Raabta
- Director
- Dinesh Vijan
- Studio
- Maddock FilmsT-Series
- Release Date
- 8 June 2017
- Running Time
- 148 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹55.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹39.05 Cr
Review
Rajkumar Hiranandani's "Raabta" is a film strangled by its own ambitions, stumbling somewhere between a romantic thriller and a reincarnation melodrama without committing fully to either. Jim Sarbh brings an unsettling intensity to Zakir that's genuinely menacing, but Kriti Sanon's Saira floats through the narrative like she's operating in a different movie altogether—her chemistry with Sushant Singh Rajput is pleasant enough for Budapest postcards but dissolves the moment the plot demands actual conviction. The premise itself isn't inherently bad; reincarnation narratives can work in Hindi cinema, but the execution here is clumsy, relying on convenient past-life flashbacks rather than earned emotional payoff. The story lurches from romantic tension to kidnapping thriller to mystical revelation without ever building genuine stakes, and the connection between Shiv and Saira never transcends surface-level attraction to justify the cosmic destiny angle the film keeps hammering.
What kills "Raabta" entirely is its aimless pacing and a script that seems to mistake vagueness for mystery. The climax arrives not as a cathartic convergence of themes but as a shrug wrapped in soft-focus cinematography. Hiranandani's direction lacks the visual flair needed to elevate the material—it's all pretty locations and no psychological depth. Even the central mystery, when "revealed," feels more like the filmmaker's uncertainty about what story they were actually telling. The film wants to be an
Storyline
So there's this charming guy named Shiv who's a banker living it up in Budapest, basically doing the whole carefree bachelor thing. He's just cruising through life until he locks eyes with Saira, this sweet chocolatier who's dealing with some serious baggage—literally plagued by nightmares about drowning and traumatic memories from her childhood. Despite her being in another relationship, Shiv feels this instant magnetic pull toward her, and she eventually gives in to their connection too.
As they get to know each other better, Saira opens up about her phobia of water and the tragic loss of her parents. Everything seems to be going great until Shiv heads off on a work trip and everything goes sideways when this mysterious guy named Zakir shows up and kidnaps her. Here's where things get really wild—Zakir starts convincing Saira that they were actually lovers in a past life, and suddenly she starts having these vivid memories of being a warrior princess who was in love with another warrior from back then.
The whole situation spirals into this intense battle between past and present as Saira realizes her current boyfriend Shiv might be the reincarnation of her ancient lover. She's caught between her present reality and these overwhelming memories from another lifetime, and things build toward this dramatic climax where love, destiny, and survival all collide. It's honestly one of those movies that mixes romance with this mystical past-life twist that keeps you guessing what's actually going on.
