Savi- A Bloody Housewife Movie Review: Stories of an unassuming woman suddenly recognising the power – physical and emotional – within her is a trope that almost always clicks. English Vinglish, Thappad, Tumhari Sulu and Darlings are a few examples. Abhinay Deo’s newest directorial outing, Savi: A Bloody Housewife, is the latest to join the league. Here, the protagonist starts off as a naïve, loving and non-violent homemaker and mother, who then treads on the path of vice to win justice. While it may be a desi adaptation of French film ‘Pour Elle’, it looks fresh, novel and works for the average Indian audience.
The film revolves around Savitri Sachdev, fondly known as Savi by her loved ones, who lives in Liverpool with her husband Nakul and son Aditya. The Sachdev household is a regular Indian household that abounds in love and joy. One morning, however, their lives turn upside down when the police turn up at their door and arrest Nakul on the charges of allegedly murdering his boss Stefani Fowler. After being wrongly framed for the homicide, his appeal gets turned down and he gets sentenced to life under solitary confinement.
Thus begins Savi’s journey to avenge her husband’s sentence. When she realises that the law isn’t on her side, she decides to take it upon herself to help him break free from prison. She soon finds herself playing with fire and in the process, comes across Joydeep Paul, an ex-convict who had escaped prison seven times and is now a writer. With a bit of help from him, an innocent housewife turns into a bloody one.
At 2 hours 6 minutes, Savi: A Bloody Housewife makes for a thrilling and quick-paced ride. Abhinay wastes no time and nosedives into the crux of the narrative early on and hardly ever digresses from it through the inclusion of peripheral songs. While the film maybe less of a thriller and more of a suspense drama, he deserves brownie points for telling it earnestly and even with a dash of panache. So, if you’re looking for a volley of nail-biting moments and edge-of-the-seat sequences, you might be disappointed. Savi: A Bloody Housewife may lack the raw and unhinged edginess of Abhinay’s earlier works like Delhi Belly, 24 and Blackmail but it’s a great shot and he helps see Anil Kapoor and Divya Khossla, in particular, in a new light.
Abhinay and writers Parveez Shaikh and Aseem Arora also deserve credit for portraying and creating the character of the female protagonist by rendering a sense of familiarity and simplicity. Savi is your regular, next-door homemaker. Her presence, in fact, is so unassertive that it would make her merge into the humdrum of everyday life. And what’s even more interesting is the fact that despite being a woman-led action thriller, the subject never becomes the object of male gaze. Not for once Savi emerges as a latex-clad sexy siren who needs to tantalise and titillate her prey with her sensual quotient.
The makers also make sure that a homemaker doesn’t abruptly transition with a weapon-wielding action heroine beating up the bad people (or the lawmakers and good ones, in this film) and engaging in high-octane action sequences to prove her physical prowess. In fact, her feminine instincts become her biggest weapon. Even as she needs the nudge of a man (Joydeep) to bring out the beast within her, she never for once loses her empathy and compassion.
One of the only things working against Savi: A Bloody Housewife is its stretched-out climax. A crisper climax much like the rest of the film would have definitely made it a better watch. Having said that, the film marks a revelation of sorts as it sees Divya hitting all the emotional notes right, a feat we haven’t had the opportunity of witnessing in the past. Here, she gets to play around with a meaty character with a dynamic graph and she does a great job. Her tears, fears and vulnerabilities are palpable and the substantial effort she puts in is visible. In a nutshell, she makes Savi an unusual blend of fragility and fearlessness.
Anil Kapoor, who plays an ex-convict, also delivers a noteworthy performance. His Joydeep is borderline quirky, protective and unpredictable all at once. Some of his scenes and conversations with Divya’s Savi are fairly engaging. He acts as a perfect anchor to Savi and never leaves her hand. Even as she keeps questioning her own wrongdoings as a delinquent, he remains a safety net for her to fall back on.
Harshvardhan Rane plays Savi’s husband and while he has a limited screen time, he makes sure that you take note of him. However, we eventually see him jumping in to join hands with Savi to break free from the clutches of injustice. For a film that is named after its female protagonist, it would have been nice to see the woman being at the foreground especially in the climax sequence. For years, we’ve been witnessing the glorious hero with a saviour complex protecting his woman. A contrasting change would have definitely set a precedent. But truth be told, every baby step counts.
Savi: A Bloody Housewife will perhaps start a new chapter for Divya Khossla, the actor. Though predictable, it definitely deserves a watch for its fresh treatment and sincere attempt at being a clutter-breaker.
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