Sauda The Deal (DVD)

.../> In all, I'd give Sauda a healthy 7 out of 10 as I did like the way the film ended, totally unexpected and quite clever in it's own way. I didn't cheer but equally I wasn't disappointed! The acting skills (or lack of them) of 3 of the 4 main characters let the film down for me.

By the way, if it wasn't obvious from anything I've written above - Sauda mean Deal…



Thanks for reading.
  ... more

"Sauda - The Deal" stars Sanjay Kapoor as Vijay, Preeti Jhangiani as Devika, Aryan Vaid as Sameer and Suman Ranganathan as Monica. It was released in September 2005 and was both produced and directed by Jai Prakash. The music for the film is by Anand Milind (don't buy the album)…

On reading the DVD cover of this film I had a sense of déjà vu, the story summary sounded very similar to Indecent Proposal from the early 90s. Hmmm, well I liked that film well enough, so let's see how Bollywood has dealt with this storyline. The tagline for the film is "The dark side of human society".

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Devika is a talented painter and is married to Sameer (who's apparently an MBA), a man who dreams of setting up a car showroom (!!??) but does not have the necessary funds to do so. They live with Sameer's parents who are a respectable couple of schoolteachers (possibly retired but it's not defined) in a very nice house. One of Devika's paintings is sold at an exhibition to an influential business tycoon who takes a bit of a fancy to her as well, but doesn't make a move on her due to her being happily married.

Enter Monica, a vampish model, who went to college with Sameer and Devika and secretly hates Devika and is in love with Sameer. She plots and plans with her friend Roma about how she can split the couple up in order that she can have Sameer all to herself. In the meantime, Sameer borrows a lot of money from a dodgy money-lender who gives him 6 months and a clear warning to repay the money or lose his parents home, which he has persuaded them to put up as collateral. When a London based backer who Sameer was relying on falls through, Monica puts the idea into Vijay's head to do a deal with Sameer to offer him financial backing in exchange for one night with his wife and after a bit of soul-searching Sameer goes along with this.

Ok so now you think we're pretty much reading the plotline from Indecent Proposal (except that there wasn't another woman involved there), but you'd be wrong. Sameer doesn't tell his wife about the plan for her to spend the night with Vijay for a lot of money and her reaction is to be horrified that her husband would even consider "pimping" her in this way. The rest of the story, I'm sorry I won't tell you but at this point I sat up and took a bit more notice…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The story was rather implausible in some places. To believe that Monica even went to any kind of educational establishment is almost beyond belief (as apparently she met Sameer and Devika at university). She comes across as someone who's been selling her body to the highest bidder for many years and her "love" for Sameer does not come across as love but more like a maniacal green eyed monster who wants revenge as she didn't get the man of her dreams. In one scene she tells Sameer that if she was his wife she would sleep with as many men as necessary to get him money. Hardly the way to encourage a man to propose to you.... You also wonder what on earth kind of business he's trying to set up as you don't actually see him doing anything remotely related to work, except trying to get backers for his venture and sitting or standing around looking broody!

Aryan Vaid's character seems to have no backbone. When faced with the dilemma about whether or not to pimp his wife, he seems to do his soul-searching and make a decision within oh about 5 seconds and doesn't even have the guts to tell her about the "deal". He just takes her to Vijay's mansion and makes some excuse to leave her there, saying he'll return in a few minutes. I found his acting rather wooden and I couldn't empathise with him for one moment, in fact I felt like whacking him with my remote control and telling him to stop being such a spoilt brat and get a proper job instead of fantasising about something that was never likely to happen.

Whilst there's no doubt that Preeti Jhangiani is like her name "pretty", her acting skills have a long way to go before she could be really convincing in this type of role. I've only ever seen her in one other film and she was a supporting actress. Honestly speaking, I don't think she was ready to handle a leading role. Even in the scenes when she was crying her heart out, it seemed really forced and hammy and she seemed as if she was about to start giggling! She's not ready for leading roles and maybe she won't ever be, you should feel a lot more empathy for her character considering what she goes through in the film but due to her lack of acting skills and inability to display convincing emotions you almost couldn't care less.

The Monica characters' histrionics were grossly overdone, I guess she was meant to come across as a cold-hearted bitch of a woman who was going to stop at nothing to get what she wanted even if it meant breaking the law (I won't expand on what she does, just leave you guessing). She came across as a pantomime wicked witch to me more than anything else. As an actress I suppose she did well because I really wanted to pull her hair out in bunches! Oh dear! Well done her, eh?

Sanjay Kapoor was undoubtedly what made this film even slightly worth watching. He gave the character charisma and you find yourself respecting him for his decisions and you really hope that he "gets the girl" at the end of the film. In certain parts of the film I felt like patting him on the back or just giving him a big hug (maybe it's also due to the fact that he's quite sexy)…

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

At 2 hours 27 minutes the film was rather long and there were a few scenes put in which dragged the film out too much, such as a several comedy routines with Vijay's staff trying to sort out blackmail demands on his behalf without even telling him, which were totally unnecessary. There were about half a dozen songs in the film mostly with scantily clad women in nightclubs, but being a Bollywood film they have to cater for the rickshaw-wallas and taxi-drivers in India who really enjoy these scenes in films. The songs themselves left no lasting impression, yes I did sit there yet again with the fast forward button about 20 seconds into each song.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The DVD includes scene selection, subtitles in French and English and song selection as well as other current Bollywood films available and forthcoming releases. The extras are actually quite disappointing, as one might expect to see a bit more for one's money. I had a bit of a play going through the scene selection and watched the current available releases and forthcoming releases which was rather boring…

You can buy the DVD from sendit.com for £14.99 or rent it from screenselect.co.uk and I'm sure you'd be able to pick up a second hand copy from ebay for just a couple of quid.

In all, I'd give Sauda a healthy 7 out of 10 as I did like the way the film ended, totally unexpected and quite clever in it's own way. I didn't cheer but equally I wasn't disappointed! The acting skills (or lack of them) of 3 of the 4 main characters let the film down for me.

By the way, if it wasn't obvious from anything I've written above - Sauda mean Deal…

Thanks for reading.
 

...less