Saawariya released on 9 November 2007, and turned out to be a commercial disaster. It received mixed-to-negative reviews upon release, with praise for its soundtrack, production design, grand artistic approach and performances of the cast; however, its story, screenplay and pacing received sharp criticism.
Raj meets Lillian and they have an emotional conversation, during which Lillian reveals she had a son who left her many years ago to join the army and never returned. She lets Raj stay with her because he reminds her of her long-lost son. That night, Raj meets a mysterious girl. He tries to talk to her, but under the wrong impression, she shouts at him to go away. Raj tells her that he will, on the condition that he would escort her to safety, lest someone with bad intentions trouble her. As predicted by Raj, a drunkard begins following her and Raj saves her from him. After that, she allows him to escort her home. Raj discovers her name is Sakina and falls in love with her.
Raj decides to confess his feelings to Sakina. He resigns from his job to meet her and calls her but she ignores him. He gets angry with her but the pair reconcile. He takes her to his favourite place, on the top of the clock tower. There, Sakina reveals that she is in love with a man named Imaan. Imaan had left but promised to return for Sakina on Eid. It has been a while but she is still waiting for him faithfully. Hearing this, Raj becomes heartbroken and does not confess. However, he refuses to believe that there is an Imaan. He asks Gulab for advice, who advises him to tell Sakina how he feels. With the entire neighbourhood cheering him on, Raj decides to propose to Sakina on the night of Eid.
He takes Sakina to RK Bar and sings his favourite song for her: "Saawariya". Sakina remembers that it is time to meet Imaan and leaves. Following her, Raj tells her that he has discovered that there is no Imaan. Sakina tells him to let her go. Hurt, Raj goes to Gulab, saying he wants to sleep with her. Gulab, who loves Raj, is deeply hurt and gets Raj thrown out onto the street, where he is beaten up by a few of Gulab's henchmen. He returns to where Sakina is waiting. Imaan has still not arrived. Sakina, heartbroken, becomes sure that Imaan will not come back so she decides to be with Raj. Raj tries to make Sakina happy and succeeds. When they are returning home, they pass the bridge where they first met and see Imaan waiting for Sakina. Sakina hesitates as she steps toward Raj. Raj however tells her to go with happiness and Sakina reunites with Imaan. Imaan asks her if she is willing to accept a sad life with him to which she says yes and they both walk away together.
Elaborate sets for the film's imaginary city, complete with lakes, streets, shops, signages and a clock tower, were designed by the production designer Omung Kumar, who had previously worked with Bhansali on Black (2005).[7]
The soundtrack album of the film is composed by Monty Sharma and lyrics were written by Sameer. The soundtrack was released to mixed reviews on 19 September 2007. Indiafm gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, saying, "The title song would be remembered for months to come, if not years, the others do not really go that extra distance."[10] According to the Indian trade website Box Office India, with around 10,00,000 units sold, the film's soundtrack album was the year's fourteenth highest-selling.[11]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 38% of 21 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10. The website's consensus reads: "It's pleasing to the eye, but Saawariya struggles to fill its runtime with a story whose clichs unfortunately outnumber its points of interest."[12] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 44 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[13]
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express criticized the screenplay of the film calling it "static", adding that "Saawariya is an act of supreme self-indulgence".[14] Jaspreet Pandohar of BBC rated the film 2 out of 5 writing, "It's a clear case of self-indulgence and theatrical style over substance; with the director paying little attention to fleshing out the skeletal screenplay, preferring instead to focus on coaxing 'good-looking' performances from his young muses."[15]
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With his smooth-as-butter voice and romantic ballads, Arijit Singh has been ruling Bollywood for a while now. Last year, the singer saw a high-point in his career, when he won the National Award for Best Male Playback Singer for the Padmaavat song Binte Dil.
Though Arijit is at the top of his game right now, not everything was handed to him on a silver platter. Did you know he began his musical career with the reality show Fame Gurukul in 2005, where he could not even make the cut to the top five?
Arijit was just 18 when he participated in Fame Gurukul, which was judged by lyricist Javed Akhtar and singers Shankar Mahadevan and KK. He finished sixth on the show, which was won by Qazi Touqeer and Ruprekha Banerjee.
Arijit had to put in a lot of time before he found success. During his stint on Fame Gurukul, he caught the eye of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, who promised to work with him. The singer was asked to record the song Yun Shabnami from Saawariya; however, his version never made it to the film.
In 2011, Arijit made his playback singing debut with the Murder 2 song Phir Mohabbat. However, he became an overnight sensation in 2013, with the smash-hit Tum Hi Ho from Aashiqui 2. Since then, there has been no looking back for him.
Love Bollywood and passionate about translating poetry. Hence. bollywoodtarjuma, i.e. Bollywood Translations. On my blog you will find my take on my favorite Bollywood lyrics in English. More often than not, it will not be a literal translation and that's how I like it. Translating metaphor into metaphor has been my passion all along and now I wish to share it with the world. So please enjoy and let me know your feedback. If there are any songs/poetry/dialogue you want me to translate, I would love to give it a try. Just leave a comment with your request.PS: All original songs belong to the copyright owners. I have no intention of infringement, just a desire to partake in the joy those words bring to my world.
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