Son of Sardaar

Rating : 2/10
Release Date : 13th November, 2012
Time : 140 minutes
Director : Ashwni Dhir; Writers : Ashwni Dhir, Robin Bhat (based on Maryada Ramanna by SS Rajamouli); Music : Himesh Reshammiya
Starring : Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha, Juhi Chawla, Tanuja, Mukul Dev, Vindu Dara Singh, Arjan Bajwa

‘How to Stretch a Fifteen minute Plot into a Two Hour film’
Or
‘Invoking Religion in a cheap bid to sell tickets for a movie’
Or
‘Dissertation on the use of cables and wires for Action sequences’
Or
‘Inducing headaches, nausea and giddiness upon hapless audiences in the name of entertainment’

All of the above could work as possibly better, more informative titles for this pathetic, mind-numbing film. Ajay Devgn returns to his village after twenty five years, where family enmity between two clans has run rife for several decades. To avenge one of their family members death, Sanjay Dutt and his entire gang of idiots have been waiting patiently. There is added incentive for Sanjay, as he has vowed not to get married to his beloved Juhi till he has killed Ajay, the sole survivor of the opposing clan. A major hindrance to this blood-letting is their philosophy of treating guests in their home as God (and therefore not killing them), a fact exploited by Ajay. And Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt’s niece, who, before you can say ‘Wahe Guru’, has fallen for him for reason or reasons unknown.

There are perhaps two or three laugh worthy jokes in the entire film, all occurring in the first half, with the second half hell bent on inflicting pain on audiences and its characters with complete impartiality. Reports have been coming in that even people who left the hall early to escape from trauma, have been haunted by memories of the film and are having to take urgent psychiatric help. The fact that Juhi and Tanuja accepted their respective roles show how cash can overcome all scruples in the case of the former and that blood is thicker than water in the case of the latter.

I really don’t like noisy crackers but would rather have someone giftwrap me in a 50,000 ki ladi and burst them than watch this Diwali offering again.