Saiyaara tackles Alzheimer’s—but does Mohit Suri's glossy Rs 5.5 billion blockbuster really do it justice?

In the last few minutes of Saiyaara, a visibly emotional Krish (played by Ahaan Pandey), tracks down Vaani (Aneet Padda) in the corners of Himachal Pradesh, where she has been hiding for a while to live out the rest of her days away from everyone else, owing to her early onset of Alzheimer's.

She barely remembers him, and he is only greeted by blank looks.

Undeterred, he brings back the dialogues that he had said at the beginning of the film, to motivate her into writing songs again. She remains blank and rather confused. He repeats the same lines, his voice breaking, till she finally bursts into a love confession and says his name.

Sigh. Why, Bollywood...are you so Bollywood.

The underlying sentiment behind this scene is, that love is so powerful that even a life-crippling, debilitating disease like Alzheimer’s bows down to it. It’s an admirable idea, though not a novel one in films.

However, Saiyaara, unlike other portrayals of the disease, comes across as a more glossy, surface-level version. It lacks any conviction or depth, unfortunately. There are a million faults to pick on with this film, but its treatment of Alzheimer's is the most problematic.

There are glimpses of urgency, such as Vaani’s conversation with a gentle doctor, who encourages her to open up and talk to others about her condition.

Nevertheless, the seeds of the raw tragedy of the illness exist, you see what the film is trying to show when Vaani blanks out on seeing her former lover; the past and present blur into each other, and there’s knotting up of thoughts in the confusion. Yet, Saiyaara treats Alzheimer’s superficially, lacking the authenticity and emotional depth seen in other films, to the point where it feels rushed and trivialised.

Compare it to the rather heartbreaking Still Alice, which starred Julianne Moore. It showed the gradual progression of the disease, where a woman in her 50s, gradually starts forgetting things, places and people around her. The scenes were far more visceral, as she is seen struggling with words and thoughts in her lectures. The grief was a lot more palpable, as she slowly loses sense of herself. And the film ends with her just able to say the words, ‘love.’

That’s the rawness of the disease.

For starters, As Dr Lakshmi Saranya, a clinical psychologist, had explained to Gulf News, it is a progressive neuro-generative disorder. It’s a severe and an irreversible condition, and shows a gross levels of disability in all the functions of the brain, like memory loss, poor problem solving, and disorientation and poor visuospatial ability.

It has an iron grip on a person, and impairs their daily life. It’s often seen as synonymous with dementia, which is incorrect, as dementia is a general term for decline in mental ability, interfering with daily life, while Alzheimer’s is a specific disease.

The warning signs of Alzheimer’s involve memory loss, where people forget things like dates, events, information that they recently learned. They have a difficulty and confusion in understanding time, along with problems in expressing their ideas in words. There is a steep decline in work performance, and the person finds it hard to socialise with others as well.

In Saiyaara, a few moments try to hint at Alzheimer’s symptoms, such as Vaani’s inability to remember a date or her repeated comment that “she keeps forgetting things,” which explains why she maintains a diary. Other symptoms, like dizziness, are also briefly shown. However, her frustration and confusion of the disease bursts into melodrama, diluting the seriousness of the disease. It comes down to just creating a scene in public, with the typical evil-doer watching over, trying to take advantage of her.

However, the film portrays moments of lucidity inconsistently, she remembers only her former fiancé, not her current lover, even going so far as to stab him in the arm, when he gets into a fight, which seems to be his default mode.

And then, after a night’s sleep, she suddenly recalls everything.

This sequence feels bizarre and misplaced, as if the film conflates stress and past trauma with Alzheimer’s, resulting in a disjointed portrayal that blurs both the disease and her emotional state without fully exploring either.

She’s 22 in the film. Is that possible?

Alzheimer’s disease in your 20s is exceptionally rare, so rare that only a handful of cases may exist worldwide. Medical literature offers virtually no examples of Alzheimer’s at this age, with early-onset cases typically appearing in people in their 40s.

The vast majority of Alzheimer’s patients are over 65 as many research studies conclude. Nevertheless, there are risk factors that show up in 20’s, which is far more different than saying the disease strikes in 20s.

“Research suggests that the processes behind Alzheimer’s disease start developing many years before clinical symptoms arise,” Allison Aiello, PhD, James S. Jackson Healthy Longevity Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Butler Aging Center had earlier said in a statement.

Evidence increasingly shows that health and lifestyle factors in early to midlife can predict Alzheimer’s risk later on. Tracking these risk factors and biological changes over a person’s lifespan—especially those that can be modified—may be key to delaying or even preventing the disease. “Taking an early approach to addressing risk factors could help postpone or reduce the onset of Alzheimer’s,” Aiello adds.

Her recent study, published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, found that certain risk factors and blood biomarkers linked to Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline can be detected as early as age 24. However, while these biomarkers showed associations with cognitive function in early adulthood, the study found no evidence that the APOE e4 genetic variant affected cognition in this age group, supporting prior findings that its impact may emerge later in life. Aiello emphasises that further research is needed to validate these early associations and explore how preventive measures and lifestyle interventions could reduce long-term Alzheimer’s risk.

In the end, Saiyaara tries to tackle Alzheimer’s with love, heartbreak, and a few tear-jerking moments—but glossy visuals and melodrama can’t mask the fact that it barely scratches the surface. The film flirts with the tragedy of the illness but skips the messy, raw reality that makes it truly devastating. Alzheimer’s isn’t a plot device that resets after a night’s sleep—it’s relentless, complicated, and life-altering. Saiyaara may make you swoon over love conquering all, but for a real look at the disease, you’ll have to look beyond the silver screen.