Savi Review: A happy family of three, Savi (Divya Khosla Kumar), Nakul (Harshvardhan Rane), and their son are living a happy life in Liverpool. Their world is shattered when Nakul is arrested in a false murder case, and the worst happens when he is found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in prison. But Savi cannot let him stay behind bars for that long because there is a gang planning to kill him there. What will she do to bring him out? Plan an interesting prison break.

Savi Review: Analysis

Thrillers are a very exciting breed of films. When they deal with prison breaks, the audience always wants to be a step ahead, guessing what the next move of the characters on screen should be, or criticizing them for not taking a safer path. It is almost like a sport for cinephiles who have loved the genre for a long time. When a filmmaker who has given us fine films like Delhi Belly (2011) and Blackmail (2018) decides to tell a story about a woman who has never even raised her voice going against the government of a foreign country to make her husband escape, he does have an interesting plot in place. But when he chooses an actor who has been associated with weak performances, what point is he trying to make, or what new potential does he see?

Well, Savi is a surprise package for the most part. Directed by Abhinay Deo, written by Parveez Shaikh with Aseem Arora on dialogues, and adapted from Paul Haggis’s The Next Three Days, Savi starts like one of those stereotypical movies. A happy family meets a tragic hour where their lives are left shattered with the helpless woman left to fight the ugly world that has no intention of making things easy for her. While you start sensing the odd air that is not your oxygen, Abhinay makes sure he tells you that this is not exactly that average story. There is indeed something to appreciate in it. The screenplay of the film is quite interesting as it never really intends to make you suspend your disbelief to the maximum, except for a couple of situations.

Here is a woman planning a prison break of sorts with a man who is the author of a book about prison breaks and has escaped from various prisons over seven times already. Learning about prison breaks from books is one thing, and planning one by reading them is another. The latter is exactly the kind of suspension of disbelief I was referring to. But the plot of Savi is interesting because Deo, who is known for getting into the psyche of his characters, is not intending to show you a dramatic prison break. He is rather looking at a woman transitioning from a naive, scared person to a strong woman willing to go against the government.

The story specifically peaks when Deo, his writers, and the team decide to look at a very interesting angle. The entire heist is planned by Savi, Nakul is clueless, but when he learns about it (while it is happening), he revolts against it. But Savi has come too far in this journey, and she is not the same woman he left behind. That is where the power of the film exists. No voiceovers or dialogues to tell you that she has changed, but a scene that proves it.

However, the movie lacks depth in exploring the backstories of these characters. We are teased that Savi lost her family in a riot, but nothing more about it is told. We are informed that Nakul was an angry young man, but what did he do a decade ago that deserved a mention like he pulled off a seriously dangerous task? These are the things that add layers to stories, and one must not just casually mention them but explore them thoroughly. Also, the author/prison break expert once said that all of England is under CCTV surveillance, so how does no one see Savi doing all those suspicious things? Also, why not explore the real murderer, and why is the investigating officer so late in realizing the truth and so quick when not needed?

Divya Khosla Kumar has definitely worked on herself because you can see her growing as an actor. Of course, she is far from being flawless, but she does grow under the hands of a good director here. The scenes where she is supposed to be happy in the beginning are too robotic, but the ones where she has to be the clueless woman fighting an entire system fit well. Call it interesting padding around the actors to support them doing well, but this could be the first film working in her favor. Harshvardhan Rane is impressive in a brief cameo, and Anil Kapoor is fun, and together they have a good time.

The music is average, and so is the camera work and production design, which are stereotypical to every mystery/thriller shot in a foreign land. There is no attempt to explore the landscape, making it feel like this could have been shot in India and would have made no difference.

Savi Review: Final Verdict

Divya Khosla Kumar finally finds a movie that has her well-padded, and maybe scripts like these will help her grow as an actor. Abhinay Deo needs to bounce back, and this is mostly a positive step.

Savi hits the big screen on May 31, 2024. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more information on this and everything else from the world of streaming and films.

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