‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ Review : More interesting than a magician’s show is a show in which a man reveals the secrets of magic tricks. In terms of films, this is the Neeraj Pandey style of crime thriller. Neeraj Pandey, who has made projects like ‘A Wednesday’, ‘Special 26’ and ‘Baby’, has now brought the film ‘Sikander Ka Muqaddar’ on Netflix. The most interesting thing in the story of his film is not just the main event of the plot, but the planning of that event is the most interesting.
In ‘Special 26’, the real CBI comes to know about the fake CBI raid, yet a fake raid takes place. You find the most interesting part when the film tells how Akshay Kumar and his fake team fooled Manoj Bajpayee and his real team. Whereas as a viewer, your attention was also focused on that raid, in which the real CBI was ready to catch the fake CBI. Neeraj Pandey fools you and then makes you sit on the table and says, come, I will show you how this happened.
Similarly, in ‘Baby’, your entire focus is on the secret operation happening on foreign soil, whose preparations you have been seeing in the story since the beginning. But as a surprise, the country’s biggest enemy appears in front of you. The audience is sitting confused, what now? Neeraj Pandey then says, come, I will show you.
In ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ too, Neeraj has come up with a crime thriller. Here too, the story needed two elements. One, which you should keep seeing on the screen, and the other, which happens in the background beyond your sight and Neeraj Pandey will reveal it to you. Was Neeraj able to follow his own style with complete honesty this time? The answer to this question is the review of ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’…
What is the plot?
The police gets intelligence of a robbery at a big jewellery event in Mumbai. The police quickly gathers all the people in a safe place and the four people who came to commit the robbery are killed. After dealing with everything, Kamini Singh (Tamannaah Bhatia) and Mangesh Desai (Rajeev Mehta), who return to their jewellery stall, see that 5 diamonds worth 50-60 crores are missing. Enter Jaswinder Singh (Jimmy Shergill), the record-holding officer who solves 100% of cases.
Jaswinder has the most faith in his instinct. She is sure that Kamini and Mangesh are behind the disappearance of the diamonds. Then she notices Sikandar Sharma whose behaviour is a little chaotic and he is also an IT professional. Sikandar says that his mother is ill and he is getting late so he is nervous. But Jaswinder suspects him the most.
The routine police procedure begins. Sikandar is remanded, beaten up by the police, court case and other investigations start. Because of this, his life starts getting ruined, people think he is a thief, no one is helping him financially. Sikandar’s co-accused Mangesh and Kamini start helping him. Kamini and Sikandar also start a love affair.
Here, despite not finding anything in the investigation, Jaswinder keeps after him. Still, Sikandar manages to stand on his feet again and makes a new life in 15 years. Here, Jaswinder has ruined his own life, married life in his obsession. The question is whether Jaswinder will realize his mistake? And the biggest thing is that if Sikandar did not steal those diamonds, then who did and how? Neeraj Pandey had to reveal this.
A mistake in the screenplay
If the problems that Sikandar faced in his life because of Jaswinder were shown in the screenplay, then there would have been an emotional connect in the story. But these things are not shown, they are told. Jaswinder is sitting to apologize and Sikandar is telling what happened to him. And if he is telling it verbally, then there is no need to show it in the scenes. This is the first failure of the screenplay.
On top of that, it has been shown in such a rushed manner that you are not able to connect with it. The screenplay spent more time than necessary in the build-up of Sikandar and Jaswinder’s meeting after 15 years. Due to which the mystery of Sikandar’s story, which had to be done, was not prepared properly on the screen. Then the secret of the real robbery had to be extracted from this mystery. But this mystery itself is woven in a very loose manner, so when it is revealed, it is not fun.
When Jaswinder had proved to be a loser in the story, he should have got the chance to reveal the secret. But in order to show the real mastermind as super-smart, another big compromise was made with the screenplay. When the camera reveals the game of the player in front of you, it is not that much fun. Because it simply means that the director is showing you that. Whereas this was the real game, the real game was to be hidden from us, a fake game was to be shown and a big expose was to happen.
The lack of this expose moment in the film hurts the most. The fake game is not so emotional or engaging that it holds the attention. The mastermind’s reason for such a big robbery was neither passionate, nor emotional, nor just fun. Like in ‘Special 26’, Akshay’s character was just taking revenge from the real CBI because he was rejected. And the most important thing is that this time Neeraj Pandey’s police officer does not have the character that he had in his previous characters. Therefore, the entire burden of carrying ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ falls on the actors.
The actors have done a strong job
Neeraj Pandey has shown Jimmy Shergill in different interesting characters since his first film ‘A Wednesday’ (2008). This time too Jimmy’s work will impress you and there is an amazing pause in his work, which takes you to the emotions of his character effectively.
Avinash Tiwari’s expressions, his emotional range will impress you once again. It is fun to watch Avinash in front of Jimmy Shergill. If the characters of both were written a little more strongly, then their acting would have created a different level of atmosphere. Tamanna Bhatia has also played her character effectively.
Overall, ‘Sikandar Ka Muqaddar’ is such a crime thriller, which tells more than it shows. This is the reason why its edge is less. And it also seems quite long. If you have patience then you will like the final twist of the story.
