Movie Review - Anjaan (Tamil) / Sikindar (Telugu) - Heights of predictability!!

In a key scene from Sikindar, Suriyaa steps into the shoes of Clint Eastwood to render the Telugufied version of the most famous line from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. So, when he says “When you have to shoot, shoot. Don’t talk!” that seems to be a signature moment for his style and attitude. Now, right from fixing the characteristic traits of the protagonist to the henchmen of mafia dons, the film embraces many western films. Although it gives an impression of The Usual Suspects kind of a spin-off, it eventually gets into the mould of a Baasha. The much revered Stockholm Syndrome and a string of local mafia films also find their place in the narrative.

Sikindar is the story of Krishna (Suriyaa) who comes to Mumbai in search of his brother Raju (Suriyaa). There he learns that Raju is Raju bhai, who’s strong, fearsome and emotional, alongside finding tons of time for bromance and romance. Raju is in stark contrast to Krishna. The former strikes heavily with a dazzling look and hairdo, whereas the latter is meek and struggles way too hard to trace the whereabouts of his brother. 

Samantha plays the role of the daughter of the city’s police commissioner who misinterprets mafia goons to be good Samaritans and falls for Raju. In another irritating episode, Raju and his friend Chandu (Vidyut Jamwal) lock horns with Imran bhai (Manoj Bajpai). This drops both of them in a life-changing situation and what follows is a predictable turn of events. No cookie to guess what happens to Krishna’s quest. 

Now that the plot is revealed, it’s time to showcase the glaring plot holes. Director Lingusamy tries to keep all his cards close to chest till interval to make way for an earth shattering twist and he does the same for the climax. However, he forgot that he triggered the predictometer at the start of the film, and the audience is booing the so called twists miles before they appear on screen. If the film-makers call these as twists, then their definition of twists is definitely flawed. This makes you think that is this coming from a person who is known for taut narration in his movies.

Yuvan Shankar Raja tries to salvage the damage done by the writer – director. The background score, especially during the character transformations is experimental, but the songs fall in the line of definitive loo breaks. Santosh Sivan’s cranky camerawork and yellowish DI give a different look to Mumbai. However, it leaves you wanting for more in terms of setting the right texture for the film. The compositions aren’t dark enough to accommodate the grim nature of the script. Editing by Anthony gives a flow to the narration and properly plugs in few allegorical references, but many repetitions and unwarranted subplots make it unpalatable.

                                                                                                                   

Sikindar tries to stay afloat as a revenge drama, but lacks both. The entire setup for the second half proves to be baseless, when every scene offers no justification culminating into a slipshod pay off. The film offers nothing new, nothing entertaining, nothing spectacular in its 3 hour long run time and just remains as an old wine in an antique bottle with kitschy adornments.

My Rating: Expectation - 8/10; Reality - 3/10

This review was originally written for Metro India newspaper.

An edited version of this piece can be found here.