Sarabjit Review

DIRECTOR: Omung Kumar
STARRING: Randeep Hooda, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Richa Chadda
RATING: 2.5 stars

I admit it’s an inspiring story that must be told, a story of a young Indian man (Sarbjit), held captive for more than two decades in Pakistan, yet doesn’t lose his sanity. A story of his sister (Dalbir) who moves mountains and dedicates her life to bring him back yet doesn’t lose hope. Alas, the biggest problem of Sarbjitlies in its telling. It seems that the scenes are written, not to tell the tragedy, but to unnecessarily evoke emotions and squeeze every tear out of its viewers. Lastly, the film is topped with ‘hail-the-sister’, ‘mera desh mahan’, ‘message on brotherhood’ moments that are so forced and out of context that it hurts.

Some of the sequences will make you stick to your stomach. Though one can see the forced attempt at making a tragedy, locking a man in a small box for eight months, unleashing creepy crawlies on him and subjecting him to inhuman treatment till he admits his crime. But one doesn’t complain. Sarbjit is based on a real story. So one doesn’t question the possibility of such cruel treatment meted out to the young man, even if it is a bit over dramatised. But beyond a point, the film tries just too hard.

What? The viewers are not crying? Let’s have the bodyguards push Dalbir and hit her on the head when she goes to see a minister. Let’s have the police officers frisk the family members, push them around, frisk them some more, spoil their make-up, strip them off their jewellery when they go to see Sarbjit in the jail. The film, in parts, becomes a long painful ode to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and her comeback.

When Sarbjit goes missing, her father helplessly pleads Dalbir to save his son, “You have brought Sarbjit up, you have looked after him, you have to bring him back…blah blah blah…sob sob sob…you used to fight with me every time I scolded him, you would fight with the villagers, you have to bring him back…you are great…you are amazing…you are making a comeback, your last film didn’t work, I don’t care about my son, but you have to look all heroic…blah blah blah…sob sob sob!”

And in the second half, Sarbjit writes a five-page long essay on ‘Meri Didi Mahaan’. Singing paeans to a superstar’s comeback was contrived and out of context. The only time it makes sense is when Richa Chadda explains how the battle would have died a long time ago if the sister had not made it her life’s mission. There is so much of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the film, it might have been better called Dalbir than Sarbjit.

And then there are lectures on borders, brotherhood and bravado. These scenes seem like an afterthought and hence don’t contribute much to the story and end up becoming separate parts that we have to insert in any Indo-Pak film. One moment we are planning to chase the biggest terrorist in the world, in the next moment, we go to a dargah. Because hey, chasing the terrorist can wait, an emotional line or a song on humanity should not. “Chalo tumhe aisi jagah lekar chalta hoon jahaan koi lakeere na ho…” Cut to a dargah and a Sufi kind of song.

The screenplay of the film is so disjointed that it seemed like a jigsaw puzzle more than a film. They try tracking a terrorist somewhere in Canada, who is caught in Chandigarh, which is followed by burning an effigy of a lawyer (one of the best scenes in the film, loved the sarcasm) in Pakistan to some random cats curling up with Sarbjit in jail, to a young girl getting married in India to a song. All of this happens back to back, without much notice or meaning.

There is some random stuff that happens inconsistently in the film. Human Rights people from Canada promise to help Sarbjit but never do. Some random godman also visits him in the jail, soothes him with words of love and delivers a parcel from his family and is never seen again.

Randeep Hooda is in his best form. After Laal Rang, he packs in another powerful performance. He plays the character, his dialogue delivery, his body language, the change in his character are enacted so well that you feel his agony. There is a scene in the second half where he breaks down. It’s quite a tearjerker.

Aishwarya-lavender-lipstick-Rai-Bachchan is a bit too screechy in the film. She has got the Punjabi accent well, but doesn’t quite own the struggle of Dalbir.

The story is sad. The treatment is bad. It is long and loopy and manipulative. It would have hurt more if it was not based on a true story.

THE RATINGS MEAN:

5 stars: Loved it. (This could make to top ten movies you must watch before you die!)
4 stars: Liked it. Recommend it. (This will help you sound intellectual and give you stuff to add at water cooler conversations.)
3 stars: Didn’t hurt. Watch it once.
2 stars: It put me to sleep. Watch it if you are an insomniac or a newly wedded couple. Winks!
1 star: Do I even need to explain this?

This is why I didn’t like the trailer of Udta Punjab.

• By Lokesh Dharmani

13th May 2016

Let’s come straight to the point. The state of Punjab is in jeopardy. IN SERIOUS DANGER.

-73.5% of the Youth Population of Punjab is addicted to drugs. It’s scarier than terrorism. Imagine a state, with the first line of control, to have 3 quarters of its youth population addicted to drugs.

– Drugs worth 2000 crores find its way to India. 350 packets of heroin make their gateway into India, everyday, making it one of the busiest drug transit points in the world.

– How does it reach our country? It’s as simple as hurling packets across the borders. This is despite our border security forces, narcotics control bureau and intelligence bureau.

– Outside Amritsar, there is a locality called Maqboolpura. It’s now called the locality of widows because 52 men have died due to drug consumption in just one year. A mother lost 6 of her 7 children in one and a half years.

– There are illegal chemist shops selling synthetic drugs with no prescription.

– Besides drugs, Punjab is also plagued by the menace of alcohol.

Shocking but true, the state has more number of liquor shops than government schools.

So basically it’s serious shit in Punjab, which not many people are aware of. And then I saw the trailer of a movie based on this grave situation, Udta Punjab. I am happy filmmakers are at least trying to address it but I am very very skeptical too.

I don’t want to jump the gun and really hope that the movie addresses the issue in all seriousness that it severely deserves. But the trailer makes me doubt that big time. Visuals are so effective. And the trailer leaves you with strong visuals of a certain rock star peeing on his fans, of an actor showing off his sharp abs and fashionable locks, of drugs consumed in style… glamorizing it, instead of ridiculing it.

I hear a lot of young people call it edgy, gritty. Alas that’s how we define grit in Hindi films – throw abuses, an expletive here, a bit of swearing there and lo! your gritty, dark, edgy film is ready. That is not edgy. That’s just sensational.

I sincerely hope it’s a good film and that I am proven wrong.

Azhar Review

Azhar

Director- Tony D’souza

Starring- Emran Hashmi, Nargis Fakri, Prachi Desai, Lara Dutta and Kunal Roy Kapoor

Rating – 2 stars.

Azhar starts with a five page long disclaimer that clarifies that the film is only inspired by life events of the legendary cricketer hence a few things have been tweaked and the makers don’t mean it; like Sangeeta Bijlani was the biggest heroine back in the day and the fact that Nargis Fakri can act.

The disclaimer also sounds like a polite warning, ‘hey we will talk about Azhar’s life, touch upon his life’s controversies, but not drop many names, come very close to the closet, but slam shut it the moment skeletons start tumbling out’, the kind of stuff that’s severely reserved for a popular show called Naughty Sexy Bitchy, also known as Koffee Karan Ki.

Azhar’s life is so difficult that it makes ‘no wifi’ first world problems look like real tragedies. Yes it is very difficult to be paid a bomb to cut a ribbon at a gym and be asked to pose with a bat. Aww. It’s heartbreaking to be torn between two hotties and not be able to make up your mind. It indeed is so tragic when life throws billions at you and you have to be all righteous, say no and give Anna Hazare a complex of his life.

Righteous. That’s the word.

The film justifies everything Azhar bhai and people around him do. Azhar bhai is so righteous he can never be involved in match fixing. Azhar bhai is righteous he would never cheat on his wife. Even if he does, he will be so guilty about it. Azhar bhai is so righteous he would not even skip the ad that plays before his favorite adult video on YouTube. Ok that’s not entirely true, I admit. Azhar bhai doesn’t watch adult videos.

There are no shades of grey. The ‘vices’ are so ‘badly’ justified and explained that it hurts. Sangeeta has two strict rules in life; never date a cricketer or a married man. Cut two, she is cozying up to Azhar; both, married and a cricketer. Woah irony just hit her like a bolt!! There is hardly any build up in their love story; no chemistry, no passion, no infatuation. There is only one thing; brochure of a romantic song, ticking all the locations in a foreign land.

 

I will give it to the writers that they do manage to maintain a certain amount of curiosity around Azhar’s involvement in match fixing case but the way he is awarded a character certificate at every third minute of the film, it’s an easy guess he would come out clean at the end of the film.

Even the narrative of the film is unnecessarily patchy. It keeps shifting from 80ies to 90ies and early 2000s, with hardly any difference in the way characters or places look. It leaves you a bit confused and you are not quite sure if it’s a flashback or the present time.

The film is a simplistic –he-didn’t-do-anything-wrong- take on the cricketer. It never delves into grey areas, no character build up, no introspection, no redemption. Even the matches lack the nail biting excitement.

The lead star cast doesn’t leave any great impression; however, Lara Dutta and Kunal Roy Kapoor as supporting star cast look earnest and deliver a decent performance.

 

Azhar could have been bad-ass, controversial, exciting, masaledaar…alas the simplistic safe treatment leaves it pretty bland.

 

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