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[Photo Source: Facebook/Sarbjit Movie]
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan continues her Bollywood comeback with “Sarbjit,” a biopic directed by Omung Kumar. Her consistency with choosing projects that highlight strong women in difficult situations has been a fascinating and smart new direction for her career—even if the films don’t always succeed with critics or the box office. “Sarbjit” has received some mixed reviews as of late, and while there are some obvious flaws in the execution of the admittedly powerful story behind Sarbjit, it’s not nearly as much of a miss as many critics in India have touted it to be.
In fact, much of “Sarbjit” deserves praise for showcasing a strong family, all it really needed was a little more focus and a little more finesse.
The film follows an incredible real-life story of Sarabjit Singh’s decades-long imprisonment and his sister Dalbir Kaur’s fight for his freedom. Singh and his supporters claimed that after one drunken night, the poor farmer accidentally strayed into Pakistani territory where he was then arrested by Pakistan rangers under the wrong identity. His family was unaware of the imprisonment for one full year, when a letter from Singh finally reached them, stating what had happened.
Turns out, the Pakistani government believed Singh—along with a few others—was responsible for the 1990 terror blasts in Lahore and Faisalabad. For more than two decades Singh sat in prison while his sister Dalbir Kaur led the charge to free him. Unfortunately, she was unable to succeed despite several incredible and courageous attempts. Singh was allegedly attacked by fellow prisoners in 2013 and died from his injuries.
If you’ve read the multitude of reviews out of India about “Sarbjit,” and in particular Bachchan’s performance, the keywords used much too often are “shrill” and “loud”—which is completely unfair. She gave a standout performance in this film, and at times, she pushed the film forward out of its many funks. The actress’ accent is a bit inconsistent, but her emotional exchanges when addressing her brother and fighting against injustice are both heartbreaking and empowering, respectively.
She’s powerful and, yes, sometimes that power translates into a louder timbre in her voice, but these comments from reviewers feel more prejudice than necessary. In fact, when a hero in a Bollywood film loudly stands up for what he believes is right, reviewers and audiences cheer so why is it shrill when a heroine does the same?
[Photo Source: Facebook/Sarbjit Movie]
Despite much of the attention of Singh (and much of the focus of the film) being on Bachchan and Kaur’s fight to free Singh, unanimous praise cannot be denied to Randeep Hooda. Time and time again Hooda proves to be a vital actor in Bollywood with incredible performances in “Once Upon A Time in Mumbai,” “Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster,” “Highway” and “Main Aur Charles.” The actor does a fantastic job balancing subtle and more outwardly dramatic moments; in “Sarbjit,” you feel for him in every single frame. Richa Chadda also deserves applause for owning the few scenes in which she appears prominently, to the point where her presence is desired in more of the film.
Despite the performances, however, the film does flounder. For one, there is no real balance in the story. For a film entitled “Sarbjit,” we should have seen a little more emphasis placed on Singh himself, and not through song and dance-heavy flashbacks from before he is arrested in Pakistan. The songs in the film actually take the audience out of the dark, heavy and real subject matter upon which the film is based.
“Sarbjit” should have followed suit of another biopic from this year, “Neerja,” which uses the music to its advantage and doesn’t remove audiences out of the actual conflict of the film just to fulfill some Bollywood tradition of having songs and dancing.
And the real reason critics believe Bachchan’s acting feels too forced or “shrill” is mostly due to her getting the thankless job of yelling overly biased remarks against Pakistan at those who unfairly stand between her brother and freedom. The conflict between India and Pakistan becomes the forefront of Dalbir’s fight, and it actually becomes uncomfortable to hear her talk in generalizations about the India and Pakistan tension, rather than actually continue her real purpose of trying any method to get her brother out of prison.
[Photo Source: Facebook/Sarbjit Movie]
Ultimately, critics are absolutely right about one thing when it comes to “Sarbjit”—the film does veer into melodrama much too often. Sure, the biopic narrative warrants a little melodrama, even in the best films about real-life stories feature at least a little much emphasis on drama than actual real-life events.
But the reasons behind “Sarbjit’s” melodrama are thanks in large part to the lack of focus and purpose. If the film was supposed to be about Kaur’s struggle to get Singh out of prison, then let it be about that. But Omung Kumar and screenwriters Utkarshini Vashishtha and Rajesh Beri spend too much time on crafting a stereotypical Bollywood experience as well as a critique of Pakistan’s relationship with India inside of their biopic. Those changes in tone, narrative dialogue are glaring. Sadly, it makes this important story falter.
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