Son of Sardaar (SOS) is a romantic action comedy Hindi movie directed
by Ashwni Dhir. The movie features Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay
Dutt, Juhi Chawla, Tanuja, Mukul Dev, Vindoo Dara Singh in lead roles.
Check out Son of Sardaar Hindi Movie Review:
Every time Vindoo Dara Singh, who plays a part of an extended
patriarchal Punjabi parivaar in the Sikh heartland, opens his mouth to
speak, he is shushed down by others saying, "Silencer lagaa."
By God, at times you feel this loud, flamboyant, ostentatious yet-all
right, admit it-sinfully engaging film should just pipe down. There is
so much that's noisy about this film. And we aren't talking about
Sandeep Chowta's over-accented background score. Yet it's never
unpleasant noise.
"Son Of Sardaar" takes us into the core of a family feud in Punjab
where Sanjay Dutt, playing a goofy oddball of a Panjabi patriarch as
only he can, wants our affable Sardarji Ajay Devgn dead to fulfil an
ancestral vendetta.
The IQ level of every character in this film is way below average.
Every man in Ashwani Dhir's world of belligerent bloodbaths is more daft
than the previous. The women are slightly more intelligent, though our
leading lady Sonakshi Sinha, photogenic as she is, has begun to get
repetitive in her chirpiness. Juhi Chawla, as the woman who waits 25
years to marry Sanjay Dutt and then finally tells him, "Sorry, I don't
want to build my mandap over the grave of another woman's love", is also
intellectually challenged.
The smartest character in this smarter-than-the-characters film is
played by Tanuja who, as the matriarch, feigns senility whenever it
suits her.
The men around her make it easy. They are incorrigibly dumb, you see.
Love it or hate it, "Son Of Sardaar" is what a mainstream Hindi film
is meant to be. A full-on masala-maar-ke action-comedy with dollops
drama dripping from the edges like wet cheese in a tasty pizza. This is a
film which is not just smarter than its character but also much more
intelligent than it actually seems.
"Son Of Sardaar" derives its feisty energy from the original Tamil film
by S. Rajamouli ("Maryada Ramanna"). The feudal plot is transposed from
Madurai to Punjab. With that journey that the plot undertakes the film
acquires a whole lot of cocky humour and a kind of eclectic warmth that
keeps popping up most unexpectedly.
Providentially, "Son Of Sardaar" turns the vendetta saga on its head.
The bloodshed between two warring families is converted into a crisp
comic currency where action speaks louder than the words. Director
Ashwan Dhir, whose antecedents in television show up here in the
episodic movement of the plot, sustains the action, comedy and drama in
the same line of vision. Miraculously, the plot moves steadily from mood
to mood without seeming scattered. There is space even regular breaks
for romance in the narration. Though the songs could have been avoided,
the song breaks are pleasant.
By the time the chaos is all sorted out, the narration collapses in an exhausted but triumphant heap.
Some sequences such as Devgn and Sonakshi's first encounter in the
train overstay their welcome. Just like the mehmaan Paresh Rawal in
Dhir's last Hindi film "Atithee Tum Kab Jaoge", Devgn refuses to leave
once he enters Dutt's family home. The rather eccentric comic strain in
the plot hinges on trying to get Devgn out of Dutt's home to settle an
old family score.
While Dutt is more satirical than sinister in his search for vendetta
(and that's what the script requires him to be), Devgn's Sardar act is
brilliantly controlled and moderate. He plays the foreign-returned Sikh
who is suddenly thrown into a fatuous feud with a sense of wonderment.
The quips about Sardar jokes and Sardar quirks lend a self-deprecating transparency to the character. Ideally,
would've played this part. But Devgn takes the rather dimwitted but
affable character to a higher than the goofy plane. This man knows when
to act dumb.
Among the truckloads of supporting players, Mukul Dev as an oafish
loutish drunkard stands out. But didn't he play the same character in
Samir Karnik's "Chaar Din Ki Chaandni" not too long ago? Come to think
of it, haven't we visited the Punjabi heartland frequently enough since
Imtiaz Ali's "Jab We Met"? Give this one a chance though.
is a rollicking rumbustious wild and wacky action-comedy. It's a
spaghetti-western relocated to Punjab that would keep Devgn's fans
regaled. Even if you are not a big fan of the typical potboiler this one
makes you smile.
