May 21, 2016 11:39 AM
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The trailers showed some strong emotions that brought out the story of Sarabjit Singh and played around in my head for quite a long while. All I could think of was to go and watch how today’s director can portray this long-lived battle in a movie?
Sarbjit’s story(which many are aware of now) is about a sister’s struggle for release of her innocent brother incarcerated in Pakistani prison. This movie shows his life led from the start, living with his parents, wife Sukh(Richa Chaddha) and a very loyal sister Dalbir Kaur(Aishwarya Rai) in a Punjab village located close to Indo-Pak border. One night drunk and singing “Jai Jai Shiv Shankar”, Sarbjit strays over the line and gets nabbed by Pakistani patrol. This where his life starts to snowball – he gets beaten up tied upside down until bloodied, thrown in water tank, midst rats, just so that he agrees to a false accusation.
Dalbir, the ever-protective sister, takes up the arduous task to get her “bhai” out of the plight for wrongly indicted. She runs from pillar to post to get her voice heard. Appealing to officials on both the side of border but only to fall on deaf ears.
According to me, Bollywood cannot stay without clichéd drama, they had to take it up a notch. This real life, heart-breaking and stunning story didn’t require any colouring done. Also, why not just name is ‘Dalbir’ rather than ‘Sarbjit’ because all I could see is Aishwarya Rai.
Let’s get something very straight, Ash should have practised her small village Punjabi accent cause she slipped here and there(didn’t count, that was quite often). Top of it, she’s at top of her voice, all the time - a lady Sunny Deol. Maybe Director Omung Kumar thought that this is the right way to emphasize or strongly impose on a topic. But seriously, if I could, I would have turned down the volume. Such screaming was not required everywhere in every scene. But there’s a scene where Dalbir gets hit by a gunman of Punjab CM that moves you. Couple of scenes(I think), Dalbir quietly explains her frustration and pain, and that really reaches you. Richa Chaddha playing Sukh, mostly hovers in the background and has few scenes for herself which she does with good intensity. Darshan plays the role of Sarbjit’s lawyer Awais with ease that's just bit over the top.
Talking about Randeep Hooda, I keep wondering why isn’t his talent been acknowledged to its full strength. He has brought Sarbjit to life with utter sweetness, always smiling and no bitterness hovers on his face. Randeep imbues Sarbjit with beautiful and immense humanity.
This movie shows the horror of a human being physically tortured and mentally scarred, used like some guinea pig for political issues between India and Pakistan with their wrenching relations.
It does tear you apart at few places but more modulation with acting and script could have brought out few more essence. It is a tough movie to get right and Omung Kumar fails to deliver the real moving and poignant film and instead loads off tonnes of melodrama.
