Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram) Click here for shorter audio version
Savi Sachdev, a content housewife living in the UK with her husband Nakul and their son, faces drastic upheaval when Nakul is arrested for murder. With overwhelming evidence against him, Nakul is convicted. Left with no legal recourse, Savi decides to break him out of prison and flee the country with her family.
Directed by Abhinay Deo, the 2024 Bollywood movie “Savi” is a remake of the 2008 French thriller “Anything for Her,” which was remade in Hollywood as “The Next Three Days” with Russell Crowe in the lead. While the original story followed a husband’s daring plan to rescue his wrongfully convicted wife, “Savi” reverses the gender roles and stars Divya Khosla Kumar as its titular protagonist. Harshvardhan Rane (“Dange”/“Haseen Dillruba”) plays Savi’s husband Nakul, and she is confident that he couldn’t have murdered anybody.
The prison-break theme of the tale is a fascinating thriller element; however, “Savi” fails to establish Nakul’s character in a way that would make you want to root for him. Viewers are simply expected to side with Savi because she is the protagonist. “Don’t underestimate a simple housewife” seems to be the movie’s unsaid tagline, as cops keep referring to her as “just a housewife.” The film reminded me of “Mrs. Chatterjee vs. Norway,” which starred Rani Mukerjee as a Bengali homemaker fighting against the world to regain custody of her two children who were wrongfully taken away from her. But Divya Khosla Kumar is no Rani Mukerjee and is unable to elevate Savi’s character beyond the stereotypical Indian wife who magically channels her inner goddess when her family is threatened.
Anil Kapoor plays author and ex-convict Joydeep Paul, whose book about escaping high-security prisons inspires Savi, so she seeks his help for her prison-break mission. It’s absurd that a stranger would help a random woman out, but viewers meet Joydeep as a frustrated, lonely author suffering from writer’s block, so this new adventure from his reclusive author life is incentive enough. Anil Kapoor’s easy flair as the smart, master-of-disguises Joydeep Paul is the only truly entertaining aspect of “Savi.” The rest of the movie moves at a humdrum, bland pace, and Savi’s transformation from a helpless, lost homemaker to a criminal mastermind isn’t convincing at all.
The eventual prison break attempt is far less thrilling than anticipated, with barely any tension in the air. In an unintentionally funny scene, even Savi’s husband Nakul says (in not so many words) that escaping from the UK police is an awful idea. The last few minutes of “Savi” do deliver a few nail-biting seconds of suspense, eventually closing the film on an emotional, triumphant note. But because Savi and Nakul’s characters don’t undergo significant development, the climax feels quite unsatisfactory.
Rating: 2 stars out of 5. You can stream “Savi” on Netflix.
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