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Sardar Movie Review: Karthi is brilliant in this ambitious film, overloaded with message

Director ps mithran’s sardar, featuring karthi, chunky pandey and raashi khanna, is a formulaic film with a sensitive message at its core..

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• Karthi's Sardar hit the theatres on October 21.
• The film also features Chunky Pandey, Rajisha Vijayan and Raashi Khanna.
• The espionage thriller is directed by PS Mithran.

Release Date: 21 Oct, 2022

Karthi is on a roll! After a rustic Viruman and the phenomenal Ponniyin Selvan, he is back with director PS Mithran’s Sardar. ‘Once a spy, always a spy,’ is the one-liner attached to this espionage thriller that deals with an environmental hazard. It is safe to say that Sardar has elements that Kamal Haasan-Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Vikram had. Even though both films are cut from the same cloth, they are also different.

Vijaya Prakash (Karthi) is a police inspector, who is haunted by the ghost of his past. His father Sardar (again played by Karthi) is branded as a traitor. Since his childhood, Vijaya Prakash has been bogged down by the tag. Meanwhile, activist Sameera (Laila, in a short role) steals an important document concerning Sardar, which starts a chain of reaction. Who is Sardar? Why was Laila killed? Is Sardar alive? These questions are answered by PS Mithran in the following two-and-a-half hours.

Director PS Mithran is three films old. One thing that Mithran relies on is packaging his film with his findings from the pre-production. It also gives a feeling that Mithran spends ample time in pre-production and amply researches a given topic. While his debut film Irumbu Thirai dealt with cybercrime, his second film, Hero, talks about one’s identity. In Sardar, Mithran delves deep into water theft, which is a growing concern in the country. Laila uncovers an important truth about water being commercialised and tries her best to bring Sardar out of prison to put a full stop to this. Because Sardar is the best agent India has ever produced and everything is possible for him.

Sardar is a film that suffers from an overload of information. However, Mithran does not repeat the mistake he made with his second film, Hero. In Sardar, he picks two important subplots – water theft and reunion of father-son – and concentrates on them. The screenplay keeps you engrossed, and therefore, it pays off to a great extent.

The character build-up to the father's role is tastefully done and makes you want to know who the agent everyone’s raving about is. The heavy-concept film bombards the audience with information and most importantly, lays it bare for people of all ages to understand and comprehend.

However, Sardar is not a film without shortcomings. The film becomes too convenient in many places. For example, Karthi’s characters get everything in the blink of an eye. But, you can not question how he gets everything done. The screenplay also lags in the second half, which waters down the impact it created until then. Also, Sardar is shown as a character who is ageing and suffers from trembling hands. When it comes to fight sequences, he is flawless. But, you cannot question how!

Karthi’s splendid acting as the father and son is brilliant. His nonchalant performance is what makes him desirable. Chunky Panday as the mastermind behind the water theft is appropriate. However, his characterisation could have been more powerful to put up an equal fight with a terrific Karthi.

Cinematography by George C Williams and composer GV Prakash Kumar’s work help elevate the script. Also, props to the art director for doing a brilliant job.

Sardar is a solid film with a strong core idea. With a few misses here and there, the film makes for a compelling watch.

2.5 out of 5 stars for Sardar. Published By: Nairita Mukherjee Published On: Oct 21, 2022 --- ENDS --- ALSO READ | Sardar teaser out. Karthi is once a spy, always a spy in PS Mithran film

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Sardar Udham movie review: Vicky Kaushal is bewitching in one of the boldest, most traumatising Hindi films ever made

Sardar udham movie review: shoojit sircar proves that slice of life is not the only thing he is great at. vicky kaushal is spectacular..

There are undeniable parallels in the stories of director Shoojit Sircar and the subject of his latest film, Sardar Udham . Shoojit burned almost 20 years to make this film, clearly the most passionate of his passion projects. This was the story he wanted to tell when he arrived in Mumbai from Delhi. However, a shortage of funds or support would not let him realise this dream for almost two decades. Sardar Udham Singh also took 20 years to realise his dream—avenging the bloodbath in his home, the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Fortunately for us, who are breathing in a free nation or watching this masterpiece of a film, neither was willing to live a compromise. A simple murder won’t do, neither would a less than perfect retelling of it.

Sardar Udham checks all the boxes, especially the biggest ones—intent and execution. At the core of it, the film is simply the story of a hero’s journey for revenge against a villain who destroyed all that he once loved. We have read and watched iterations of it all our lives but rarely is it told with such intensity and nuance. Udham (played by Vicky Kaushal) was a young boy when he witnessed one of the most brutal massacres in world history. It is trauma that leaps through generations, so clearly, enough for him to dedicate his life and death to slaying that villain who caused it. Shoojit, however, makes sure not to take the simple route.

Watch Sardar Udham trailer:

The villainy of Michael O’Dwyer (played by Shaun Scott), the man responsible for it all, is nailed in your head through multiple scenes. Whether it is him delivering speeches about the ‘burden of the white man’ to save India from a return to savagery or defending the ‘necessity’ of murdering thousands while sipping on scotch in his mansion, there are several occasions for you to feel some sparks in your chest of the rage that burned in Udham for years.

While disgust for O’Dwyer keeps piling on, Udham’s act of true heroism is revealed only in the last one hour of the film. And trust me, nothing can prepare you for that final hour. Rarely has there been a Hindi film so unafraid to be bold and unwilling to gently depict the truth of the violence and sheer horror that still simmers in those it once affected. Shoojit is relentless, forcing you to sit through almost 60 minutes of excruciating visuals, as if punishing you for not reminding yourself about the incident often enough. Its effect, however, is not something most viewers would agree on.

With production quality at par with Hollywood wartime movies that often become Oscar darlings, Shoojit leaves no stone unturned to keep you arrested in the world he has created. This is his first period film in almost 15 years but there is not a single edit note I can add at the bottom of any scene for even a mild correction. Did Amol Parashar’s Bhagat Singh sound more like a hopeful GenZ something from JNU rather than a DAV-educated boy from Lahore? Yes. But I am hoping that the tiny tweak was all intentional.

The amount of money pumped into this is evident from the details with which the England of 1933-1940 is recreated. The gloomy London sets, with their double-decker buses, vintage ambulance and police vans, Scotland Yard officers in their high hats, or the women in heels running along control rooms, add to the overall authenticity of the film. And thankfully, no white actor (who make for almost 80% of the film’s cast) ever speaks Hindi without reason.

Also read: Little Things season 4 review: Farewell to Mithila Palkar, Dhruv Sehgal and best show on modern love India's ever seen

However, all of this would have been rendered much less impactful without Vicky Kaushal’s talent. He delivers a performance of a lifetime as Sardar Udham and does it through three stages of his life. He is enigmatic as the spy-type, making his way through the streets of London with murder on his mind. He is also a revolutionary as he belts poetic speeches about freedom. But he is most impressive as the 19-year-old boy from Amritsar, thrown into horrors beyond anyone’s imagination. He is the frolicking boy in love at once but when that dreaded final hour arrives, Vicky leaves you with your nails digging into your own fists. The exhaustion of his body and the desperation on his face cannot leave anyone unaffected.

Sardar Udham, if there was ever any doubt, also proves once again that Shoojit Sircar is in top form and among the most dependable filmmakers in Hindi cinema right now. From slices of lives to biographies on historical heroes, he has been able to give his distinct stamp to any idea he has picked up. Hope the streak continues another 20 years.

Sardar Udham Director: Shoojit Sircar Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Amol Parashar, Shaun Scott

• Sardar Udham
• Vicky Kaushal

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Sardar movie review: Karthi shines in this film that centers on its own version of scarlet letter, and the spy business

A spy film has to be stylish, sharp and slick if it is set in the present. Since Sardar is partly set in the 80s, the stunts in the film are more brutal and physically intimate.

Language: Tamil

Cast:  Karthi, Rajisha Vijayan, Raashi Khanna, Chunky Panday, Laila

Director: P.S. Mithran

Star rating: 3/5

From the very first shot, Karthi -starrer Sardar intrigues you. It is a brilliant shot of a government employee held at gunpoint in a boat on India-Bangladesh border. The resounding gunshot that pans away to reveal the title of the film promises a fascinating spy-thriller. However, that fascination is tested. In fact, the weakest point in Sardar is its first act that sets up a connection between the present and the past. Sardar is India’s most talented spy trained in the 80s, and Vijay Prakash is a police officer whose main motive is to make an attempt at living beyond the legacy left behind by his father who has been labelled a traitor by the nation’s highest intelligence agency.

The first act is where the narrative panders to formulaic concepts such as the masala-packed intro song, a romantic track and narrative montages. Of these, only the narrative montage works. The former two serve as nothing but a distraction, or more accurately, an obstacle before we as viewers can get to the heart of the story. The film picks up pace only after Vijay Prakash decides to capture a traitor of the nation, in an attempt to erase his legacy. Until this investigation, Vijay’s belief that his father had been a bad man had been absolute. After all, his father’s entire family had allegedly died by suicide. Their death only served as further proof regarding his father’s crimes. How his absolute belief is broken, the doubts that crop up in the process of his investigation, the trials that Vijay’s character experience during this time are a tale of their own.

You peel this layer away, and you learn about a controversy that is at play at large here. A conspiracy that attacks capitalism, one that blames the society for putting a price to anything and everything possible. In this case, rightly so. The more we learn of this controversy, the more we internalise it. In fact, the first thing that I did after the film ended was look into the commercialisation of waterways in countries across the world. I read about countries where it was successful and countries where it wasn’t. It is an interesting overarching theme to have for a spy thriller.

Of course, the film does pander to the suspicions that India at large has about China’s intention politically. However, it does work out in favour of the narrative. After the initial hiccup in the first act, there are certain unexpected edits and cutaways that do seem like an attempt by an amateur. In an otherwise tight screenplay that also does great at giving life to its supporting characters, these moments are irksome. The one who distracts you from such irksome moments in the film is this child — Timmy. Unlike other child actors that are forced to act cutesy, or way more mature for their age, this little guy is spot-on with his role. The role portrayed by Rithvik travels partially with Vijay before he partners up with Sardar. I say partner up because he does more to help the old man complete his three-decade-old mission. Vijay, at one point, becomes a spectator in his father’s life, and then he becomes a supporter.

It is Timmy who is aware of all of Sardar’s plans until the very end. Similarly, his mother Sameera Thomas (Laila) gets a brilliant arc of her own despite the short screen time. In fact, she serves as a turning point in both Vijay and Sardar’s life. In times when spy thrillers have one-dimensional female characters, Sardar has done better. That is not to say that there is no room for improvement. One of the characters that I was personally a tad bit disappointed with is that of Rajisha Vijayan’s. Raashi Khanna, on the other hand, gets comparatively more screen time, but she is also the love interest who exists solely for the male character’s growth.

A spy film has to be stylish, sharp and slick if it is set in the present. Since Sardar is partly set in the 80s, the stunts in the film are more brutal and physically intimate. The ways in which Sardar infiltrates enemy outposts is ingenious, yet simple. As an undercover agent, his acceptance of his role — no glory, no honour, or a nod to services provided — and the consequences that comes with it is what drives the film to the finish line. Speaking of stunt sequences, there is one that is quite inspired, where Sardar uses electricity and steam. The background score here, the editing, and visuals all come together beautifully. In fact, the high points of the film feature Sardar . The villain in this film — portrayed by Chunky Panday — is set up to perform a very popular trope in the espionage genre. While he is not the most impressive villains we have had in recent times, the film only sees him as a figure of corruption. The villain in this tale is something else entirely, and this is addressed through the film’s overarching topic.

In a film that captures the journey of a father and son in parallel, one where their fights are shows with intercuts, and their struggles overlap each other to brilliant background score, the absence of a grand reunion scene is interesting. What we see instead is Timmy act as a bridge between this father and son. It is similar to how the writers do not want to make a grandstand with their message. They make their point, show you their side of the argument and leave it to you to decide which side of history you want to place yourself at. Overall, the film comes together after its initial hiccup, and it forms a cohesive and effective narrative.

Priyanka Sundar is a film journalist who covers films and series of different languages with special focus on identity and gender politics.

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‘Sardar’ movie review: Karthi is enjoyable in this generic and message-heavy thriller

The light of ‘vikram’ does shine brightly on ‘sardar’ but isn’t eclipsed by it, letting the ps mithran film breathe and have its own share of enjoyable portions.

October 21, 2022 02:31 pm | Updated October 22, 2022 01:29 pm IST

Karthi in ‘Sardar’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Once upon a time, there lived an agent wearing a mask (of a theatre actor) who goes by many names. Any Mission Impossible is a mission possible for the agent. He is, of course, the ‘best’ agent to have operated in the Indian Army. Until his mask falls and the face is exposed. He is not an agent but a “terrorist” who betrayed the nation. The story of the Great Betrayal therefore becomes a popular folktale among other active agents. Thus, the former agent now becomes a myth. A ghost.

Decades later, his name resurfaces when an officer in-charge of a case digs out classified files while investigating another case. Turns out that the agent had been dropping hints for the officer to find and resurrect his spirit.

“Once upon a time there lived a ghost…he is not a myth anymore”. Err, I know what you guys must be thinking. This ain’t a logline for Lokesh Kangaraj’s Vikrammm, but PS Mithran’s Sardarrr .

Jokes aside, it is going to be a monumental task for filmmakers to come up with fresher ideas for movies involving agents and double agents, in the post- Vikram era . Such has been the influence of Lokesh Kanagaraj’s pulpy ode to the 1986 film of the same name. The light of Vikram does shine brightly on Sardar but isn’t eclipsed by it, letting the PS Mithran film breathe and have its own share of enjoyable portions. Although the plot here is a nod to another Kamal film: Oru Kaidhiyin Diary , in which Kamal played a dual role as father, who is a convicted criminal, and son who joins the Police Department to correct the wrongs of his father. Or rather, to clean the ‘stain’ that he has been carrying all his life because of his criminal dad.

Karthi’s Vijaya Prakash does something similar here. An inspector who is like a celebrity figure given the popularity he has on social media, Vijaya Prakash wants to establish his own identity. He does that by indulging in marketing and promotions ( “Naalu perukku nallathu seiyanum na nappadhu aayiram perukku theriyanum ,” he says) to create this grand illusion. You could say that he too, wears a mask. He wants to rub off the ‘stain’ left by his father Bose, who murders the National Security Advisor on the grounds of personal vendetta and is slapped with the label ‘traitor’. But what if there was a reason? What if someone provoked Bose to kill him? What if…Bose, an agent with RAW, was failed by his own establishment? These thoughts, which are actual plot points in the espionage genre, aren’t exactly new and revelatory ideas. 

But how the film turns this genre’s limitations on its head is where the challenge lies for the filmmaker. Lokesh’s approach towards Vikram was based on a superhero formula that heavily borrowed the structure of The Dark Knight trilogy. Siddharth Anand brought in a breath of fresh air to masala sensibilities in his delightful War , also about an agent going rogue against the system. In Sardar , PS Mithran seems to struggle quite a bit. He knows he has a delicious formula in hand: the reunion of father-son and the film is very much in the masala zone. Yet, the masala flavour that Sardar teems with feels too familiar for us. 

For example, one of the things that truly worked in Oru Kaidhiyin Diary was that it was strongly anchored in primal, human emotions. Kamal’s wife is sexually assaulted and raped, and she commits suicide and therefore, Kamal kills the perpetrators. When the son character comes to know about the truth from his father, we see him wanting to remove his uniform and join the father character to get justice. When the protagonist is directly affected, it affects us. When I say ‘direct’, I mean it has to hit us in the gut. When it affects us, we teem with rage. When we feel the emotion, we buy what the character does in the movie.

Sardar ’s problem is this: Bose’s betrayal should have been so brutal that it ideally should have translated on us. Instead, when we are presented with what actually happened to Bose, it comes across as too convenient. We feel betrayed in the other sense. Even though we get that Vijaya Prakash is publicity-hungry because he wants people and the department to ‘forget’ who his father was, we don’t take him or his actions seriously. Therefore, he becomes a plain figure for the most part.

There are quite a few moments where Mithran comes alive as a filmmaker. For instance, when a boy (who talks too much, knows too much for his age) is taken by the cops for being an accomplice of his traitor mother, we see Vijaya Prakash drawing a parallel to his own life. This mirrors beautifully with him as a boy being photographed by journalists and being taken in by a caretaker (played by Munishkanth who is a great find for the Janagaraj’s character from Oru Kaidhiyin Diary ). Vijay takes the boy into his arms and walks away, a beautiful throwback to what Karthi does in Aayirathil Oruvan . Deliberate? Or am I reading too much into the film? There is another instance when someone’s real identity is revealed and it mirrors too in the end. These echo moments make up when Sardar dumbs down the message-heavy portions that simply come across as spoon feeding the audience at a time they are watching international content.

Movies featuring a star in dual roles suffer from a common plague. We are almost always invested in the character who is either the evil twin brother or the one who gets a makeover. And filmmakers continue to repeat the same mistake of saving the more interesting character for the second half. We saw that in Selvaraghavan’s Naane Varuvaen . We see that happening in Sardar . For, it becomes slightly engaging only after Bose appears. Till about that time, our patience is tested. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Chunky Pandey is the villain and he seems to get his lines right in Hindi, at least going by what his lips don’t tell. Every time Pandey speaks, the camera cuts to focus on the person listening, in a bid to perhaps avoid the terrible lip-sync. Pandey is not an exception. This happens to Laila too, when she speaks Tamil. Alright. When she tries to speak Tamil.

To put in the film’s lingo, calling Sardar a fulfilling movie would be a “convenient lie”. But calling it an interesting film that needed more clarity would be an “uncomfortable truth”.

Sardar is currently running in theatres.

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Sardar Udham review: A turbulent slice of India’s colonial past

Sardar udham movie review: shoojit sircar’s sardar udham is a long, unhurried re-creation of a turbulent slice of india’s colonial past, going back and forth from punjab to london, with a few detours here and there..

Sardar Udham movie cast: Vicky Kaushal, Stephen Hogan, Shaun Scott, Kirsty Averton, Andrew Havill, Banita Sandhu, Amol Parashar Sardar Udham movie director: Shoojit Sircar Sardar Udham movie rating: Three stars

March 13, 1940, London. An Indian man walks into an orderly meeting where Michael O’Dwyer, former Lt governor of the Punjab province, is delivering a lecture on the legacy of the white man’s burden, and how, under British rule, the ‘Indian savages’ have been brought under control.

The man waits till the speech is over, walks across the room to face Dwyer (Shaun Scott) and shoots at him point-blank. The latter falls to the ground, blood pooling around him. Udham Singh (Vicky Kaushal) has finally accomplished what he had vowed twenty years ago, after his traumatic witnessing of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. General Dyer (Andrew Havill) may have given the orders to fire on those hundreds of peaceful protestors, men, women and children, but it was Dwyer who had pressed the button. For Udham Singh, revenge is cold, but it is as sweet.

The film tells us that it is ‘based on true events’, but stays safe with the usual disclaimers of having taken ‘creative liberties and dramatized the events for cinematic expression’. Given how thin-skinned we have become about representations of any kind, it looks like filmmakers will never be able to escape these kinds of statements which force their work into deathly anodyne-ness. Can we then call ‘Sardar Udham’ a biopic, or should we just stay with ‘a period piece about a little-known Indian revolutionary’ whose act spilled over from the heart of imperial London to its faraway colony in the East, struggling for independence?

Shoojit Sircar’s film is a long, unhurried re-creation of a turbulent slice of India’s colonial past, going back and forth from Punjab to London, with a few detours here and there. I did find the first hour a bit of a slog, where we see, in a series of flashbacks within a flashback, Udham’s difficult arrival in London and casting about for support, his arrest and painful interrogation. A Scotland Yard inspector (Stephen Hogan) supervises the torture in between the questioning, and why, if Udham knew the English language even if haltingly, was there need for a translator?

There are other strands which seem like loose ends, like the appearance of a bunch of IRA (Irish Republican Army) sympathisers, one of whom, a strong-faced, dark-browed young woman named Eileen (Kirsty Averton) appears to have a soft spot for our hero. Udham is also in touch with a handful of Indians who have been left directionless after the disbanding of HSRA (Hindustan Socialist Republican Association), a fledgling outfit created by the fiery young rebels who were picked off by the British. We see, briefly, the warm association back home between Udham and Bhagat Singh (Amol Parashar), and the quiet romance between Udham and the lovely Reshma (Banita Sandhu), but the film, of necessity, keeps circling back to Udham and his doings in London.

It is when it arrives at Jallianwala Bagh and the brutal mowing down of those innocents that the film, ironically, comes to life. By then, we have spent enough and more time in cold London jails and have seen the crystallisation of Udham as a man who can suffer a million blows to his body but who will not bow before his oppressors. It is this portion, where we see the implacable cruelty of the men who order the Jallianwala Bagh killing, the relentless firing into the crowd desperately trying to save their lives, and the heart-breaking sight of the dead and the dying, that makes this movie comes into its own: sometimes, bearing witness is the only thing you can do, even if it is the hardest thing to do.

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Up until then, you feel that Kaushal may have been too young for his part, specially when we know that Sircar had Irrfan in mind for it. But in this portion which leaves an indelible stamp on his soul, Kaushal rings true. Udham, stunned and shattered, toils through the night, carrying the wounded to safety, each foray into the pile of bleeding, groaning bodies a journey into hell. And then you know why the director has taken his time with this part: there can be no short-cuts when you want to do justice to the portrayal of the monstrousness of the tragedy, and its ‘aftershock which can still be felt in the streets of Amritsar’.

At one point, we hear a young rebel speak about how they cannot be biased or casteist or communal, and how ‘equality for all’ is the most important thing. If things had been different, if those young rebels had lived long enough to shape India, would their thoughts have made the country a different place? When Udham Singh is repeatedly asked his name, and brutally tortured for his silence, he thrusts out his arm on which is tattooed: Ram Mohammad Singh Azad. Would that composite name be given any credence in today’s India? And is this the country those young rebels gave up their lives for? It bears thinking deeply about.

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Sardar Udham Reviews

No portrayal of trauma, especially in mainstream Hindi cinema, has probably been as well-realised as Vicky Kaushal’s in the film Sardar Udham.

Full Review | May 22, 2023

SARDAR UDHAM is a damn powerful, superbly produced biopic that pulls us under its spell with its detailed, authentic historical setting and deeply moves us because of Vicky Kaushals nuanced performance and the cinematic depiction of the Amritsar massacre

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 8, 2022

Sardar Udham's heart-wrenching final act finds its protagonist using a hand cart as a makeshift stretcher, making countless trips to find and save the injured.

Full Review | Dec 29, 2021

I'm not sure whether it is the slow-burn quality of the film or if it is the sombre tone that the film maintains throughout, but the searing intensity of the last hour hit me like a gut punch.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 22, 2021

In an India where generating fake news pays rich dividends, Shoojit Sircar has chosen to recount a remarkable - and painful - true story with a reliance on facts alone.

Full Review | Oct 19, 2021

Sardar Udham ultimately works, thanks to Shoojit Sircar's research and dedication...

Sircar exercises remarkable restraint in making this powerful film with lofty ambitions. Sardar Udham is heartbreakingly sincere with Vicky Kaushal delivering a devastatingly touching performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Oct 19, 2021

We seldom make biopics as good as these. After giving us Udham Singh, maybe Shoojit Sircar should give us Bhagat Singh next.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 19, 2021

Although Sardar Udham isn't always successful in providing a rounded and complex portrait, Sircar's sober and thoughtful exploration of the injustice that underpinned the British empire survives his tendency towards excess and bloat.

Sardar Udham's courage never roared. It whispered.

Shoojit Sircar's Sardar Udham is a long, unhurried re-creation of a turbulent slice of India's colonial past, going back and forth from Punjab to London...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 19, 2021

Vicky Kaushal turns in a nuanced performance in tune with the film's script.

The brilliantly lensed biopic also draws power from lead actor Vicky Kaushal's intense and intuitive performance.

Vicky Kaushal is bewitching in one of the boldest, most traumatising Hindi films ever made...

Shoojit Sircar's biopic of the patriot is a stunning slice of history mirroring our fractious present and cautioning us about the pitfalls of the future.

Sardar Udham paints a vivid picture of oppression and imperialism. Sircar cleverly sets his tale in a way that the revenge at its centre is used as a basic plot point in the lure of giving the more palpable political context a contemporary treatment.

Sadar Udham is an ambitious but drastically bloated affair.

Watch Sardar Udham for the extent of its ambition.

Treading such terrain requires a deft directorial hand, and Sircar's usual assuredness is missing from this meandering blockbuster.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 18, 2021

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Sardar movie review: A long-winding over-the-top movie

The world is shrinking both in terms of time and space. Only Tollywood, while it could take advantage of the latter, is not willing to recognise the former.

Resultantly a major Tamil film gets dubbed to a reasonable footfall at the theatres, the time it takes to tell the story of a mafia planning to rob the world of drinking water takes all of nearly three hours. Film makers just cannot get over the idea that you do not need three hours to tell a gripping story and there is nothing more important than telling a story in a crisp and compelling manner.

While song and dance are indeed an integral part of our cinema and thus romance an imperative, our filmmakers have yet to learn the fine art of coming up with a balancing act.

This outing is a fine example of how you fail may not even set out to achieve this goal. The lead romantic pair sing songs wholly irrelevant to the main story for the first half hour in typical Telugu-Tamil style and then there is not a whisper of romance till the Director decides to punctuate the narrative with the presence of the heroine at odd moments. There has also been a constant parallel narrative in our cinema that only the extra brave courageous and maltodextrins character that can win battles and the ordinary are so distant in the background that life is mocking them.

Director Mitran PS takes away 165 minutes of your life in exchange for the ticket price and believes in giving you your money's worth-quantitatively. There not only lies the problem but there it starts.

Juxtaposition this long duration with the lack of talent to spread a story thin and even and you get into a film that has bouts of needless violence , spells of high voltage drama and hours of meandering.

Inspector Vijay Prakash (Karthi) is that Inspector who we find only in our cinema and rarely in our police stations. Efficient, duty conscious and proactive. Brought up by his constable uncle (Munishkant) he has to overcome a huge social barrier as he is perceived by many as the son of a traitor – his father Bose (Karthi- in the other role too). For romance he has a lawyer in Shalini (Raashi Khanna) while Pappa Bose has Rajisha Vijayan.

The sudden disappearance of Sameera (Laila) a social activist whose writ petition against a pipeline project kick starts the proceedings we have peeps into the past. Leaking here and there in the tale is how Sardar is a Intelligence Officer who is doomed to obscurity and notoriety leaves a son who would walk an extra mile for popularity and fame. Dad has been declared a traitor and missing while the entire family commits suicide. This haunts the son (a la Zanjeer to Ghost). There is Maharaja Rathore (Chunkey Pandey) who is an ex-army officer who has resigned and is now the villain in chief who promises the world that India would have a single pipeline for drinking water but is actually robbing the innocent of their lawful share and making them dependent on bottled water which also has disastrous side effects as seen in a little boy Timmy (Rithvik).

Hours and hours of cinema and finally through the prisons of Bangladesh the beach sands of the Bay of Bengal and the streets of Tamil Nādu Papa and Son fight the evil and in the midst of debris and bodies dead and ears deafened you come to a climax which shows the complete lack of control that the film maker has on his product.

The saving grace in the film is the performance from Karthi in a dual role. We are saved of similar mannerisms to establish the relationship. We are also saved of dramatic reunions and the like. We could well have been saved of a lot more. Simply reiterated, the fight of an international mafia eyeing water as the critical factor with the armed forces either conniving or turning a blind eye to the prospective tragedy simply does not require three hours, much less a contrived romance between the fighting protagonists – a police officer and an activist lawyer. Sardar is over the top and for those who order for just that from the menu card this satiates.

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Sardar Is A Superbly Staged, Though Uncomfortably Sepia Toned Thriller

Director: P.S. Mithran

Writers: P.S. Mithran, Rohit Nandakumar (screenplay)

Cast: Karthi , Raashi Khanna , Rajisha Vijayan , Laila

A masterclass of staging, the world of Sardar is established with style, dramatic intensity, and when needed, that silly comedic charm. The imagination of its maker — PS Mithran — bends just as easily towards silliness as it does towards style, such are the gruelling demands from a mass film director. In the first half there are two sweaty fight sequences. One is corny, the kind where the sound of a bell is heard when the balls of a goon are smashed. The other is all oiled-up swagger, the pre-interval blast that pulsates with both anticipation and excitement. Both are performed by Karthi in a double role, and Mithran stages both, making ample use of the space it is set in — the stacked, empty, noisy cans of a water factory in the former that reflect and refract light beautifully, and the tight walled-in corridor of a jail in the latter.

We are introduced to Inspector R Vijayaprakash, an effective, efficient police officer who hungers for internet fame. He is muscling through Chennai, making the police trend on Twitter — for good reasons, mind you. Soon we realise this isn’t a character quirk as much as it is an overcompensation. Vijayaprakash has been told that his father, the R&AW spy Sardar, betrayed the country and that his entire family collectively died by suicide because of this blot on their reputation. When he applies to be part of the police force, he needs to sign a certificate renouncing his father and his legacy. So, to distract from his past, he pursues a present so colourful and loud, you cannot look past it. The silliness and humour that I mentioned above is as much a genre demand as it is a character demand, both blending seamlessly.

The film tracks his journey uncovering the truth about how Sardar was framed with the help of his friend, a lawyer with a deep activist conscience that he is smitten by, Shalini (Rashi Khanna). This isn’t love that is charming or evolving. It is a stagnant pool, which the film sheds interest in after a while. We are told they have known each other for years, and that is that.

The moral puzzle at the centre of the film is regarding water. How corporations are bottling this water, a public good, and selling it to us at exorbitant rates in plastic that leaks its toxicity into the water, killing children. Like any eat-the-rich, self-respecting Tamil film, Sardar links this to the broader cultural phenomena, with clips from Bolivia and Philippines, where the water wars have shed civilian blood. This cobbling together of country names is affecting, not just because water wars are imminent but because of how the film frames this moral monologue. There is that silly, verbal tic, where it has to explain everything. But that these monologues come from an activist (Laila) whose politics is personal, adds to the heft of a scene; her emotionally intelligent son (Rithvik) is dying because of the toxins ingested from plastic bottled water.

The villain, the man who wants to build a pan-Indian pipeline to control all the water is Rathore — a name and an actor, Chunky Pandey, pulled from the North, because such is South Indian villainy. He is an advisor to the government, and with the help of Chinese moles within the administration, has convinced everyone that this is a good idea — even the International Court of Justice, at the Hague. There is something meaty here, the idea of a corporate entity so monopolising, so powerful, so close to political power, that it subverts justice in favour of profits. Sounds familiar?

We are told Sardar — with a stitched white beard and sagging skin that can only be described as prosthetic — has 8 passports, and speaks 24 languages, a fact that is flung at us without needing any additional scene expressing this, showing us that, indeed, this is a man of many tongues. We are told that he was trained by Rathore, and even this is a fact we must forcefully swallow because the film isn’t passing us the, ahem, "water" to make it more palatable. Chunky Pandey’s frame is so lithe, his acting so cartoonishly menacing that it is impossible to see how Rathore imparted either brawn or brain to Sardar. Have we forgotten how to write good villains?

The second half is a quick, almost reckless recap of Sardar’s life, where we are introduced to his wife (Rajisha Vijayan) — but just like with Shalini here, too, is a love that is established already before we lay eyes on it; that the two have known each other for decades. Perhaps Mithran just does not see how their love is essential to this story except to create biological links across generations. That’s fair. This is, afterall, a film that is about a father and son. Why layer it with desire? It also allows Karthi to flex the acting muscles he excels at — self assured bravado — without letting him slip up, as he usually does when it comes to expressing love.

Sardar ’s long agitated shots, the dramatic staging of seas and ships, of scale and sweep, of dams and damsels, is so effective, it hurts that Mithran and his cinematographer George C. Williams decided to douse the frames in this designer-dusty sepia grime. The film looks dull, and the world lethargic. This is something both Mithran and Williams pursued from Irumbu Thirai (2018) through Hero (2019) to Sardar . I can only hope they reconsider this aesthetic bulldozing of anything beautiful, tender, or real.

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Man booked for killing dog

Peta demands psychiatric evaluation of suspect.

Updated At: Jun 25, 2024 06:18 AM (IST)

Photo for representational purpose only. - File photo

Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 24

The Kotwali police have registered against the dog killer, Sanjay Gupta, following a complaint from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), India, and the deceased community dog’s caregivers. PETA members have demanded a psychiatric evaluation of the ‘canine killer’.

The incident took place in Laturpura Mohalla, Patiala, on June 13 when the suspect slit the canine’s throat using a large knife. After receiving information about the ruthless killing of a dog on the streets of Patiala, PETA, India, took up the matter. Besides, caregivers — Sandeep Singh, Kritika, Deveshi Khanna, Sourav Khosla, Vicky, and Pankaj — lodged a formal complaint with the Patiala Kotwali Police Station, which led to the registration of a first information report (FIR) against the suspect, Sanjay Gupta, under Section 429 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 11 of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act, 1960.

PETA India Cruelty Response Coordinator Sinchana Subramanyan said, “Those who abuse animals often move on to harming humans. For everyone’s safety, it’s imperative that members of the public report cases of cruelty to animals such as this one. We commend the police for promptly registering an FIR and sending the message that cruelty to animals won’t be tolerated.”

He said PETA India recommends that perpetrators of animal abuse undergo psychiatric evaluation and receive counselling, as abusing animals indicates deep psychological disturbance. He said research showed that people who commit acts of cruelty to animals are often repeat offenders who move on to hurting other animals, including humans. He said a study published in the Forensic Research and Criminology International Journal states, “Those who engage in animal cruelty were [three] times more likely to commit other crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, assault, harassment, threats, and drug or substance abuse.”

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Official Death Toll From Hajj Pilgrimage Climbs Into the Hundreds

Searing heat in Saudi Arabia appeared to at least contribute to many of the deaths.

• Share full article

By Emad Mekay and Lynsey Chutel

Emad Mekay reported from Cairo and Lynsey Chutel reported from Johannesburg.

During the annual hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, one of the most important events on the Muslim calendar, at least 450 people died under a scorching sun as they prayed at sacred sites around the holy city of Mecca.

Amid maximum temperatures that ranged from 108 Fahrenheit to 120, according to preliminary data, and throngs of people, many passed out and needed medical care. The pilgrims, some who have saved their whole lives for the hajj, spend days walking and sleeping in tents during their journey to Mecca, the holiest city for Muslims. The hajj is one of Islam’s five pillars, and all Muslims who are physically and financially able are obliged to embark on the pilgrimage.

Indonesia has so far reported the most deaths, 199, and India has reported 98. The countries said at this point that they could not be sure that heat was the cause of all the deaths, though, relatives of the missing and dead and tour operators have said the heat was at least a contributing factor.

The number of dead is expected to rise as neither Saudi Arabia nor Egypt, where many pilgrims come from, have released death tolls for their citizens.

Egypt is alarmed enough that it has set up crisis centers to receive distress calls and coordinate the government’s response as families brace for a high death toll as many people have been reported missing.

Saudi Arabia

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Anartha (2024)

Star: vishal mannur,vihani gowda,prasanna bagina, ​director ramesh krishna weaves a love story with thrilling elements, but the plot lacks depth and intricate details. most of the sequences are shot in the forest, providing well-captured scenes..

The Judgement ()

Star: v. ravichandran,diganth manchale,meghana gaonkar,dhanya ramkumar,lakshmi gopalaswamy,prakash belawadi,krishna hebbale,rangayana raghu, courtroom dramas thrive on the element of suspense, but in the judgement, clues conveniently keep popping up hinder this effect. the movie has some fabulous performances by the ensemble of actors - ravichandran, meghana gaonkar, diganth manchale, dhanya ramkumar, lakshmi gopalaswamy, and rangayana raghu..

Switch { Case N: (2024)

Star: vijay suriya,shwetha vijaykumar,prithvi raj,vijay siddaraj,karthik vaibhav,santosh karki,bala rajwadi, director chethan shetty, who himself is a software engineer, has tried to showcase the work culture in the it sector by shedding light on nepotism and internal politics. the movie has the credentials to be a quality film, but the story lacks meat and execution. vijay suriya has done a commendable job as a techie..

Star: Rachana Inder,Bhavani Prakash,Naveen Kumar Mahadev,Adhya Shekar,Arjun M Rao

Rachana inder delivers a commendable performance in her role as a forensic officer, bringing a fresh perspective to the character. overall, 4n6 makes for a satisfying one-time watch this weekend..

Grey Games (2024)

Star: vijay raghavendra,shruti prakash,bhavana rao,ravi bhat, overall, the movie is a unique attempt to take people to a new, not-so-different online world and it sure is worth a visit..

Kangaroo ()

Star: mr. aditya,ranjani raghavan,shivamani,kari subbu,ashwin hassan,nagendra urs, overall, kangaroo is a decent attempt by the director kishore megalamane who has neatly merged both thrilling and emotional elements. it does keep the audiences gripped by the story, but somewhere, it lacks that wow factor, making it an above-average film, but nothing extraordinary.

Star: Ashika Ranganath,Praveen Tej,Raghav Nayak,Prakash Belawadi,Siri Ravikumar,K. S. Sridhar

The movie offers a unique experience for those who are looking for good content films. the concept is fresh and mixing it with spiritual science has also given the team an edge. small inconsistencies and predictability takes away a bit of the thrill, though..

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