Saawariya is Sanjay Leela Bhansali's adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story White Nights. Obviously, Bhansali is not the first filmmaker to stumble across Dostoyevsky's short story. It has been made into a film earlier by Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti in 1957, as Le Notti Bianche, then in the year 1959 in Russian as Belye Nochi, directed by Ivan Pyryev, in 1997 as White Nights, directed by Vitaly Sumin, then again in 2003 by Iranian director Farzad Motamen, as Shabhaye Roshan, and in 2005 by director Alain Silver as White Nights.

The story, set in a an imaginary land, is about Raj (Ranbir Kapoor) who falls in love with Sakina (Sonam Kapoor). But Sakina is awaiting her lover to return. Raj tries to woo her over four nights.

Apart from this what comprises the film is grand sets by Omung Kumar, beautiful cinematography by Ravi K Chandran and cameos by Salman Khan and Rani Mukherjee (as Gulab). Sonam Kapoor is an average looker and performer and Ranbir Kapoor is also an average looker and performer but with great lineage which is bound to take him places!

The film lacks soul and also screenplay. There are songs almost every seven minutes. This one is a complete disappointment coming from a director of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's caliber who has given us films like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam and Black! Watch it, if only to see how the mighty have fallen.