REVIEW 392: SARBJIT

Release date:	May 20, 2016
Director:	Omung Kumar
Cast: Language:	Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Randeep Hooda, Richa Chadha, Darshan Kumaar  Hindi and Punjabi

Once upon a time there was Sunny Deol’s dhai kilo ka haath, which uprooted a hand pump to scare off the entire Pakistan Army. Today there is Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s index finger.

To be fair, Sarbjit is not the unrelenting screamfest that Gadar was, but Deol’s film came to mind as the former Miss World held up her famous slender digit to intimidate an armed Pakistani security official. She did this right after delivering a loud speech to a Pakistani mob about how Pakistanis stab us Indians in the back while we bravely fight them face to face. As expected, the gun-bearing Pakistani meekly moves aside, and she proceeds to grandly walk past him as only Indian movie stars can when up against the dreaded dushman from across the border.

This embarrassingly tacky, populist scene of high-decibel, chest-thumping patriotism is the low point in a film that never quite takes off anyway.

August 25, 1990: a farmer from Bhikhiwind village in Punjab crosses the India-Pak border in an inebriated state, is mistaken for a terrorist and jailed in Pakistan, returning 23 years later in a coffin after he is allegedly murdered by fellow prisoners.

The true story of Sarabjit Singh Atwal is a tragedy of gargantuan proportions that is enough to move a rock to tears. Yet director Omung Kumar somehow manages to make a curiously unmoving film out of this inherently heartbreaking story.

A large part of the reason for this is the writing by Utkarshini Vashishtha and Rajesh Beri, which places Sarabjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur rather than Sarabjit at the centre of the plot. This might have been an acceptable writing choice if they had focused on the nitty-gritty of this brave woman’s battle to free her brother. Instead we get broad brush strokes which induce a sense of detachment rather than involvement with this real-life crusader and her unfortunate sibling.

The writing is not the film’s primary problem though. The primary problem is the casting of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as Dalbir. Try as she might, the actress cannot get under the skin of her character. She does not have the look or the body language of a Sardarni from rural Punjab, but her effort to get there shows in every studied gesture, every laboured expression, every step, every word spoken, until that effort becomes so distracting that it eclipses all else in the film.   

This is particularly unfortunate because the rest of the cast is formidably gifted, but the entire project seems designed to ensure that they do not overshadow the central star. Rarely has Bollywood witnessed such a self-defeating approach to filmmaking.

Despite this, Randeep Hooda – one of the industry’s most under-rated talents – shines as Sarabjit to the extent that it is possible given the limited writing. His physical transformation from a healthy, happy-go-lucky young farmer and wrestling enthusiast to a scrawny, ragged, filthy prisoner is remarkable, a combination of his own scary dedication (he reportedly lost 18kg for the role), SFX and his makeup artist Renuka Pillai’s ability to understand the requirements of a character. In his skinny body and decrepit face here, it is hard to spot the actor’s naturally sexy persona or the hot physique he has happily displayed in earlier films.

Commendably though, Hooda does not use the bodily makeover as a crutch. His performance is greatly handicapped by the fact that the camera rarely dwells on his face when it is in the light in India, and in the shadows in his Pakistani prison we see his countenance with clarity pretty late into Sarbjit’s running time. Further diverting attention from him, quite senselessly, are pictures of the real Sarabjit on posters and placards being held up by campaigners in the film – serving to repeatedly remind the audience that the guy we see on screen is someone else.

Hampered in so many ways from so many directions, Hooda still immerses himself in the role, making it possible to sometimes forget that he is but an actor playing a part.

Richa Chadha as Sarabjit’s wife Sukhpreet is mostly on the margins, but in the one scene where the spotlight is firmly on her, she sparkles. The situation is a confrontation between Sukhpreet and Dalbir. Without raising her voice even a single notch, without seeming to try at all, Chadha delivers the only scene in the entire film in which I found myself crying.

Darshan Kumaar is the new chameleon of Bollywood. As the zealous Pakistani lawyer Avais Sheikh who takes up Sarbjit’s case he is a far cry from the heroine’s soft-spoken, supportive husband he played in Mary Kom (2014) or the frightfully evil fellow he was in last year’s NH10.

Omung Kumar debuted with Mary Kom in which, despite the grievous offence of casting Priyanka Chopra as a Manipuri woman, he pulled through on the strength of Saiwyn Quadras’ solid script, Chopra’s acting talent and his own firm directorial hand. Here though, he seems scattered and star-struck. It is as if he zeroed in on a star and built a film around her. Big mistake.

When you watch Sarbjit, you must accept it as a given that the makers believe Sarabjit Singh Atwal and his family’s version of events, not the Pakistani authorities. The reason why that is okay is because the film is not pretending to be a journalistic exercise telling all sides of the story; it is open about its stance that it is a feature recounting one side of the story. Besides, unlike the Akshay Kumar-starrer Airlift released earlier this year, the fictionalisation here does not amount to outright, blatant lies revolving around a protagonist who never existed in reality.

The news occurrences in Sarbjit are more or less faithful to Indian media reports, with certain self-serving omissions such as the real Sarabjit’s reported admission to a Pakistani judge that he was involved in cross-border liquor smuggling (not spying and terrorism) or the controversies surrounding the real Dalbir. Even if these exclusions were to be excused as cinematic licence, the problem remains that this film fails to flesh out the people at the heart of this true story.

Statistics flashed on screen right before the end credits inform us that there were 403 Indians languishing in Pakistani jails and 278 Pakistanis in Indian jails as on July 1, 2015. Like Sarabjit, they are not mere numbers, they are living breathing human beings, many of whom (though not all) are innocent victims of the long-running political enmity between India and Pakistan. 

Sarbjit is a lesson in how not to tell their story.

Rating (out of five): **

CBFC Rating (India):	UA
Running time:	132 minutes

This review has also been published on Firstpost:

http://www.firstpost.com/bollywood/sarbjit-sarabjit-aishwarya-rai-bachchan-randeep-hooda-richa-chadha-2790936.html

Poster courtesy: Team Celeb Studio Talk

  

REVIEW 288: MARY KOM

Release date:	September 5, 2014
Director:	Omung Kumar
Cast: Language:	Priyanka Chopra, Darshan Kumaar, Sunil Thapa Hindi

I have to confess to a certain degree of incredulousness while watching Mary Kom. Really? A husband so supportive that he takes care of the babies, motivates his wife and voluntarily puts his own career on the backburner to support hers? Do they make ’em like that?

Now having read reams on the five-time world boxing champion and Olympic medallist M.C. Mary Kom – on whose life this film is based – I’ve discovered that debutant director Omung Kumar and screenplay writer Saiwyn Quadras have been pretty faithful to her true story. In an interview to Good Housekeeping magazine in 2012, Mary had said: “He knows my dreams and is always encouraging me to go out and achieve them.” Onler, who reportedly left a full-time job in Customs and Central Excise to support her, added, “When we decided to get married, it wasn’t just to be man and wife. The promise was to be on her side always.”

This then is what this film is for me: the story of a gutsy woman who never gives up a fight, a feisty woman who is unapologetic about her ambitions, and her great partnership with an unconventional man unfazed by the standard gossip directed at husbands of successful women.

Mary Kom is an unusual sports biopic because it is, for the most part, shorn of contrived melodrama. Since the real Mary is an active boxer who is very much in the news, many viewers already know the outcome of most of the matches being portrayed on screen. The focus then is not on boxing but on the woman who enters that ring.

Contrary to what you might be expecting, this film is not designed as a grand epic set against the backdrop of insurgency in Manipur. Nor is this a masala film made along the lines of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag. It is, instead, a saga of the daily struggles that a woman professional in particular must deal with. It is about gender prejudice, politics in India’s sporting establishment, a couple who are best buddies and the everyday tensions faced by parents. It is about a woman torn between the emotional and practical pulls of motherhood and her passion for her sport. It is about rising from humble circumstances yet it does not exaggerate Mary’s poverty, although extreme scenarios are often deemed more commercially viable than regular stories.

The effort to tell Mary’s story at a very personal level is commendable, but leads to a major flaw in the screenplay: it tells us nothing of the challenges faced by ordinary persons in the politically turbulent – and ignored – North-east, except for a wish for peace made in passing by Mary’s dad. Elsewhere, Mary’s sudden outburst that sports officials are discriminating against her because she is Manipuri is incongruous, because there’s not a whimper about such bias before that scene or after. Quadras even makes the odd choice of leaving out of the film a huge tragedy in Mary’s life: the murder of her father-in-law by unidentified gunmen that almost drove her to give up boxing, as she told The Hindustan Times in December 2013.

Some of the film’s dialogues required greater writing clarity. Mary Kom is also pulled down by the volume at which its passable songs are played. These loud numbers – particularly the irritating Hai tujhe salaam India – diminish an otherwise relatively understated narrative.

While the tone of the writing remains consistent almost throughout, there is an unnecessary effort to whip up emotions and suspense during an overly-dramatised scene in which Mary fights an international match just moments after having received bad news involving her family. Mary in real life did in fact face such a situation, but not in the same time frame.

The big picture though is that there is more to praise than slam in this film. Right on top of the heap of positives is Priyanka Chopra’s performance as Mary Kom. No, she is not Manipuri and does not look it either. This casting decision is not evidence of racism in Bollywood though (as has been alleged by some) but a sign of the star-ridden system that enslaves the industry, where even big film makers struggle to notch up a hit without stars and therefore avoid taking risks.

This situation needs to change. For the moment though, it’s a relief that Priyanka doesn’t overdo Mary’s mannerisms and reduce her to a caricature. PC throws herself into the role with the kind of commitment we saw from her in Barfi! At no point does she look like a boxing novice, and her body language – loose-limbed and excitable – matches her character’s temperament.

Interestingly, the writer does not deify Mary. Her excitability often translates into irritability and though she’s a good soul, I occasionally found myself admiring Onler’s patience with her. Playing Onler is film debutant Darshan Kumaar who is an absolute natural and a delight on camera. Of the excellent supporting cast, Sunil Thapa as Mary’s coach is particularly nice.

Press reports tell us the film has not been shot in Manipur. That’s unfortunate. The locations are pretty though, and cinematographer Keiko Nakahara has fun with them especially during an extended training sequence in the great outdoors. For the most part though, she keeps the scale of her camerawork more intimate, to match the mood of the film.

In the overall analysis then, Mary Kom is a neat little biopic. It is inspiring because Mary is a fighter in every sense of the word, and her marriage is a partnership of equals. It is unusual because the director and writer do not allow Mary’s motherhood to dwarf other aspects of her identity, and even when Mary is in pain over her kids, she is never shown feeling guilty about being a career woman.

Despite some major grouses with the film, I’ve come away from the theatre admiring Mary Kom and being a little in love with Onler. Mission accomplished, Omung Kumar.

Rating (out of five stars): ***1/2

CBFC Rating (India):	U
Running time:	124 minutes

Poster courtesy: Raindrop Media