Sardar Ka Grandson – A shoddy presentation
When the trailer for Sardar Ka Grandson dropped, I was intrigued & looking forward to it but alas, the film itself was a let down.
Amreek (Arjun Kapoor) is a clumsy America based packer & mover, in business with his fiancé Radha (Rakulpreet Singh). When his grandma falls sick, he decides to fulfill her last wish to see her house in Lahore. But when her visa is denied, he decides to transport the house to her instead of the other way round.
With a premise like this, Sardar Ka Grandson could have been so much more than the shoddy film it is – from the title frame which stays on the screen with no sound for close to 30 seconds (I legit thought the device was malfunctioning) to story & character aspects that are introduced and then promptly forgotten to even the make up. Neena Gupta is a fab actor and while she enacts 90 with her body, her face just doesn’t look the part!
The film has a compelling ensemble cast but makes little use of them. While the partition trauma brings forth the emotional element, it is not sustained in the present timeline making the audience not really care about the grandson even if they may for the Sardar. In fact, it does not even inspire the adrenaline rush & investment that a film with such a Herculean aim at its core should. By the end, you just don’t care about the house or it’s transportation by “experts” who forget to take into account things like overhead electric wires in a busy South Asian street! If you must, watch it for Neena Gupta & the charming chemistry between John Abraham & Aditi Rao Hydri but honestly their appearance together is too brief to really count.
PS – Anyone else feel that many films justify a protagonist’s bad behaviour as a quirky aspect of their personality? I mean since when is physically assaulting someone & being proud of it ‘quirky’? 🤷🏽♀️
👩🏾💻- Netflix
Direction – Kaashvie Nair
Starring – Neena Gupta, Arjun Kapoor, Rakulpreet Singh, Kumud Misra, Aditi Rao Hydri, Kumud Misra, John Abraham, Kanwaljit Singh
