Saali Mohabbat
Introduction
The cold open of the Hindi film Saali Mohabbat will immediately remind you of Tisca Chopra’s short film Chutney (2016) that invariably had a similar premise to it. The setting is Hitchcockian – rain in the backdrop even as the camera pans over trees and their seemingly long roots that play important characters in the narrative. It is a classic setup of an ominous beginning even as you are introduced to Kavitha (Radhika Apte) – a middle-class character who finds herself to be the odd one out at a house-party. The tormentous weather outside affecting the trees draws a parallel with Kavitha even as she stumbles upon her husband randomly making out with her guest. And yet the path of a strikeback that Kavita chooses is in the same spirit of the room – through a gossip session that traces a story of a girl named Smita (also Radhika Apte) who is caught in a turmoil with her husband. The two increasingly independent settings have one theme in common – Revenge!
Story & Screenplay
Written by Tisca Chopra, Sanjay Chopra and Namrata Shenoy, the biggest stumbling block of Saali Mohabbat remains the predictability of the drama that is served as a streak of unpredictability. The parallels between Chutney (2016) and the drama here cannot be ignored too – a middle-aged wife teaching a young girl a lesson after the latter having briefly flirted with her husband. Just that the stakes here are seemingly high even as you are acquainted with the bunch of characters here – Smita, a young woman who loves plants and gardening while staying with her husband Pankaj (Anshumaan Pushkar), a compulsive gambler who is now in debt while vying Smita’s ancestral home to pay off her debts. This, while the entry of Shalini (Sauraseni Maitra), Smita’s sister into the household changes the dynamics of the characters forever.
The streak of predictability lies in how Shalini begins a torrid affair with Pankaj, while also two-timing him with a flawed cop Ratan (Divyenndu). It is increasingly predictable on the whereabouts of the drama, even as the writing tries hard to create an ambience of a Shakespearean tragedy. The drama is partly successful in continuously highlighting the Chekov’s gun in the form of the plants – some poisonous too, which you can predict will form a part of the narrative later on. But in this process, the characters get left behind, not quite fleshing them out into the grey area. For instance, we are never told why Shalini has a thing for older men, and her want to begin affairs with them – one with her sister’s husband too. It is the exact laziness that you don’t wish to see in a setup that promises thrills, something that remained an extention of the third wheel in the Haseen Dillruba franchise. As a result, even the victims of Shalini – Pankaj and Ratan remain rather one-dimensional characters that don’t really have an emotional pull.
The hollowness of the drama can be felt in its writing given that the shock value is missing. Even after the crime has been committed, the writing wishes to shift the POV towards the investigation, as opposed to simply treating the drama as a character study. The itch to treat this as a whodunnit as opposed to a howdunit further reduces the impact of the drama, that actually felt trapped in a wrong medium. The only way that one could have felt the impact was to reduce this feature film to a short film, wherein much would have been left to the audiences’ imagination.
The investigation is perhaps the most sloppy portion of the drama here, given that there is a backhand arm-twisting plot that is played out as a subtext. But it is needless to say on how everything feels so convenient that the entire episode of the orchestrated crime felt like an episode of Savdhaan India. It didn’t help that the execution was juvenile too, something that restricted the impact of the drama without pushing it into the psychological territory. Even with the finale ‘twist’ and the fate of the characters while linking the aspirations of revenge across the two settings, it all but felt too bland. And that was the bottomline for the film too.
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are decent but they aren’t memorable by any stretch of imagination. The BGM remains sedate, almost too sedate to have any impact on the drama that manipulates you into wanting you to immerse yourself in its ambience. The notable contribution in the drama comes in the form of the cinematography that dips the drama into an unhurried texture of a thriller with a leisurely yet eerie ambience. The frames are pretty well constructed even while representing the world of plants – a slender of a subtext on the environment and the repercussions that might transpire if being cheated on. The editing pattern ought to have been crisper given that there remains a sense of lag in the second hour when the tensions ought to have been at its peak.
Director Tisca Chopra remains sedate with her world building but subpar with her characters, something that doesn’t quite allow the drama to create an impact. You can sense a bit of inexperience in tackling a ‘Hitchcockian’ subject with the same flair as some of her other contemparies, given how her creative decision to shift the POV at an important juncture loosens the moderate grip on the proceedings. It is interesting to note on how a small subplot of the film Sister Midnight handled the POV really well even while chartering the drama in absurdist waters. The direction overall remains quite sub-par.
Performances
The performances remain decent by the members of the cast. Anurag Kashyap as Gajendra had little to do apart from an important passage in the second hour, and his character almost felt like working in isolation to the main plot. Kusha Kapila as Diya is decent but nothing much to shout about. Sharat Saxena as Maali is intimidating and makes his presence felt with some sharp glares on more than one occasion. Sauraseni Maitra as Shalini has a solid screen presence but her performance is limited on the account of a one-dimensional character that we know nothing about.
Anshumaan Pushkar as Pankaj is a fine actor himself and he remains sincere here, although you don’t really feel an element of rage towards his character due to the sketchy undertones with respect to the writing. In the same breath, Divyenndu as Ratan follows the similar trope in a performance that remains earnest but fails in contributing to a fizz in the narrative due to the writing. But the show belongs to Radhika Apte who is once again brilliant as Smita. Her body language and mannerisms are minimalistic but impactful to the point that you feel an escalating tension quietly simmering within her. Unfortunately, the writing doesn’t always stick to her POV – something that does impact the degree of her performance.
Conclusion
Despite decent performances, Saali Mohabbat is a bland ‘Hitchcockian’ howdunnit with sub-par execution that makes this thriller lukewarm and rather forgettable. Available on Zee5.