Critique: Sikandar

Kashmir brings out a lot of emotion…

Parzan Dastur and Ayesha Kapoor are the future of Indian Cinema. Capable and passionate. Parzania fame Parzan and Black’s trump card Ayesha are the protagonist of this movie. The movie from rushes promised a lot with a good cast and crew lead by Sanjay Suri and R. Madhvan. However, unlike Chalo America by the same director, this movie fails to bring out the core to the fore. In Chalo America, Piyush Jha was naïve as a director, yet smart. Somewhere the brilliance faded… hoping its just temporary.

Parzan is the highlight of the movie. A wannabe footballer (Read Kaka), he has dreams that are overshadowed by the darkness of terrorism. The point is valid. Terrorism not only kills few people, it kills dreams and aspirations of thousands. The tragedy of dreams is more painful than the mortality. Ayesha was not used properly as an actress. She is far better than what she did in this movie. As director, this is the biggest failure of Jha. Also, Sanjay Suri as an extremist was not given due space on screen. Same happened with the army man Madhvan. Both were literally wasted. Yes, Congress Leader Arjun Singh’s grandson Arunoday Singh got an apt role. He has caliber.

Everything about this movie lies between good and average by Bollywood standards. Scenic beauty was captured nicely but lacked sharpness. It could have been a better movie but somehow failed to deliver due to a weak script. Both the writer and director aspects of Jha missed the bulls eye. But there was a silver lining too. Jha convinced that Kashmir can be seen from the eyes of innocent children too, who had suffered the most since ’47. Bravo Jha.

Written By: Sujoy Ghosh