The impressively staged but ultimately exhausting action sequences take up the bulk of screen time, but they can’t salvage this soulless film that has all the depth and emotional wallop of a video game.

Everything a thriller needs is in here, and you settle down, fully prepared for a non-stop, breathless, firing-from-all-cylinders ride. But Saaho turns out to be a damp squib.

Both Bizarrely Complicated And Incredibly Silly…

Unfortunately, despite its glitzy packaging, Saaho, because of a choppy, underwritten screenplay and excessive gorefest is a bit of a letdown even for those who love their Hindi movies served with a generous dose of masala. Sigh.

Prabhas and Shraddha Kapoor’s action epic is made at a massive budget but it somewhere misses the plot.

Given the amount of time devoted to action sequences in Saaho, Prabhas’ moves have no smoothness or finesse. As he lumbers, his thighs thunder. And when he’s not fighting, he looks pasty, his body is droopy and language languid.
Much like I was at the end of Saaho.

There’s no head or tails to anything that happens in Saaho…

Saaho may, like so many other shrill, gory actioners of the recent past, end up make pots of money. But that will not take away from the fact that it is egregiously turgid. A Telugu superstar attempting to break into Hindi cinema should have chosen better.

At 179 minutes, “Saaho” drags on and on. Director and writer Sujeeth throws in countless plot twists, intent on distracting viewers with action, blood, gore and romance over substance. At one point, when a character says, “I’ve concocted so many false stories, you think I can’t come up with one more” – it is as if he is talking about the script.

‘Saaho’ attempts at being a potboiler that fires in all directions to entertain the audience. There are so many twists and turns that it leaves you more exhausted than excited.

Saaho is a rank disappointment and an opportunity missed. Watch it for Prabhas’s patches of brilliance but you will need loads of patience!

Saaho had promise. It had the cast. That’s the disappointing part. Yet, the makers got so carried away with crafting action scenes and Prabhas’s starry presence that they forgot about the story and character development midway.

The ending of Saaho hints at a sequel. If that’s the case, please pray that it is better written and more cohesive. How will we saaho that otherwise? Apologies for the bad joke but that’s all you’re left with at the end of the film.

Saaho is an attempt to blow your brains out with a series of non-stop, high-octane action scenes, between a bunch of music videos, with a strange mix of Punjabi pop and wannabe-Rahman peppiness.

At a runtime of just short of three hours, Saaho is a bloated action drama which never realises its full potential. No amount of stunts and gun fights help the film to camouflage its flaws, and the screenplay itself is so boring that you are never engrossed. The drama is non-existent. All we get is a black box which we wish had never opened. Because the anticipation to watch Saaho was more worth the effort than the film itself. A big thumbs down.

Saaho seems to be aiming for Mission: Impossible. But there’s no wit to the proceedings, just an endless series of twists that make no sense, accompanied by the dull pounding that is Prabhas onscreen.

Saaho is a missed opportunity for director Sujeeth who failed despite getting a perfect technical team, talented actors and massive investment.

Saaho was an opportunity to follow up on Baahubali, which had both scale and imagination, and blur the boundaries between regional and national cinema once again. Sadly, it ends up as a missed opportunity.

Lots of empty talk and pointless swagger…