Saaho movie review: Prabhas starrer is just a little better version of Race 3

When an inexperienced director is served with a massive budget, it is most likely to end up in a disaster. Similar is the case with Sujeeth directorial Saaho.

STORYLINE

A big but highly tricky kind of robbery takes place in the town, following which the police department gets their best officer Ashok Chakravarty (Prabhas) on board to crack the case.

Known for his unusual way of working and rowdy nature, Ashok puts a team of officers together to nab the robber. His team includes Amritha (Shraddha Kapoor), Goswami (Vennela Kishore) and David (Murali Sharma).

With his smartness, Ashok soon traces out the thief, but that is just the beginning of unearthing a much bigger case of money laundering. A lot of twists and turns follow, until a major surprise comes at the climax. We cannot reveal much about the story here.

PERFORMANCES

Prabhas is seen as a super cunning and super strong man, who is no less than a one-man army. He certainly suits in such roles, but his Hindi accent does not sound convincing. There are no complaints on Prabhas' part as far as pulling off action stunts are concerned.

Shraddha Kapoor plays her part well too, and she also has some good action scenes. But it is Chunky Panday who deserves a special mention for portrayal of his antagonist role. The veteran actor is mostly known for his comic characters, but he leaves a strong mark in Saaho as a merciless and wicked villain.

Jackie Shroff has very a little screen space. Other important characters played by Mahesh Majrekar, Neil Nitin ukesh, Murali Sharma, Arun Vijay, Prakash Belavadi and Mandira Bedi did a decent job.

POSITIVES

Saaho has some high octane action sequences, and a larger than life plot that might go well with the masses. It is full of scenes that show flying cars, heavy guns and bullets being fired from all sides. It has a huge dose of action.

Some of the twists and turns, including a major one at the end, are interesting. The climax action scene also is worth watching. It has some exotic views that add glamour to the film.

NEGATIVES

Saaho has more minus points than positives. First, the screenplay is extremely confusing. Secondly, VFX has been extensively used but in a poor manner. The animated scenes showing a snake and a black panther inside a building (God knows why these animals there were at the first place) represent very low grade VFX work.

Another drawback of the film is certain action scenes are too silly to watch. For instance, Shraddha Kapoor topples down from a chopper, and Prabhas, sporting a jetman, jumps to save her (It somehow reminded me of Race 3). Realising that the jetman ran out of fuel, he releases himself from it, flies towards her just like that, and grabs her mid-air much like Superman. If that was not enough, the two fall down into some water body from thousands of feet height, but nothing happens to them.

Also, Saaho is too lengthy and dragged unnecessarily. Songs are forced that further distract the plot.

VERDICT

Overall, Saaho is a film that could have been a good one, but it became victim to poor direction and extremely complicated screenplay. After Race 3, this is another film that shows how big budget films can turn into disaster if the director does not have a clear vision.