Saali Mohabbat Review {2.0/5} & Review Rating
Star Cast: Radhika Apte, Divyenndu
Director: Tisca Chopra
Saali Mohabbat Movie Review Synopsis:
SAALI MOHABBAT is the story of a woman on a rampage. Smita (Radhika Apte) lives in a small town of Uttar Pradesh with her hubby, Pankaj Tiwari (Anshumaan Pushkar). Pankaj owes Rs. 27.55 lakhs to the dreaded gangster, Gajendra Bhaiyya (Anurag Kashyap). Smita owns a prime ancestral plot in Moradabad, and Pankaj insists that she sell it to settle his debt. But Smita refuses to do so. Meanwhile, Smita's sister Shalini aka Shalu (Sauraseni Maitra) arrives in their town for job purposes. Shalu is accommodated in Smita's house. This is when Shalu and Pankaj get attracted to each other and begin a physical relationship. Shalu also gets involved with a cop in that town, Ratan Pandit (Divyenndu). What happens next forms the rest of the film.
Saali Mohabbat Movie Story Review:
Tisca Chopra and Sanjay Chopra's story has all the thrill elements. Tisca Chopra and Sanjay Chopra's screenplay (additional screenplay by Namrata Shenoy) fails to do justice to the plot at hand. Tisca Chopra and Sanjay Chopra's dialogues (additional dialogues by Avneesh Mishra) are normal.
Tisca Chopra's direction is okay. The plus side is that she has extracted fine performances from the actors. The protagonist’s love and knowledge about plants provides a nice touch to the narrative. A few scenes stand out like Smita learning that her husband is cheating on him, the birthday cake moment and of course the scenes of the murder and the aftermath. The scenes involving Smita and Ratan also stand out, more so in the finale.
On the flipside, one doesn’t get fully involved in the film as the makers don’t properly explain several aspects, be it Smita’s bond with the gardener (Sharat Saxena), what Pankaj and Shalu exactly do for a living, why Gajendra is so dreaded and what is his line of work etc. The way the culprit commits the crime and the way the investigation is done so shoddily is also difficult to digest. The final scene does arrest attention but again, there’s no explanation on whether the cops tried to find out the reason behind the shocking development and who is responsible for it. Lastly, there have been many films in this space which are far better and this also goes against SAALI MOHABBAT.
Saali Mohabbat | Official Trailer | ZEE5 Original | Radhika Apte, Divyenndu
Saali Mohabbat Movie Review Performances:
Radhika Apte lets her silences do a lot of talking and delivers yet another incredible performance. Anshumaan Pushkar puts up yet another fine act after 12th FAIL [2023], MAALIK [2025] and the recently-released DELHI CRIME SEASON 3. Sauraseni Maitra has a great screen presence and lends able support. Divyenndu delivers a very entertaining performance. Anurag Kashyap is let down by the writing but performance-wise, he’s efficient. Sharat Saxena is great as the mysterious gardener. Kusha Kapila (Diya), Lekha Prajapati (Malini) and Aalekh Kapor (Vicky) are okay in small roles.
Saali Mohabbat movie music and other technical aspects:
Music doesn’t work, except for 'Hara Re Chanda'. The rest of the songs, like the title track, 'Sunta Rahun', 'Harjaayi Be' and 'Bakra Halaal', fail to entice. Karan Kulkarni's background score is fair.
Vidushi Tiwari's cinematography is functional while Manish Malhotra, Darshan Jalan and Manish Tiwari's costumes and Rakesh Yadav's production design are straight out of life. Sanyukta Kaza's editing is tight.
Saali Mohabbat Movie Review Conclusion:
On the whole, SAALI MOHABBAT rests on a promising plot but fails to wow the audience thanks to its weak script and direction.
