Saathiya is a perfect example of what Bollywood does best—a realistic romantic drama about two impulsive kids who fall in love against the odds and have no idea what they’re getting into. That’s right, Bollywood naysayers—all you who mistakenly think Hindi films are escapistic candyfloss—realistic. No contrivances or extravagances—Saathiya is a fresh, charming, honest story about sweet, thrilling, ordinary young love. The project was a convergence of masters—written by esteemed Tamil filmmaker Mani Ratnam, music by legendary composer A.R. Rahman, starring actors Rani Mukerji and Vivek Oberoi at their best, and released by heavyweight Yash Raj Films.
Suhani (Mukerji) is a hard-working med student from a working-class family. Aditya, the good-natured son of a rich father, is bagging law school to start his own computer company. They meet briefly at the wedding of mutual friends and then see each other repeatedly on passing commuter trains. The coming and going of trains is a metaphor throughout the film for the couple’s missed connections. The story periodically cuts to scenes two years in the future of an anxious Aditya waiting for Suhani at a train station, and the foreshadowing effectively heightens the drama of their courtship—the emotional stakes aren’t high in the beginning, but you know they will be.
Aditya tracks her down and with some difficulty wins her over. He broaches marriage far too early in their relationship, their parents object, she breaks up with him and goes away on a medical internship, he chases after her, and they elope and decide to keep their marriage a secret until she’s finished with school and he gets his business off the ground. Their unconsummated union, spent separately in their parents’ homes with only fleeting moments in public together, is maddeningly tense, and their unbearable longing for each other utterly romantic—all wonderfully expressed in the kind of stylistically classic song-and-dance numbers that you don’t see enough of anymore. Eventually, the truth comes out and their parents disown them. Finally together as husband and wife, they’re poor, happy, and reveling in conjugal life—for a while anyway. Novelty wears off, routine sets in, problems crop up, he becomes neglectful, she turns into a nag, and before they know it, their marriage is a mess.
Superstars Shahrukh Khan and Tabu make cameo appearances in a climactic plot twist that resolves the conflict too neatly, but it’s a forgivable shortcoming in an otherwise flawlessly entertaining film.
Saathiya is rated Must See.