Saiyaara Review: Aneet Padda and Ahaan Pandey Win Hearts, but Writers and Director Miss the Mark

By Shantishwarup Tripathi

• Rating: 2.5 stars
• Producer: Yash Raj Films
• Writers: Rohan Shankar, Sankalp Sadanah
• Director: Mohit Suri
• Cast: Ahaan Pandey, Anneet Padda, Geeta Agrawal, Rajesh Kumar, Varun Badola
• Duration: 2 hours 36 minutes

In recent times, Yash Raj Films' latest movie "Saiyaara" has been generating a lot of buzz. Its aggressive promotion on social media created immense hype, with claims of breaking all advance booking records. Sadly, it turned out to be a case of “much ado about nothing.”

Director Mohit Suri, known for emotional love stories like Aashiqui 2, Woh Lamhe, Zeher, and Ek Villain, attempted to build the same emotional aura around this film, even marketing it as a spiritual successor to Aashiqui 3. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t resonate with today’s youth and fails to connect.

Story

The story opens with Vaani Batra (Aneet Padda), a lover of poetry and songwriting, arriving at a marriage court. However, she keeps her poetic interests hidden from the world. At the last moment, her classmate, lover, and fiancé, Mahesh Iyer, backs out of the marriage via a phone call. He chooses instead to marry the daughter of a prominent business tycoon for a career promotion.

Devastated, Vaani stops writing poetry. Upon her parents’ (Geeta Agrawal and Rajesh Kumar) encouragement, she starts job hunting six months later and lands a job as a journalist. It’s during this time that she meets Krish Kapoor (Ahaan Pandey), an angry, ambitious, struggling singer who is scarred by an abusive alcoholic father (Varun Badola).

Krish is impressed when he reads one of Vaani’s old poems and urges her to write lyrics for his music. As they work together, an unspoken bond forms between them, and eventually, they fall in love. But before their love can fully blossom, Vaani is diagnosed with a serious illness, and the story takes multiple emotional turns from there.

Review

The biggest weakness of Saiyaara lies in its dialogues, screenplay, and direction. The dialogues often feel disconnected from the scenes—for example, a character refers to Vaani being in her room while she’s clearly sitting under an open sky. Such inconsistencies dull the film’s impact.
There’s a lack of novelty in the story and screenplay, which feels dragged and should’ve been tightened in editing.

Ironically, Ahaan Pandey himself is a “nepo-kid,” being the nephew of Chunky Pandey and cousin of Ananya Pandey. Yet, in the early scenes of the film, his character ironically critiques nepotism and entitlement. Perhaps, this is Yash Raj Films' subtle response to the ongoing nepotism debate.

The youth portrayed in the film feels outdated; today’s real-life youth may find it hard to relate. The love story might appeal to teenagers aged 14 to 18 but not beyond.

The pre-interval portion is slow-paced with repetitive dialogue and overly extended scenes. Post-interval, some emotional moments manage to strike a chord, especially in the last half-hour. However, Mohit Suri fails to replicate the emotional depth of Aashiqui 2. The pain of heartbreak and the depth of love are inadequately portrayed.
The title track “Saiyaara...” is genuinely touching, but the rest of the songs fail to leave an impact. The climax, too, feels underwhelming.

Performances

As Krish, an angry, ambitious, struggling singer estranged from his father, Ahaan Pandey breathes life into his role. His performance feels fresh and natural. At times, he does go overboard, but for a debut film, he’s done fairly well. He portrays emotions effectively through his expressions and eyes, though there’s still room for growth.

Aneet Padda, as Vaani Batra, comes across as a seasoned actress. Her face reflects innocence and fear, and she carries emotional scenes convincingly. There's no doubt that Ahaan and Aneet’s pairing brings a sense of freshness and sincerity that’s rare in many new-age actors.

Rajesh Kumar, Geeta Agrawal, and Varun Badola do justice to their small roles with decent performances.

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