn’t hunky dory in Saiyaara. The film’s main conflict reminds you of a movie starring Ajay Devgn and Kajol. There are quite a few questionable aspects related to the illness being explored and the turn in the tale in the second half. The character of Mahesh Iyer (Shaan Grover), who should have been serious, actually becomes unintentionally hilarious.

But Saiyaara has enough going for itself to be a rollercoaster ride about selfless love, something that has been sorely missing from our movies. And the reprised version of the title song in the end becomes the icing on the cake.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Director: Mohit Suri

Producers: Yash Raj Films

Writers: Sankalp Sadanah and Rohan Shankar

Cast: Ahaan Panday, Aneet Padda, Alam Khan, Varun Badola, Shaan Grover

Music: Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah and Arslan Nizami  

Also read: Sitaare Zameen Par review