Sarbjit movie review: Even Randeep Hooda’s brilliant act could not save this sloppy drama

Right from the word go, the severity with which film switches gears will make you cringe, Before you can settle down with one scene, the film quickly changes tracks and takes you to another scene with an entirely different emotional pitch.

Sarbjit is the story of an unfortunate Punjab farmer who was wrongfully imprisoned in a Pakistani jail after he accidentally crossed the border in a drunken state. He was labelled as an Indian spy who masterminded multiple blasts in Pakistan. His elder sister Dalbir Kaur (Aishwarya Rai) convinced of Sarabjit’s innocence launches a relentless campaign to get him out of prison. She stomps power corridors from Punjab to Delhi and lays sermons on Indo-Pak harmony.

Help for her comes in the form of a Pakistani lawyer Awaid Shaikh (Darshan Kumar) who tries to get Sarabjit released.

Like his earlier film Mary Kom, Director Omung Kumar’s ham-handed approach in film-making is evident in this 127-minute drama as well. He never lets the film gain momentum but instead fills it with occasional emotional outbursts. Besides, the film is unnecessarily long and sans a coherent narrative. 

Perhaprs Sarbjit’s weakest link is it’s over-emphasis on melodrama. It seems director has no clue where to draw the line between actuality and exaggeration.

In one of the scenes, Dalbir takes the dais in Lahore against the protestors and pronounces that Pakistanis are backstabbers but we Indians fight do not fight from behind, but the whole crowd listens patiently. This, in many ways, is reminiscent of Gadar's Sunny Deol.

Besides, the screenplay by Utkarshini Vashishtha and Rajesh Beri is slow and tedious, and tends to waste more time than necessary getting to the point.

The cacophonic background score appears forced at times when expression alone could have delivered the message. It appears as if the director’s idea of portraying emotions only comes with music.

On the other hand, scenes, especially the ones depicting Randeep in the Pakistani prison, are heart-wrenching. Randeep Hooda once gain shows why is one of the most brilliant actors in the Hindi film industry. His body transformation, his voice change and his command on Punjabi diction is a lesson in itself on method acting. He could be India’s answer to Daniel Day Lewis.

It is a tragedy that an actor of Richa Chaddha’s potential has been reduced to a caricature, as Aishwarya has been given the screen time enough to exhaust the audience. Chaddha, who plays Hooda’s wife in the film, barely has any dialogue.

One of the biggest failures that come across in the film is the overstated performance of its lead protagonist Aishwarya. Her accent and body language are miles away from that of a native Punjabi woman. It may be concluded here that Aishwarya was a total miscast for such a demanding role.

The makers of Sarbjit, however, deserve laurels as they have raised an important issue highlighting the plight of prisoners, who may have been framed as spies, languishing in jails of both countries. But a story as important as this does not deserve this sloppy a treatment.