Shaad Ali's Saathiya is one of the best films of 2002. Everything about it -- from the story line, the cinematography, locations, emotions, performances to A.R. Rahman's beautiful soundtrack -- makes it a worthy film. The film marks the directorial debut of Shaad Ali, and it shows he has not gone far from his father (the great Muzaffar Ali) in terms of talent and imagination. He extracts good performances from his actors, he has a sense and understanding of emotion and clearly has a knack for capturing the complexity of marriage and relationships, which are infused with impressive lifelike sensibility in this film. Basically the story's success boils down to the fact that Ali portrays it with authenticity. This is a fantastic directorial debut (although he would ruin that image in his future projects BAB and JBJ). Rani Mukherjee is the main highlight of the show, the soul of the entire film. This is her career-best performance. She is simply flawless in every single scene - beautiful, vibrant, natural and convincing. Vivek Oberoi is a talented actor and acts very well, though he is not as good as his female costar. He does have to work on the more emotional expressions, but otherwise gives a complete performance. Gulzar and A.R. Rahman give life to the film with a superb list of songs, each of which is a gem. My favourite songs include "Saathiya", "Aye Udi Udi", "Chhalka Chhalka Re", "Chupke Se" and "O Humdum Soniyo Re". To sum it up, Saathiya is a very impressive, entertaining and realistic picture on relationships and marriage. I highly recommend you to see it.

Well, it's got a stellar cast, an okay story and it's a Yashraj production. I have to admit, when I first heard about this film, I hoped to watch it and rate it was perfect 10. But it's far from it. It's just an average film with a power punch packing cast!Okay, Rani Mukherjee plays a young medical student who one day bumps into a mama's boy (played by Vivek Oberoi) at a wedding, and he instantly becomes smitten with her. Aboard two separate trains en route to different parts of the city of Mumbai, they spot each other again and a game of cat and mouse ensues daily until he musters up the courage to come and speak to her about his feelings. They slowly begin to warm up to each other and soon enough Oberoi's character sends his parents to go and check out his beloved's parents. His parents, wealthier than some get to the beat down shack where their son's beloved calls home with her parents and can hardly hide their resentment. It isn't too long that they begin to get on each other's nerves, and the meeting ends in a disaster. When Rani's character meets with Vivek's again, she decides to end their relationship because his parents were rude to hers. Vivek pleads with her then proposes to her, and they secretly get marriage. Everything goes smoothly until it becomes time for Rani's younger sister to get married. The potential family comes in to meet theirs and naturally they wonder why the older one isn't married yet, so the propose that one of their other sons marries her, that is when Rani's character drops the bombshell on them all that she is already married. This causes her sister's marriage deal to be canceled and not to mention the fact that her parents disown her because of this. Rani's character then goes off to live with her husband (Vivek) and things go smoothly for a while until they start dealing with issues that surround every married couple. Rani becomes insecure about the marriage and herself that she begins to see things that aren't there. One afternoon, she spies her husband hugging a woman at a train stop and mistakes it for an affair, when she later finds out that the woman her husband was hugging was none other than her little sister, she races home to make things right with her husband again but meets a very bad accident. That's when the Yashraj Peep whip out one of two people who probably brought Saathiya the crowd it did at the box office. The car that hit Rani's character was being driven by Tabu (in a special appearance) and she is married to Shah Rukh Khan (another special appearance) whom she races home to tell what she has done, after fleeing the scene of a crime, leaving Rani at her own mercy. SRK then races to the hospital to see if the woman is still alive, where he pretends to be her husband in order to save her life. That's Saathiya for you, yup! The much hyped Saathiya. The Best performance in the entire film belongs to Vivek Oberoi, he is just stellar and splendidly holds his own in the one powerful scene he has with the King Khan. Oh! blink and you'll miss an item number cameo by Shamita Shetty as she tries to steal Vivek away from Rani. There's also a wonderful song in the film called 'Chupke Se' performed in the film by Rani and Vivek. Listen to it and weep! Yes! it's that beautiful.

The idea behind Saathiya is definitely a new one - what happens after the lovebirds marry? This has made the movie a success with nearly everyone. The stars' good looks helped make the movie popular with the young.The reason I find Saathiya lacking is that it simply does not come anywhere near the level of the original Tamil movie - Alaipayuthey (2000). I watched Alaipayuthey more than 10 times and remembered every scene and dialog in it after the first viewing. In comparison, Saathiya was a forgettable movie. I was very disappointed by its quality because I am a big fan of Hindi movies and had been eagerly awaiting Saathiya's release.Firstly, the chemistry between the stars - what chemistry??? Rani seemed so old compared to Vivek. If you saw Madhavan and Shalini in Alaipayuthey, you would think they were a real couple. Despite a 10-year age gap between the Tamil stars, there was no hint of that. 30 years old then, Madhavan was so realistic in his portrayal of a love-struck young guy - physically and emotionally. Shalini, being only 20 then, could easily showcase the role of a college student. Rani and Vivek might have played their roles with conviction but a significant portion of the movie depended on the chemistry between them, which was lacking. A number of the scenes in Alaipayuthey brought a smile to your lips because of the interaction between the lovers.My second grouse with Saathiya is the story. The incidents in Saathiya seemed so fake. I got the feeling that Shaad Ali changed the incidents in an attempt to differentiate Saathiya from Alaipayuthey. But everyone should know one thing by now - no one should distort a Mani Ratnam product. He is, after all, the best movie maker.I did not like the supporting characters either. They failed to play their roles with 100% conviction. Rani's reel mother and sister did not look or act like middle-class people who were financially struggling. The mother wore expensive-looking saris, while the sister acted more like a rich party animal.I am an Indian living overseas who might have outdated views on the traditional Indian qualities. But, surely there is not much of a difference between a Tamil and a Hindi traditional family. How is it that in Saathiya, love is looked down on by the parents but Rani is allowed to wear clothes (shorts) that should seem objectionable to such traditional parents? All these factors combined diluted the reality of the movie. For those of you who disagree with me, watch Alaipayuthey.

Very simple love story, but shown in an angle that makes it interesting and definitely worth watching. And it has great music. The singers and musci director, AR Rehman, all do a great job. The choreography is also great. Most of the songs are well-placed in the film...probably apart from the Chori Pe chori one. It's got the high quality you would expect from Yash Raj, and the sweet simplicity of Mani Ratnam... Definitely worth a watch.