Sikandar : Movie Review

Shelved for a long time, Piyush Jha's Sikandar finally saw light of the day. After listening to mindblowing soundtrack, I was expecting some brilliant things on screen, but in totality I am bit disappointed.

Sikandar - played by Parzaan Dastur-is a school going kid who loves playing football, and dreaming of being a famous player. And fulfill wishes of his uncle and aunty. As his parents died in terrorist act, Sikandar lives with his uncle. One day he get along with Nasreen [Aayesh Kapoor] and later both becomes good friends. Things are fine in his life untill he finds a gun on his way to school, and life takes a turn for Sikandar. Later story involves a Peace party leader Mukhtaar Mattoo [Sanjay Suri], Leutanant Rajesh [R Madhvan] and a militant Zahgeer Quadir [Arunoday Singh].

Story takes place in most recent situations of Kashmir. When situations are not yet properly calm, nor it is so much unbalanced too. Militants and Peace Makers along with Forces, are getting blaming each other, doubting each other and that way keeping the 'peace' out of place. Many stories are told over this theme, so there is hardly anything 'new' left for Piyush Jha the director, to show in this movie.

Similar theme was last seen in the movie Tahaan, where same thing was conceived very beautifully. No doubt I was expecting that kind of excellence in this, i know i was asking for more. Main glitch of the movie is that the story has many loopholes, that beautiful cinematography could not hide. Many things looks typical and unacceptable. Sikandar starts of very well, after striking opening sequence, the innosense of protagonist makes it interesting. But soon, movie lacks its grip. Constantly it flips between story of politician, army and Sikandar. Viewer gets rather confused on such flips. Screenplay doesn't hold you besides having a great potential in the storyline. And reult is besides having a short running time of 110 minutes, one feels the movie a bit long. The suspense part gets revealed quite interestingly though. But the climax is very much typical and viewer already assumes that it is going to end like this only. And still there are questions which left unanswered.

Performances are good though. Madhavan does justice to his rather short role. While Sanjay Suri is really good in this role with art of underplaying. Arunoday Singh as a militant suits his role perfectly. And Parzaan Dastur, the lovely cute Sardar from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, is a grown up boy now. He performs his part quite nicely. Though I couldn't help comparing him to Tahaan's Purab Bhandare. Parzaan maintains his act quite balanced in tricky scenes. My only disappointment is Aayesha Kapoor. The 'Black' girl failed to get my attention. She has accent you can't ignore.And that's why she fails to deliver a performance which might be interesting. I think it was Bhansali who took out the brilliant act from her in Black. Here Aayesha looks lost. And being a most tricky role, hers is quite un-impressive act.

Music is the most preferred thing for me when I watch a movie. Sikandar has great soundtrack, but here most of the tracks served as background sounds. The title track, 'Gulon Mein' is truly serene. On screen too. It left me lost in visuals. My complaint to director was for no use of fantastic 'Dhoop Ke Sikkey' in the movie. Only a few lines were used, I was expecting some great visualization of the track :(

All in all, Sikandar disappoints besides a few good performances and great cinematography, just because of deja vu.

My Rating : 2 / 5
Fav. Scenes : Opening Sequence, Sikandar's playing with gun
Re-watch?? : No.

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Related Posts : Tahaan [2008]