Savi movie review: Divya Khossla gives her career best in an intriguing thriller

Savi movie review

Abhinay Deo known for quirky crime thrillers (‘Delhi Belly’, ‘Blackmail’, ‘24: India’, this time in ‘Savi’ gives us a modern-day Sati Savitri thanks to a 2008 French thriller ‘Pour Elle’ (Anything for Her) where a husband goes all out to save his wife wrongly sent to jail. Here a wife goes all out for her husband wrongly sent to jail.

Obviously, the French and the west in general are hardly aware of the Indian mythological story of the legendary couple in Hinduism Savitri Satyavan, if they have known about the story the protagonist in the original would have been the wife.

Coming back to ‘Savi’, its Divya Khossla’s career best in an intriguing thriller which doesn’t tries to be extra smart. Sticking to the basics of the genre and applying the slow burn mode, ‘Savi’ cracks the code and also spins a surprise.

The first half takes time to establish the things and after a while thing turn interesting as Savi starts reading acclaimed books on jail break.

The basic plot is simple, what holds is the transformation of Savi from a simple housewife to a desperate but clumsy woman on a mission and gradually turning into a cunning fox and making the England Police run for their life.

Director Abhinay Deo and writers Parveez Shaikh and Aseem Arora effectively builds Savi’s sense of desperation. Savi is the aam Hindustani naari jo waqt aane par pad jaati hai firangiyo pe bhari – we know such people exist only on fictional novels and movies but we accept it cause the makers convince us to do so.

Abhinay Deo’s narration maintains a good balance of emotions and thrills. Adapting the to and fro technique, the movie opens with Savi taking a dead body away from her car.

The morality of right and wrong is not touched and left for the audience to imagine. This is the weakest point of ‘Savi’. Abhinay Deo’s previous directorial ‘Blackmail’ handled the morality issues in a much better way. ‘Savi’ also lacks the brilliance and black humour we saw in ‘Blackmail’ and ‘Delly Belly’, ‘Savi’ is a simply a thriller drama.

Anyhow, Abhinay’s faith in Indian culture is again displayed, in ‘Blackmail’ we had the sacred plant of ‘Tulsi’ as a metaphor, here it’s the nickname of protagonist working as a simile which only get revealed in the end.

Performance

Divya Khossla is outstanding in her career best act. From a simple adorable housewife to a clumsy woman trapped in a helpless situation to a woman determined to achieve her goal, Divya Khossla is on a roll here. Savi belongs to here.

Anil Kapoor is class apart once again, Savi may belong to Divya Khossla but Anil Kapoor is the force behind. Excellent.

Harshwardhan Rane is good in whatever scope he gets, more of him could have been better.

Technicalities

Production values are first rate. Cinematography by Chinmay Salaskar is marvelous. The beauty of England and pain, suffering of Savy gets toned perfectly. The night scenes create the required atmosphere. Music by Arkadeep Karmakar, Vishal Mishra, Javed-Mohsin and Piyush Shankar is passable. Background by Arkadeep is good.

Savi – final words

Savi is an excellently performed decent thriller, if you are a fan of thrillers than ‘Savi’ can be your ticket.

Going with three and half stars.

Savi is releasing in theatres from May 31, 2024.