Movie Reviews: Sarbjit/BO News - Page 8

When posters of the film carry not the face of the actor playing the titular character, but the star backing the project, you know exactly what you in for.

Sarbjit', based on the story of a man who was imprisoned in a Pakistani jail for over two decades, while his sister fought a dogged, weary battle for his release in India, opts for high-pitched saccharine- laden melodrama : the star is equally high-pitched, leaving the actor to bring up the rear.

Sarbjit's story has been well-documented. He lived with his family"old father, wife Sukh (Richa Chaddha), and fiercely loyal sister Dalbir (Aishwarya Rai) in a village close to the Indo-Pak border in Punjab. He strayed over the line one night, and was nabbed by the Pakistani patrol. That's when his ordeal started"thrown in a box for months, limbs contorted, hung upside down and flayed till bloody, till he was forced into a false confession, and jailed.

That's when the ordeal of his family back in the village begins. The devastated Dalbir, ever protective about her bhai', takes up cudgels on his behalf. Through the long, hard grind"her appeals to the Prime Minister's Office and officials on either side of the border mostly fall on deaf ears, with only a few light-in-the-tunnel moments"she keeps going.

There is heft in the story. The horror of a human being made to suffer physical and mental torture, and used as a political pawn between the now hardening-now softening stance between India and Pakistan, is wrenching. The impact on the family is unbearable, neither able to walk past, nor able to mourn. But the treatment is cloying and sentimental, and manipulates you into weeping without actually feeling.

A real-life tale which is inherently so full of drama and heart-break has no need to be artificially revved up. But mainstream Bollywood doesn't know any other way to do things. Sarabjit' should have been called Dalbir', because it is Aishwarya doing all the heavy-lifting, to distressing little impact.

First off, she is all wrong for the part, her attempts at the rural Punjabi accent slipping up every so often. And then she goes full tilt at her lines, ratcheting up the volume, to such an extent that you want to tell her to hush. When she does, go silent that is"precisely for two and a half scenes- she is able to convey her pain and anguish so much better. If she had modulated her act, Sarbjit' would have been a better film.

And of course there is the superfluous 'giddha-shiddha' : when will Bollywood make a film on Punjabi characters minus this? Richa Chaddha hovers mostly in the background, with only one or two nice moments. One noble Pakistani shows up, in the shape of a lawyer ( Darshan), who believes that Sarbjit is innocent . The rest is taken over by Ms Rai, straining every sinew, delivering loud lectures to both Indians and Pakistanis, and heaven help us, Talibanis.

I did tear up a couple of times, but only for Sarbjit. Randeep Hooda is mostly shown inside his dark, fetid cell, his hair filthy, his hands gnarled. He nails the look and the accent, never letting either overpower him, and is the only reason to sit through this sagging saga.

Cast: Randeep Hooda, Aishwarya Rai, Richa Chaddha, Darshan Kumaar

Director: Omung Kumar

One and a half stars