Sikandar Ka Muqaddar Movie Review: Neeraj Pandey’s heist drama is overlong without a relief

When he made his debut with the striking, nail-biting thriller A Wednesday in 2008, Neeraj Pandey brough a certain no-nonsense vibe to Indian cinema. His films got to the point from the first frame and carried a sense of tension throughout, leaving little room for meandering. Be it the period-drama thriller Special 26 (2013) or the slick espionage actioner Baby (2015), there was much to admire in the unpredictable unfolding. If not for anything else, just seeing upright characters fast-walking into a scene over enhanced background music felt unusually satisfying. However, a lot has changed since then. His last film, the painfully long Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha, was set in two timelines, exploring the course of love’s validity with a tedious filmmaking that purely depended on the sudden twist of events in the climax. His new Netflix film, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar, is no different as it becomes an antithesis of his own early filmography.

Like in A Wednesday, there’s Jimmy Shergill playing a stoic cop, Jaswinder Singh, as he barges into the crime scene wearing his white cotton shirt. The crime, like in Special 26, is the robbery of a few diamonds. As he starts rounding up suspects in what feels like an over-extended opening sequence, he spots some peculiarity in the young, innocent-looking Sikandar Sharma (Avinash Tiwary). Jaswinder’s instincts tell him that there’s something wrong in how hastily he tries to make an exit after being cleared off in an initial round of questioning. Later, he declares his three suspects, the other two being an old Gujarati man Mangesh Desai (Rajeev Mehta) and Kamini Singh (Tamannaah Bhatia), a single mother, trying to make ends meet.

Starring: Jimmy Shergill, Avinash Tiwary, Tamannaah Bhatia and Rajeev Mehta

Streamer: Netflix

Essentially, the film is not exactly about the events leading up to the heist nor about the rigorous investigation that follows. Instead, it moves forward in time, 15 years later, when Jaswinder is no longer the ‘top cop’ that he was. He is suspended and a bottle of cheap rum keeps him sane or so he thinks. Overcome with guilt for ruining the life of Sikandar in various ways, he calls him to apologize. The second act tells the entire life story of what happened to Sikandar after he was accused. Neeraj’s storytelling stays banal and over-simplistic. Sikandar’s story feels like a generic tale of any random person. His ailing mother dies, the landlord creates further problems, he has to leave city and find job in another place and so on. What made Neeraj’s earlier thrillers stand-out was the deceptive storytelling. Nothing is ever what it seems like. The twists were part of the plot and made it richer at every juncture. While here, they become more of a gimmick and doesn’t even bring a lot of surprise on the table.

What the storytelling really invokes rather is an unintended dose of awkwardness. A divorce scene in family court between Jaswinder and his wife, played by Divya Dutta, is followed by a small conversation which they have later on. There’s nothing that they say or emote which gives the illusion of a fractured relationship. Rather, it feels more like an isolated acting assignment gone wrong. It is difficult to really say if it’s the writing here that’s tonally inconsistent, the camera work that is shoddy or the performances lacking a sense of vulnerability in them. The otherwise charming Jimmy Shergill feels urgently out of place as he embodies an obsessive investigator. The lack of passion in his demeanour is made up for by some empty words in the dialogue. “15 saal ki Tapasya hai aapki aur meri (We have given our 15 years to this rigorous devotion),” says Sikandar to him at one point. But where’s the rigour? Where’s the Tapasya? Avinash is sincere and his presence builds up the momentum in most parts. Yet, all of it is short-lived for how quickly everything becomes repetitive. Tamannaah gets a full-fledged role here after a range of special appearances in Hindi films this year. She serves the character quite well, barring a few high-pitched emotional exchanges.

By inverting the name of Amitabh Bachchan’s iconic 1978 blockbuster Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, Neeraj’s film seems to give a call back to the Hindi cinema aesthetics of the 70s and 80s. However, it falls flat. Old-school here becomes dated. Music turns into noise. Scenes lose their authenticity. All that remains then is romance that dulls and thrill that tires.