| Good Reviews | Average Reviews | Bad Reviews |
| 5.0 |
"Bhansali's most tender ode to love yet"
- Subhash Jha |
| 4.5 |
"an exhilarating cinematic experience"
- Chitramala |
| 4.3 |
"a magical spectacle of visual and emotional delight"
- Planet Bollywood |
| 4.0 |
"treat yourself to a wonderful romantic evening at the cinema"
- Going Places |
| 4.0 |
"Only a master craftsman could have dreamt of a film like this and worked towards putting it together exactly as he saw it in his mind’s eye. Take a bow, Sanjay Leela Bhansali"
- Glamsham |
| 4.0 |
"another winner in all segments of cinema, so have a nice weekend with a film that boasts high standards of quality work in Indian cinema"
- Mag 4 You |
| 4.0 |
"some splendid cinema"
- Movie Walah |
| 3.5 |
"Bhansali’s Diwali gift. Go on, indulge and rejoice in its extravagance"
- Deccan Herald |
| 3.5 |
"in comparison to expectations SAWARIYA is a disappointment; however the movie is most definitely worth a dekkho for Bhansali’s magical touch and Ranbir’s stunning debut"
- AllBollywood.com |
| 3.5 |
"a magical spectacle of visual and emotional delight that transcends you to a dream world"
- Indya.com |
| 3.3 |
"you might just be taken for a 2-hour stroll through Sanjay Leela’s Bhansali’s garden-in-mind, if not a joy-ride"
- EBolly |
| 3.0 |
"Despite the shortcomings with the narrative, Saawariya is worth a watch, if only for the striking visuals and solid performances of the newcomers"
- South Africa Daily News |
| 3.0 |
"tends to grow on you. If you have the patience to sit through the first half, chances are that you will walk out of the cinema hall smiling"
- Buzz 18 |
| 3.0 |
"Though the film is slow at several places, one cannot forget that there is freshness in Saawariya that hasn’t been seen in a very long time"
- Times Of India |
| 3.0 |
"visually enchanting, cloyingly sweet, at once utterly chaste and insanely erotic, and finally exhausting"
- NY Times |
| 3.0 |
"if you’re willing enough to forgive the film’s overindulgent tenor, the songs, costumes, and most prominently, the lead actors Ranbir and Sonam are just about paisa vasool for your ticket money"
- Sify |
| 3.0 |
"the way Bhansali has chipped away at the corners and painted in the nooks certainly leaves plenty to be admired from afar"
- Baradwaj Rangan |
| 2.5 |
"Fails to Create Magic "
- Movie Talkies |
| 2.5 |
"a film with emotional moments few and far between"
- ApunKaChoice |
| 2.5 |
"a disappointing film from a man who up until now fooled us into thinking that everything he touches turns into gold. If only"
- BollySpice |
| 2.5 |
"has no story to tell, and behaves as hopeless platform for the emerging talents like Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor"
- RadioSargam |
| 2.5 |
"Lost in la la land"
- DNA India |
| 2.5 |
"while it often looks like it's mainly combining one kind of cultural kitsch with another, the richness shows"
- Canada.com |
| 2.5 |
"Bhansali returns to the big screen with Saawariya. This one is not his best"
- B4U |
| 2.0 |
"The only bright spot in the film is Rani’s spirited and convincing character. The rest is the theatre of the absurd"
- Screen India |
| 2.0 |
"brilliant cinematography cannot make up for the emotional shortcomings in Saawariya"
- BBC |
| 2.0 |
"Pretentious and unimaginative, Saawariya reveals that Bhansali is a director more obsessed with exposing the naked buttocks of his male muse than in telling an intriguing whimsical fable"
- Times Online |
| 2.0 |
"if fake scenery and dubbed-in singing make your skin crawl, this is definitely not a film for you"
- Hollywood.com |
| 2.0 |
"see this movie if you need to get some sleep"
- The Village Voice |
| 2.0 |
"there is something flat about the film that makes it drag, badly, after the 90-minute mark"
- Winnipeg Sun |
| 2.0 |
"falters at making the romantic tragedy sing through its pangs"
- NY Sun |
| 2.0 |
"there is no plot, no story, absolutely no substance to the movie"
- Jam |
| 2.0 |
"A barely interesting subject combined with an unnecessarily slow pace makes the movie just-about watchable"
- Without Giving The Movie Away |
| 2.0 |
"lacks the soul"
- Magna Mags |
| 2.0 |
"repetitive, sentimental and cliched"
- Hollywood Reporter |
| 2.0 |
"doesn't collapse but does wobble for much of its nearly 150-minute running time"
- Film Journal International |
| 2.0 |
"her [Sonam] performance is wildly uneven — she does crazy well, but otherwise she's bland — and his [Ranbir] strenuously madcap antics are grating rather than endearing"
- TV Guide |
| 2.0 |
"a beautifully crafted bore"
- BBC Films |
| 2.0 |
"has the right ingredients, big stars, big director and grandeur but the ingredients have not been utilized well"
- Bollywood Mantra |
| 2.0 |
"is one of the weakest films directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali"
- IndiCine |
| 2.0 |
"a tale not too captivating. Sanjay Leela Bhansali disappoints"
- Now Running |
| 2.0 |
"An avoidable Bollywood masala"
- MeriNews |
| 2.0 |
"[Bhansali] doesn’t pull it off but his failure has more grace than most people’s successes"
- NDTV |
| 2.0 |
"is not even vaguely poignant, touching or weepy. It misses you almost entirely"
- Mumbai Mirror |
| 2.0 |
"basically inert - the leading lady is unspeakably beautiful, but the leading man is as annoying, and when the most intriguing thing about a film is the production design, you know you're in trouble"
- Newsday |
| 2.0 |
"lacks soul and also screenplay. 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"
- Bollyvista |
| 2.0 |
"is as incomprehensible and meaningless as that serious study on cigarettes, nicotine, existence, you get the drift"
- Hindustan Times |
| 2.0 |
"self indulgence takes over sense and sensibility"
- Times Now |
| 2.0 |
"a costly mistake"
- Business Of Cinema |
| 2.0 |
"Spend your money on Diwali sweets and not on this one"
- MTV India |
| 1.5 |
"an act of supreme self-indulgence"
- The Indian Express |
| 1.5 |
"lacks soul. It's SLB's weakest film to date, in terms of writing"
- IndiaFM |
| 1.5 |
"the biggest cinematic blunder of the current times"
- IndiaGlitz |
| 1.5 |
"Bhansali needs to be thwacked with a subtlety stick, much like Sakina messily beats carpets hanging around her. Everything is overblown and hyper-real in the director's head, and there is no room for soft reality"
- Rediff |
| 1.5 |
"Only for those who don't get tickets for the other big one"
- Full Hyderabad |
| 1.5 |
"Terribly boring"
- Rediff 2 |
| 1.5 |
"Bhansali is so busy building up his imaginary town that he cannot wring an iota of poignancy out of the story, or get the bored viewer to shed a single tear"
- Deepa Gahlot |
| 1.5 |
"an expensive, self-indulgent stage play, overburdened with embellishments such that its soul is completely lost"
- Tehelka |
| 1.5 |
"all gloss no substance. Wannabe cinematographers will learn loads watching the movie and others will learn how not to make a love story"
- Behind Woods |
| 1.0 |
"Somewhere the script falters all too badly and lets too many question marks"
- Andhra Cafe |
| 1.0 |
"uninspiring, staid and boring"
- The Hindu |
| 1.0 |
"cinema that looks and feels fake; that smothers and asphyxiates"
- Outlook India |
| 1.0 |
"the most over-hyped, over-budgeted disappointments of this year"
- Dance With Shadows |
| 1.0 |
"doesn't quite work because the writing is flawed and the director doesn't seem to notice"
- IBN Live |
| 1.0 |
"The characters fail to grab our interest, and the songs (10 of them) are instantly forgettable"
- NY Post |
| 0.5 |
"It made for a bad Diwali gift from a man the cinematic world so adoringly reveres for his grand standing and his bigness of mounts"
- The Pioneer |
