IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE

AT A TIME WHEN ROMANTIC FILMS WERE ON THE RETREAT IN BOLLYWOOD, MOHIT SURI DELIVERS A SMASH HIT STARRING TWO YOUNG NEWCOMERS. HOW DID HE PULL IT OFF?

- By SUHANI SINGH

NO REELS WERE SHOT. NO INTERVIEWS GIVEN. NO CITY TOURS or visits to malls and colleges. Relying on its ballad-heavy soundtrack and the track record of director Mohit Suri (who has done most of the pre-release heavy lifting), a romantic drama featuring two newcomers—Ahaan Panday and Aneet Padda—has sprung out of nowhere to create a mini tremor at the box office. Opening day collections? Rs 21.5 crore. Doubts about the figure being inflated or fudged were abound, but by the weekend of July 18, nobody could deny that Saiyaara, a new film about a young couple whose love is challenged when one of them develops early-onset Alzheimer’s, is a smash hit. Rs 83 crore in three days! Records have already piled up: biggest opening weekend for a film featuring rookies, biggest opening for a romantic film in Indian cinema... With week one set to easily cross the Rs 150 crore mark, the film is destined to enter the Rs 300 crore club. That these numbers come at a time when the love story was deemed a deadbeat genre on the big screen has made this accomplishment all the more impressive.

But how did it happen? The key, as has been the case with many of Suri’s previous romantic outings (Murder 2, Aashiqui 2, Ek Villain), may be the soundtrack, which not only complements his emotional narratives but at times also supercedes it. Saiyaara's album features fresh vocal talent like Faheem Abdullah, who has sung and co-composed the title track, which has busted the charts and has the youth singing along.