Sarbjit (Hindi)
Director: Omung Kumar
Cast: Aishwarya Rai, Randeep Hooda, Richa Chaddha, Darshan Kumar
Every life doesn’t necessarily yield a compelling on-screen biopic. Though Sarbjit Singh and his family’s story, when seen from the perspective of his sister Dalbir Kaur, is an immensely tragic tale of wasted lives and relationships, the film seems to lack the vital dramatic grip to keep the viewer invested in and engaged with the fate of the characters.
What the film does have in ample measure are portrayals of interminable struggles, candle light protests, hunger strikes, paperwork, ineffectual officialdom on the India side and the protracted incarceration and inhuman tortures on the other side of the border. Not quite the kind to set the screen on fire.
Sarbjit a farmer from Punjab, alleged to be terrorist Manjeet (called Ranjeet in the film) Singh in Pakistan, was convicted for the Lahore and Faislabad bomb attacks of 1990. While the family version claims that he innocently strayed into Pakistan (which the film also upholds) in a drunken stupor, the Pakistan side has been consistently painting him as an undercover agent of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). His death sentence kept getting postponed till he was killed by his Lahore jail inmates in 2013 and his organs went missing mysteriously.
Omung Kumar is unable to fashion an affecting script out of more than two decades of a family’s futile fight against the political and diplomatic machinery. Instead of a coherent narrative the film feels utterly disjointed, more like a random stringing together of sequences which at times seem have no bearing on each other.
The characters and relationships are sketchily grounded. The closeness of the siblings is stated but there is nothing on screen to make us believe in the bond. It’s left to Randeep Hooda who plays the titular role, then to make the film watchable. And he tries to give Sarbjit his all. The hard work and seriousness of his approach is visible.
NAMRATA JOSHI
