Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

I would usually rate this a 5, but I'm gonna give it a 6. Only because of the outstanding music score by A.R Rehman, which I applaud. Otherwise, it definitely would have got a 5 from me.Aditya (Vivek Oberoi) is a bright, popular, flirtatious, good-looking young man. His parents are wealthy, and he lives a pretty decent life. One fine day, he meets Suhani (played by Rani Mukherjee). She is the complete opposite, she is practical and hardworking, whereas he is cool and a go-with-the-flow type guy. However, upon meeting her, Aditya is completely smitten with Suhani. Although knowing that Suhani does not feel the same way about him, Aditya is determined and eventually, she confesses that she is attracted to him as well. They fall deep into a blissful path called young love, and soon the time comes and the two make their parents meet, to arrange a marriage. Unfortunately their families don't get on, mainly because of the change in status between them...however, the two simply can't bear being apart, and soon they find the perfect solution - eloping together. They run away and get married, and all seems well, until the stresses and tensions of married life dawns on them. One day, after a big argument, Aditya can't seem to find his beloved, even after searching all over the city. Where is she? Is she alive? What is going on? Why has she left? Will Aditya ever find his wife? Despite the good reviews, I cannot understand and like this movie. Saathiya had the potential to be a much better and easier to understand movie imo. But somehow something seems to be wrong. Personally I couldn't tell which parts were flashback and which weren't. Also, many parts did not seem realistic. And what was the whole train business? How does one fall in love like that? And to be honest, the ending disappointed me slightly. The acting was decent enough. Rani Mukherjee gave the best she could to her role, I guess, she is acceptable. However it was Vivek Oberoi who stole the show. Saathiya was not an AMAZING movie, and I don't understand the hype, nevertheless I think he did very well and was the best performance out of the lot. Sandhya Mridul, Satish Shah, Sharat Saxena, and Tanuja make small appearances.Could have been made better.

With Mani Rathnam and A R Rehman linked to a project, one cannot be in to much doubt that if nothing else the music is going to be mind blowing. But that was not the case with Saathiya. It not only had mind-blowing music and score it was one of the best movies of 2002. The music and the respective picturisations are excellent, especially in the case of the title song ‘Saathiya'. My other favorite song is the tongue in cheek song ‘Choori pe Choori'. However all the other songs are very pleasurable as well. The main question was how would first time director Shaad Ali perform on this story, that would be a remake of Mani Rathnam South-Indian movie be as good as the original? Would he produce an art movie piece as his father (Muzaffar Ali) has done with movies like Umrao Jaan, or would he deliver a commercial piece? What one can be sure of is that Shaad has taken the craftsman of his fathers art movies and put them to commercial use, and delivered a movie that is unique, professional, modern and outstanding.The acting is excellent as is the story line. Having liked Rani from Ghulam to K3G, is wonderful to see her finally taking the lead in a role that does her justice. Her realistic portrayal of Suhani, a modern genre women dealing with the trials and tribulations of married life is excellent. Having not seen anything of Viveks before, is was a surprise to see an actor of his young caliber holding such presence on screen, that it overshadowed SRK. It is evident that this actor will reach high strides in his coming career. For a change this movie actually delivers a subconscious message, something not commonly done in bollywood movies. The message is ‘lifes to short, tell those around you how much they really mean to you'. Taking this to heart, I can truly say that I loved Saathiya.

This film -- which I had heard almost nothing about before seeing it -- turned out to be a powerful, moving, and important love story. Rani Mukherjee's performance as Suhani -- the young M.D. and wife struggling to reach out to her husband after they elope -- is top notch and clearly deserving of an Oscar. Likewise, Vivek Oberoi does a wonderful job portraying her husband Aditya as he oscillates between playfulness and workaholism. Ali and Rathnam's story is superb -- combining drama and social commentary in a complex and satisfying tapestry. As always, Anil Mehta does a fabulous job lensing the story -- his cinematography captures a wide range of urban landscapes that subtly adds depth and context to the story (and be on the lookout for an in-joke concerning his name in the film). And, of course, A. R. Rahman's score is terrific -- particularly when pouring out of a theater's surround-sound system! Not to be missed!