Saakini Daakini review: Scripts need more than gender-bending to make them work

Midnight Runners, which has now been remade in Telugu as Saakini Daakini, was a South Korean phenomenon in 2017. It collected over six times the production cost. A simple buddy almost-cop drama, it created waves in the South Korean industry.

Saakini Daakini is faithful to the original at the core of two police academy youngsters trying to take down a gang. The film takes the liberty of gender-bending with Nivetha Thomas and Regina Cassandra taking up the roles of the trainee cops.

This looks like a step up from the original, as the core issue of the series is a gang which runs an unfertilised egg harvesting racket.

A women’s issue and two lead women dealing with it, and one would think that this is a direct home run for the movie. But it is the screenplay which ends up disappointing the film or maybe we cannot simply write a tight thriller in Telugu.

We have barely seen proper investigative thrillers after 2020 when Sailesh Kolanu’s HIT: The First Case came as a refreshing change!

Saakini Daakini is a poorly-written movie

Somehow, we fail to balance the comic entertainment that we see as necessary and then channel it into an investigative thriller as the story moves ahead.

The flick falls prey to this exact problem. The first and the second half seem to have been written by two different people and directed by two different people.

The first half is fun and vibrant, almost reminiscent of the fun one saw generated in the police academy scenes of Srinu Vaitla’s Venky (2004). Nivetha and Regina pull off these comedy sequences with elan. Actor Pruthvi adds his brand of comic caper to the story.

The second half on the other hand is simply drab and dead. The entire investigation seems forced and at this point, one feels like giving up on the flick and walking away (I didn’t as I had to write this review).

Saakini Daakini is a reminder that scripts need greater innovation than just gender-bending. Adaption is tricky. The team was successful in adapting the 2014 South Korean film Miss Granny (remade as Oh! Baby in 2019 with Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Lakshmi). But this time, Saakini Daakini is an average forgettable movie.

The technical departments of the film are a mixed bag, Richard Prasad is brilliant with cinematography. Editing by Viplav Naishadam leaves a lot to be desired and the music is average.

Overall, it is a film that you would simply forget about after leaving the theatre and most of us would wish that we left after the first half and saved ourselves from a headache.

Verdict: Strictly an OTT watch!