There is a funny meme-theory that has been doing the rounds on the internet lately. It's about the UK’s new Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who is married to an Indian entrepreneur, Akshatha Murthy, and how he could be a spy to bring back the Kohinoor diamond that the British took away during the colonization.
Now, split this wild imagination into two Tamil films that were released this Diwali. One is about a British-Indian couple's love story — Sivakarthikeyan’s Prince; and the other is about the whole spy-angle, that's Karthi’s Sardar.
While I have already reviewed Prince, here are 10 honest thoughts I had after watching Sardar:
The story is centered around the father-son duo, both played by the charismatic Karthi. Bose, with the pseudonym Sardar, is a spy-in-exile who is branded as the nation’s traitor. While his son, Vijaya Prakash is a publicity-obsessed viral cop who despises his father for the bad legacy he left behind.
1. I chose to watch the rom-com Prince first, over Karthi’s action thriller. Don’t ask me why, because obviously more than the action and the thrills, my life clearly lacks both romance and comedy. I don’t regret my decision. But the fact that the latter is faring ahead at the box office, with the number of screens increased post its successful first week, is just casually reminding me of my decision-making skills.
2. The central theme of the film is about water, how the natural resource is commoditized, the hazards of bottled water and how in the near future it will create a survival problem, sucking in the civilians' blood. I felt the film was on point with the message, for it is a relevant social issue that has to be spoken about now more than ever.
3. The villain of the film, Chunky Pandey, comes up with a ‘One Nation, One Pipeline’ project, which will cater to a single unified pipeline across India. That’s too topical for me to comment on. Don't believe me? Just look at the keywords — 'One Nation' and 'Villain' are in the same sentence.
4. Laila makes a comeback into Tamil cinema after 16 years. She plays a very serious role in Sardar as a ‘water-warrior’, which is totally in contrast to the chirpy and bubbly heroine she was in the past. Next time someone asks, “Why have you changed so much?” Tell them, “If the chirpy characters that Laila has played all throughout her career can change her, why shouldn’t I?” On a side note, I still have not gotten past her quirky roles in Suriya’s Pithamagan, Priya’s Kanda Naal Mudhal, Ullam Ketkume co-starring Arya.
5. There is a brilliant intercut action sequence in the film, where the father and son fight parallelly at different places. Both are trapped in doomed situations. Even at a time, when things looked so bleak, they escaped the inescapable. That lowkey reminded me of how I scrape through to get out of a bad date.
A still from Sardar featuring child artist Rithvik.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter)
6. One of my favorite YouTube stars, ‘Rithu Rocks’ fame Rithvik, who is a child artist, plays Laila’s son in the film. In one of the scenes, when Vijaya Prakash bribes him with too many chocolates to give away information about his mother, the kid asks how long can he spend eating the chocolates. At that moment, only one thing ran through my mind. “See Rithu, I like you. You are a cute kid. But if you don’t want to give any more information, say you can’t. Or if you feel like eating ice cream instead of chocolate, just say that. But, how can you say you are bored of chocolates? I can eat it 24 hours, 7 days a week and 365 days straight, not exaggerating”.
7. Sardar must be definitely 60+ but he is muscular and strong for his old age, and tosses his opponents like he is grilling some barbeque chicken. I’m not even half of his age, but I can't stand still for 5 minutes. Where’s the sofa?
8. In the climax, the father-son duo fight against the villain. While some might feel it was well-choreographed, I was just not able to relate to it. I truly believe it was fantasy because in the real world my friends, fathers and children fight with each other and not against a random villain.
9. The film talks about how uncomfortable truth, convenient lies, blind trust and all such elements can play a crucial role in shaping the course of our lives. This is shown through the relationship between Chunky Pandey and Karthi. Even when Pandey as a villain loses, he takes credit for Sardar’s win because he was originally his trainer. ”If you can’t accept your failure, deal with it. Don’t steal the full credit for your student’s victory bro!”
10. Actor Karthi is on a spree. After featuring in Viruman and Maniratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan, this is his third release. How I wish my productivity was this high! But what’s more, is he has many other exciting projects in the pipeline including Lokesh’s Kanagraj’s Kaithi 2 which is intertwined with Kamal Haasan’s Vikram.
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