Sarbjit - A good idea gone wrong

Ameet Bhuvan

Sarabjit, though named after the ill fated Indian farmer/spy who died in a Pakistani prison, is a tale of how Dilraj his sister tried her best to save his life in India. It is also a film where Aishwarya Rai Bachchan screams, endlessly, as if her life depended on it yet achieving nothing. 

Dilraj, played by Ash , has left her family and come back to live with her brother Sarabjit and his wife Sukhpreet. Sarabjit , in a drunken state, treads on to the wrong side of the LOC and gets arrested. Cue for Ash to start stomping, screaming, blaring her lungs out at the drop of the hat while sermonising on Indo Pak relationships and the state of affairs between the two states. Cue also for Sukhpreet, played by Richa Chaddha (mercilessly wasted in the role) to faint at the slightest opportunity to do so- perhaps this was her way of coping with all the screaming Ash was up to. 

Directed by Omung Kumar, the guy who gave us a decently passable Mary Kom earlier, Sarabjit is a film that decides to shun any chance of telling a story of an interesting person in a very unfortunate yet interesting situation and go for a full throttle tear jerker hinging on brother - sister sentiment and love for the nation. His mastercard is the bewilderingly inept Ash, who seems to have taken up on her self to exercise some acting muscles (more like vocal chords) in her second innings- remember the shreikingly horrid Jazbaa?

Sarabjit in real life is a mystery to many, was he a spy who was left to die once caught by RAW? was he a farmer who paid the price of grand standing by political forces either side of the border? Questions that suround his life in the real world seem of no consequnece to the makers of this film on his life- for they opt for a clean sanitised mer bharat mahaan and baaki sab beimaan approach to telling the story. 

That leaves us with Randeep, who unfortunately is unable to make his voice heard in all the shrieking miss Rai is upto around him. Literally. the second half sees him try to match her histrionics, flared nostril to flared nostril and fail miserably. 

If you like tear jerkers, the kind JP Dutta made about wars in the past, then Sarabjit might move you. If you like cinema that at least attempts to tell a story, well you shall move out of the hall showing this film. Eitherways, one thing everyone would agree on is that Ash looked much better with purple lips in a picture- silent pretty- most importantly, silent. Sigh

Rating: 2/5