Sarbjit-Cover-Poster

Sarbjit (2016)

Sarbjit review

written by Souranath Banerjee

A story so powerful yet disturbing, an emotional biographical tale told in Bollywood style, that promises to wring your soul to it’s full potential!

My Ratings: 4/5.

In the year 1990, Sarabjit Singh, an Indian by nationality, a farmer from Bhikiwind, Punjab, (a village located by the Indo-Pak border) SARABJIT-SINGH-POSTERcrossed the border my mistake and strayed into Pakistan.

He was captured by the Pakistani Army/Police and was wrongfully convicted of spying and terrorism.

Sarabjit was tortured and made to surrender himself as Manjit Singh (the real terrorist in question) and was also compelled to confess on crimes that included a series of bomb blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad. And soon enough he was dutifully condemned by the Supreme Court of Pakistan and sentenced to death for crimes he never committed! 

Though his sentence (death by hanging) was postponed for several years by the government of Pakistan, but unfortunately in-between the political rivalry between two neighboring countries an sarbjit-poster-3innocent life was sacrificed and his family ruined for ever.

Now obviously this biopic Sarbjit is based on this unfortunate man’s life but interestingly enough the film is told more from the perspective of Sarbjit’s sister Dalbir Kaur.

Dalbir Kaur (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), a lady of true courage and determination who gave her entire life fighting for her brother’s freedom! And then of course there is Sarbjit’s wife, Sukhpreet Kaur (Richa Chadha) and their daughters Swapandeep and Poonam Kaur who stood by Dalbir and was devoted to Sarbjit through out his life. 

The film has such a powerful story that needs to be told and I must say director Omung Kumar have done justice to it. A few unnecessary sarbjit-poster-4songs here and there (though melodious), a few over-emotional dialogues (typical Bollywood style), but overall the film is a sincere attempt to portray the terror, agony and injustice that a man and his family had to endure for no reason at all.

Aishwarya has done a pretty good job being the heartbroken sister with a resolution, though I felt she was not the perfect choice for Dalbir Kaur’s role, somehow maybe she was a bit less Punjabi in comparison to the other actors.

At least better than Priyanka Chopra being casted as a Manipuri boxer, but again in India, stardom plays a huge role behind a film’s success – right?

Richa Chadha again proved herself as an exceptionally talented sarbjit-poster-5actress; through her body language and even in the rare moments of silence she managed to convey a lot of unspoken emotions.

But trust me, the real star of the film is none other than Randeep Hooda

Such a versatile actor and a power house of talent; specially in the jail-scenes in the second half of the film, it is a real treat to watch him perform.  

Darshan Kumaar has a brief but interesting role and he did make his presence felt.

A good script, superb acting and most importantly a great ‘true’ story to tell – Sarbjit is a film definitely worth a watch.

No surprise that the Censor board of Pakistan has banned the film as ‘anti-Pakistani’! 

Poster courtesy: www.bollywoodmdb.com

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