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The director, Suresh Triveni, has given us the outright mediocre Tumhari Sulu and the gripping Jalsa. He said that he just wanted to have a good time making films of the kind he had grown up from in his childhood. But hey folks! That’s easier said than done.
For this, the blend of Emotional, Entertainment and Intellectual Quotient for those kinds of mainstream movies needs to be perfect. There should be great songs (completely missing here), solid emotions (partly present), a villain who packs a wallop (very much here) and an Intelligence Quotient (often missing here, especially in the elongated, almost fake climax!). Also, the baddies of yore never indulged in the kind of sadism, ditto the hero, and all this stands out even more when you find this film as an OTT release to be watched in the comfort of one’s homes with family!
Also a blot on, I think and seriously feel, the IQ of the team involved (apologies!) is the audacious expectation of a sequel at the end. If Amazon (which has been frequently going terribly wrong of late) is ready to bankroll such a ‘dream’ they had better make sure it is not a ‘nightmare’!
Briefly, this is the story of Arjun Maurya, a subedaar (junior commissioned officer) in the Indian Army, who is settled in a Madhya Pradesh town where a young man, Shashikant a.k.a. Prince (Aditya Rawal), the illegitimate son of a late gangster, is generally having a ball in criminal debauchery. Softy (Faisal Malik) is like a deputy and Prince’s half-sister, Didi (Mona Singh in an ill-developed monochromatic role) is serving time in jail and operating criminal activities from there.
Arjun has a strained relationship with his daughter, Shyama (Radhikka Madan), as he was physically unable to access his phone in action at the front when his wife, Sudha Devi (Khushboo Sunder, completely wasted!) had an accident and was serious and then passed away. Shyama thinks that her father had been indifferent then and cannot forgive him.
As of today, Arjun’s best friend and colleague, Prabhakar (Saurabh Shukla) have settled in the town, but Arjun, expecting the clean and disciplined ethos of a soldier, comes to loggerheads with Prince and his gang. Meanwhile, Radhikka has to deal with a classmate who lusts after her.
There is an underlying issue of illegal sand mining that damages rivers and kills innocent villagers, with the death of one such paving the way for the story. The army hero is also dealing with some guilt (his loving wife’s death), his failure to tune with his fierce and rebellious daughter and anger at all the civilian misconduct and general corruption. Add Prince and his evil actions and he implodes, despite the warning of the sagacious Prabhakar that he has to adjust to a life far different from the kind defined by his army codes and ethics.
Until then, the film grips, and the parallel tracks of Arjun dealing with his adversaries and his daughter with her class hooligans are interestingly presented. And then, as we near the end, and there are some ‘filmi’ things that begin to happen, and the violence and more become even illogical (like in the overlong patch-up sequence between Prince and Arjun). The film then goes south as if on a hackneyed mission to be ‘commercial’!
Anil Kapoor is his usual self and, on its own, his character is well-written. Radhikka Madan is effective, but Mona Singh has an ill-conceived character graph, and in a first of many varied assignments of late (Border 2, Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, Mistry, The Ba***ds of Bollywood, Kohrra) fails to deliver. Similarly, Saurabh Shukla has a ‘sidekick who sacrifices’ role that does not do justice to his great artistry. Faisal Malik is brilliant as Softy, and is a revelation after his comic image from Panchayat.
But it is Aditya Rawal who steals the show as Prince. You will just love to hate the man—he is so repulsive. You will crave to shake him by the neck, and if possible, wring it too! Without this strong antagonist, this film would be as bland as cardboard. And the lines written for Prince are awesome.
Finally, a word for another strong asset to the movie: Ayan Saxena’s superbly gritty camerawork. You can almost smell—and even taste!—the sand, dust and grime! Wish the film had the meat to match the atmospherics!
Rating: **1/2 (Almost)
Amazon Prime Video presents Abundantia Entertainment’s, Opening Image Films’ & Anil Kapoor Film & Communication Network’s Subedaar Produced by: Vikram Malhotra, Anil Kapoor & Suresh Triveni Directed by: Suresh Triveni Written by: Suresh Triveni & Prajwal Chandrashekhar Music: Raj Mawar, Akshay Raheja, Ana Rehman, Shubham Shirule & I.P. Singh Starring: Anil Kapoor, Radhikka Madan, Saurabh Shukla, Mona Singh, Aditya Rawal, Faisal Malik & others
