Son of Sardaar (Hindi)
Genre : Comedy
Director : Ashwni Dhir
Cast : Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha, Juhi Chawla
Storyline : A sardaar unwittingly steps into the house of a family baying for his blood, realises they cannot kill him as long as he’s their guest and makes excuses to stay on.
Bottomline : A pointless remake that strays miles away from the plot
Clearly, Ashwni Dhir hasn’t heard anyone say: “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.”
How else can you explain taking a winning story that’s proved successful twice (as Buster Keaton’s Our Hospitality and S.S. Rajamouli’s Maryada Ramanna ) and ruining it beyond repair with unwarranted changes?
It may seem blasphemous to put these three in the same room but let’s say the three filmmakers were asked to complete the following story for a class test: “A man who is terrified of stepping out of the house because it would mean him getting beaten to death…”
Keaton: “…slips out wearing a woman’s dress.” ( Our Hospitality )
S.S. Rajamouli: “…uses his smarts and love to win over the household.” ( Maryada Ramanna )
Ashwni Dhir: “…beats up everyone.”
So well, you know which of these kids flunked the creative writing test.
If the Son of Sardaar could have taken them on, why didn’t he just do it right at the beginning instead of being scared, feigning a broken back, being scared for his life some more, clowning around, being scared again, singing and dancing, fearing for his life only to finally step out of the house bravely to give everyone a sound thrashing?
Most of the characters in SOS are portrayed as fools … One of them towards the end, talks about naming his kids: Happy and Ending. Hero or villain, they are all equally dumb.
Remember the ‘Sardaar’ jokes children used to crack in school before they knew better? This film is an excuse to unleash those kind of jokes. Except that the makers don’t know what qualifies a joke.
Here’s the thing, guys. A joke needs to be funny. And no, it doesn’t become funny because there’s a guy in a turban. Or many guys in turbans.
Son of Sardaar is set in a village populated by fools, except for Sonakshi Sinha and Arjan Bajwa. Even if you laugh at the inanity of the plot during the first half hour, the lameness of excuses that Jassi (Ajay Devgn) employs to stay put, makes it an exhausting watch. There’s nothing more torturous than watching an unfunny film that’s trying so hard to be funny.
Take a cue from what the title abbreviates to. Save yourselves.
