A couple of days earlier than I lastly watched “Saiyaara” upon its Netflix debut, I had the privilege of seeing “Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge” for the primary time in theaters. The quintessential Hindi movie romance (directed by Aditya Chopra, who produced “Saiyaara”) nonetheless excels for all the explanations it did 30 years in the past, the identical causes which have saved it screening for voracious crowds for as lengthy.
One thing else although. The timid woman, the ruffian man. As Vaani (Aneet Padda) sat down with Krish (Ahaan Panday) in Mohit Suri’s “Saiyaara” and requested him to not smoke or swear, my thoughts flashed to Raj (Shah Rukh Khan) and Simran (Kajol) within the barn the place she balks on the sight of him chugging cognac “in entrance of a woman” to maintain heat. The ladies are easy, harmless, in want of safety; the lads are wild, free, and inevitably drawn to the righteous path of loving these girls.
Now, Vaani Batra is nearly positively clinically depressed, and that’s not her fault. Her fiancee dumped her by way of telephone name whereas she waited for him on the courthouse six months prior, and assembly Krish — not to mention working with him, bonding with him — is inflicting some kind of system overload. I’ll defend the Large Twist that I personally managed to evade for 3 months, which supplies the movie its emotional efficiency relying on who you ask (not me!).
“Saiyaara” debuted in U.S. theaters on July 18, rapidly changing into the second highest-grossing Indian movie of 2025 and the highest-grossing Indian romantic movie ever (a statistic that comes with the caveat of classifying “Kabir Singh” as a romantic movie). Indian movies normally keep in U.S. theaters for every week or two, however one month later “Saiyaara” was nonetheless enjoying a number of occasions every day on the Occasions Sq. AMC Empire theater, an indicator of smash hit success.
On-line, “Saiyaara” took over the Bollywood algorithm on any platform. From remixes to memes to emotional fan reactions, the movie claimed a fiercely loyal and notably younger viewers that arguably hasn’t linked with something this strongly in years.
The fact is that business Hindi cinema has set a surprisingly low bar over the previous decade; motion motion pictures that earn large on the field workplace however provide nothing new or noteworthy, new age romance that takes the romanticism out of romance; and launch after launch of the following technology of performing expertise which by no means lives as much as its legacy and persists anyway. There are highs — like three Shah Rukh Khan motion pictures in a yr, “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani,” — however they arrive amid plummeting lows (I gained’t title them, however a minimum of the memes had been enjoyable).
Inside that context, nearly all the things about “Saiyaara” is refreshing. There’s an precise story seen from begin to end (due to the supply materials: South Korea’s “A Second to Keep in mind”) — Krish’s music profession, Vaani’s return to herself, and the trail they carve ahead collectively — and a stable soundtrack from Mithoon, Tanishk Bagchi, Faheem Abdullah, Arslan Nizami, Vishal Mishra, Sachet-Parampara and The Rish (Rishabh Kant). Vikas Sivaraman’s cinematography tries its greatest to eschew the overexposed, airbrushed look of its contemporaries. Panday performs a convincingly gruff tortured artist alongside Padda’s struggling ingenue, and a lot of the display time is dedicated to their pairing as a substitute of introducing tertiary extra.
However seeing “Saiyaara” hailed because the business’s savior didn’t encourage me the way in which it’s supposed to. Theater attendance in India is as scrutinized as it’s within the States, with an increasing number of outdated movies being rereleased to spice up ticket gross sales. The identical questions maintain rising. Will they ever make motion pictures like they used to? Has social media ruined viewers engagement? Have we misplaced a breed of star? As Hindi movies and international cinema seek for solutions, “Saiyaara” is only a piece of the puzzle — and hopefully a guiding mild out of darkish occasions.
“Saiyaara” is now streaming on Netflix.