‘Saiyaara’: Stars Are Born, A Woman Is Erased

The movie begins like many others: a Mumbai civil court, where couples are getting married. Vaani Batra (Aneet Padda) is about to marry the love of her life, Mahendra Iyer. She’s dressed not like a Punjabi bride, but a Tamil one, an ottiyanam cinched around her waist, for her soon-to-be husband. As she waits for him, she pens a poem and gets a call. Mahendra won’t be coming. 

Vaani’s life goes from technicolor to grey. But this story isn’t about Mahendra. It’s about Krish Kapoor (Ananya Panday’s cousin Ahaan Panday in his debut), a brash singer, composer, and future rockstar, who’s angry about the cards the world has dealt him. He isn’t a nepo baby, he declares, which is why reviewers never mention his contributions. The story of Saiyaara — which spends excruciating minutes explaining its title in the film — is about how these two characters create magic. The music is outstanding, the debutants or near-debutants beautiful to look at, and many have already declared the film a hit based on the box-office collection alone. But this is no Jab We Met (2007) or Rockstar (2011). We’ve nailed the music, but the screenwriting leaves much to be desired: stop doing our female characters dirty.