‘Saali Mohabbat’ (2025) ZEE5 Movie Review - A B-Grade Film About Violence And Sex

Smita (Radhika Apte) shares a deep connection with nature. With a degree in botany, she considers her plants, her home, and her husband her whole world. However, when her cherished world begins to unravel, Smita resorts to drastic measures to shield herself. Why only herself? Because (and this is a line from the movie) "the rule of nature is eat or be eaten." Also, Pankaj (Anshumaan Pushkar), her husband, is not really a knight in shining armor; instead, he is a weed—something that must be uprooted and obliterated. Pankaj is an alcoholic, a loser, and is heavily in debt. He even fails to satisfy Smita in bed. Smita means "smile," and the character has to go to the bathroom after sex to experience that emotion of joy. Despite her circumstances, this housewife never complains or makes demands of her husband. She simply co-exists with him and...smiles.

One can say that Smita likes living in her small bubble—a bubble that initially seems to be on the verge of being burst by Pankaj. He has his eyes on her "Moradabad waala ghar," which he plans to sell to Gajendra bhaiya (Anurag Kashyap) to pay off his debts. But the person who actually throws Smita's life into a wild turmoil turns out to be Shalini (Sauraseni Maitra), her own sister. From the moment Pankaj sets his eyes on her, he's smitten. Shalini, too, encourages him, flirts with him, and finally, they have sex. But Shalini also toys with Ratan (Divyenndu), a police officer. Ask Ratan, and he will proudly call Shalini his girlfriend (Shalini clearly doesn't share the same sentiment). Now this is where Saali Mohabbat completely transforms into a train wreck. I wanted to know more about Shalini: what she thinks, why she is the way she is, and where the roots of her responses are.
 

Director Tisca Chopra, along with her co-writers Sanjay Chopra and Namrata Shenoy, offers only hints and nudges. When Shalini first meets Pankaj, she calls him "handsome." Meaning: she's physically attracted to him. Later, after getting irked by her mother, who constantly talks about marriage, Shalini sends Pankaj a picture of herself as an invitation for sex. Meaning: she probably wants to prove that weddings are meaningless. But who does she want to confirm this notion to? Her mother? I don't think so because she's not going to call her mom and tell her that she has slept with married men (her ex-boyfriend also had a wife). So, does she want to assure herself that by staying single, she's making the correct decision, since all husbands are anyway unfaithful and concupiscent (another husband at a house party hits on a ravishing woman). But if we go with this idea, then what does it really tell you about this character? Does Shalini not feel even an ounce of guilt for betraying her sister? How does she manage to be so normal, so cheerful, as if nothing had happened? And is Ratan just a timepass for her, or merely a backup plan?

By refusing to dive into these specifics, Chopra ends up making a B-grade film about violence and sex. It doesn't help that she has no voice — the scenes are toneless, hollow, shapeless. The impersonal direction is matched by empty substance. Chopra probably wants to say that men who can't keep it in their pants are like weeds that need to be eliminated through brute force or through cruel suggestions, but this vision of feminism, alas, has all the effectiveness of a sensational, trashy railway station novel. On second thought, I think those novels are more titillating and enjoyable. 

Final Score- [3.5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times