Fyodor Dostoevsky's short story "White Nights" gets the Bollywood treatment in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's lavish Saawariya (translation: "beloved"). Here, the premise is used mainly to illustrate the pitfalls of falling in love at first sight. This may sound somewhat frivolous, but the movie takes advantage of the simplicity of the situation to illustrate more clearly the depths of folly that youthful idealism can fall into.

In a way, the experienced viewer could watch Saawariya and root for the young potential couple (newcomers Ranbir Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor, no relation) not to get what they each want, hoping instead they learn a valuable life lesson, and the viewer would not be wrong to do so. Part of this may be due to Ranbir Kapoor, as the happy-go-lucky young man, seeming a bit too exuberantly youthful; someone a little less green might've had more of the charisma that comes with experience to make you want to pull for him, but in any case the character is probably more fitting for the story the way it currently is.

Saawariya boasts a wondrous (and very blue!) set to enhance the enchanted feel of the tale, but it lacks in the musical numbers department -- it takes half the movie to get to a real showstopper piece, and it's no surprise that Bollywood star Rani Mukherjee anchors it. She and veteran actress Zohra Sehgal highlight what turns out to be a breezy and passably entertaining major Indian musical, the first to be released by a major Hollywood studio. (Capsule review.)

(Released by Sony/Columbia Pictures and rated "PG" for thematic elements, brief nudity, some language and incidental smoking.).

Review also posted at www.windowtothemovies.com.