Samaira review: This well-intentioned travel drama suffers from a dull script

In Vishal Devrukhkar’s Girlz (2019), Ketaki Narayan played a carefree young woman who goes on a trip to Goa to enjoy life to the fullest. Her latest release Samaira (2022), which is the directorial debut of actor Rishi Deshpande, also sees her play an independent woman who goes on a solo trip. 

But there is a major difference between both the films in terms of the story, treatment, atmosphere and, most importantly, the character of the lead protagonist. 

The film revolves around Samaira (Ketaki) who stays in Goa and works as a travel blogger. She has made a name for herself in the field by travelling to different locations in India as well as abroad. Maharashtra’s minister Shashikant Naiknavre (Satish Pulekar) has also taken note of her good work. 

Samaira now yearns to go on a trip to the holy land of Pandharpur. She has never been there and has heard a lot about its divinity. 

She lives with her foster parents Emma (Jui Pawar) and James (Nitin Bhajan), who had adopted her from an orphanage, and has always been eager to know who her real parents are. Samaira gets to know that the answer to her question might lie in Pandharpur.

Now she is more eager to visit the place. While on her way, she befriends another solo traveler Jason (Ankur Rathee) who has come from the US to experience the same place. 

You remain interested in Samaira, the movie, because of the mystery related to the protagonist’s parents. One also feels for the protagonist because of Ketaki Narayan’s believable act as a youngster being too emotional to know about the couple who brought her into the world. 

But the story is handled in the film doesn’t justify its length of 110 minutes. It could have ended in an hour. It is important for such travel films to be laced with entertaining or, at least, engaging moments till the story reaches the finale. 

Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen with Samaira. The film moves at a snail’s pace and keeps dragging on. Nothing much happens for a large number of the duration and, as a viewer, your patience is tested regularly. The film does build an unusual friendship between Samaira and Jason but, after a point, it doesn’t engage you as much as it should. 

The production value also leaves a lot to be desired since the visuals fall short of a film completed in today’s era. The camerawork, editing and background score only fall in the average category. 

While not much happens in the narrative for about 80% of the duration, the writers have put in a bit too much for the final minutes. We are presented with a series of twists in the climax, which we find difficult to digest. The finale also leaves few important questions unanswered. 

As far as other performances are concerned, Ankur Rathee, although an Indian in real life, brings justice to the character of Jason with his able performance. The veteran Satish Pulekar is fine in a role that initially appears one-dimensional but turns out to be more. Rohit Kokate once again impresses while playing a character that lies on the other side of the law. 

Samaira would have been a much pleasant ride if its narrative was as good as the performances.