Son of Sardaar
Movie Review
This Diwali it’s double dhaka: Ajay Devgn’s Son of Sardar
(SOS) versus Shah Rukh Khan’s Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Now,
we are not comparing the two here, that is for you to do,
we will simply let you know if it is worth selecting SOS as
your Diwali movie choice.
Directed by Ashwni Dhir (Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge), produced
by Ajay Devgn and with music by Himesh Reshammiya,
on the surface SOS is the film of the ‘masses’, whilst Jab
Tak Hai Jaan looks to be the film of the ‘classes’. This one
is a comedy potboiler, whilst the other is a romantic saga.
This one is set in Punjab, whilst the other waltz’s through
London. So with the comparison’s over, here is what we
thought.
The story in a nutshell is Sardar Devgn travels home to
Punjab from the UK, to lay claim to his ancestral land. On
the train journey there it is love-at-first-sight, with Sukh
(Sonakshi Sinha), following which he ends up as a guest
in her mad-house only to discover there is an old deadly
family feud with his own, which requires his death too. The
only safe option is to live-in with the enemy and the only
safe haven staying within the four walls of their house, as
whilst he is their ‘guest’ they will not touch him, but step
outside and his life is on the line.
SOS is a remake of a South Indian movie called ‘Maryada
Ramanna’. Like the original, the remake also packs in
action, drama, humour, songs and dances, which all equal
one big masala affair, akin to Devgn’s other films of the
same genre. This film falls very much into the ‘leave your
brains at home’ genre.
On the acting front starting with Ajay Devgn, we have seen
play the Sardar before, but this is no Legend of Bhagat
Singh. Here Devgn is playful, strong and romantic all in
extreme doses and delivers the right tone for the film as a
whole. On Sanjay Dutt, so okay, this is no Kancha fromAg-
neepath, nor is it Munna Bhai, but despite that Sanju Baba
does exactly what is expected from him – he gets angry
and he has a laugh, both convincingly. Sonali is spot on as
the village belle and although is still a delight to see, she
is close to becoming stereotyped and repetitive. You can
easily let her off on this occasion, as she is both funny and
sweet, but she does need to watch her film selections. Juhi
Chawla is still an absolute delight to watch and is a warm
addition to the cast.
So the minus, well…with running time of around 2 hours
and 20 minutes, short by some standards, SOS could
have done with a bit a trimming in some places. On the
music side, there are a couple of hummable tracks, mainly
the beautiful ‘Bicharan’ and the fun ‘Pow Pow’, but other-
wise not exactly a musical blockbuster. Directorially Atithi
Tum Kab Jaoge by Ashwni Dhir was a far more superior
and sophisticated product, which had some great comedy,
SOS is not necessarily a step back, but definitely a step in
another direction, as far as film making is concerned.
In the UK we call it marmite (a food substance), you will
love it, or you will hate it! Perhaps a more apt desi descrip-
tion is sweet or salted lassi. You either prefer sweet lassi,
or you prefer salted lassi, or maybe even both. Hell, why
not have a cocktail of sweet and salty! In any case that is
the verdict with SOS. If you loved Wanted and Dabaang,
or even Devgn’s own Golmaal series and his recentBol
Bachchan then SOS is definitely for you.
42 Feature