Saawariya (Blu-ray)

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Plot-wise, there's just no reason why Sakina would go for Imaan, much less pine for him. He comes across as a clichéd embodiment of evil, dressed all in black and overacting the bad-guy part. We have practically nothing more to evaluate him except for a night when we see her go to him in fascination. But why? It's like watching "Carousel," or a Gene Kelly movie where Kelly is a mime who acts like a sad clown and seeing him compete with the memory and ever-present possibility of the return of James Dean. It doesn't make sense, and scenes and sequences go on so long with the same sort of unrequited love business that the film's 138 minutes seem REALLY long. The saving grace is that with all the tonal inconsistency and, well, just plain goofiness there's a lot to laugh at--more, I suspect, than was intended. I don't know Hindi and so I can't comment on the quality of translation, but some of Sameer's lyrics will make Western audiences smile-as in one song when one of the women sings about a man and strings together words like "mod, handsome, showy, lively . . . graceful, stubborn, pants are loose." Pants are loose? Or another song where he sings to she, "You tantalize my breath, you are my adornment."

While I can appreciate that it's a little daring to shoot a film that's so theatrical in its look and rely on a script that sets every scene but one in stylized darkness, "Saawariya" plays like one long dream sequence from an old-time Hollywood musical. And those dream sequences just don't play well for audiences today. If you're wanting to check out what Bollywood has to offer, a better place to start is "Bride and Prejudice," Gurinder Chadha's 2004 take on the Jane Austen novel. It's more tonally consistent, the cheese factor is mercifully diminished, and there's an energy that "Saawariya" seems to lack. Maybe Sony should try bankrolling Chadha next.

Video:
Visually, "Saawariya" is stunning to watch, and that's one of the film's saving graces. Visual style is its chief strength, and in 1080p (AVC/MPEG-4 codec) it looks great, especially presented in 2.40:1 widescreen on a 50-gig disc. Black levels are really strong and sharp, and that's essential for a film with so many monochromatic sequences if we're going to see any detail at all. It's a brilliantly sharp picture that's most noticeable during those shots when we see water lilies floating or a bridge and its lights reflected in the tranquil water. Great picture.

Audio:
Here too, the Hindi Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack is top-notch, with a deep, rich bass and a nice spread of sound across the front speakers. During the musical numbers it seems as if most of the sound comes "concert style" from the front main and center speakers with only a little of the music channeled to the rear, but that would be my only complaint, and it's a "soft" one. It's something you notice, but nothing that defies logic or takes away from the experience. There's also an English Descriptive Audio 5.1 track which is for the visually impaired, describing what's being seen rather than what's being said or sung. As for subtitles, there are a bunch of options: English, English SDH, French, Spanish (Latin American), Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese (Brazilian), Chinese, Czech, Korean, Thai, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hindi, German, Turkish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Bulgarian, and Portuguese (Classic). Sorry, no Klingon.

My only complaint about the subtitles is that we get English subtitles even when the speaker lapses into English, and the main English subtitle track doubles as a track for the hearing impaired with descriptions of laughter and musical notes. It can be a distraction until you get used to it.

Extras:
For a big-deal release that's been delayed for months, it's a bit of a surprise that there are just two short bonus features--"Making the Music" featurette and "Premiere Night Footage--and there's considerable overlapping between the two. It's mostly laudatory stuff and the equivalent of a Sundance stage event meeting an Oscar Red Carpet. You'll be introduced to a relative newcomer to creating music for Indian film (Monty Sharma) and "ace lyricist Sameer." But there's no real information here.

Bottom Line:
"Saawariya" is a stylistic achievement, but a storytelling disappointment. And the music and dancing? You walk away wishing there had been more big production numbers and less of the sad clown/mime nonsense. Tonally, it's all over the place.

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