Sarbjit Movie Reviews

Sarbjit breaks your heart – but in contrast to India-Pak fantasies like ‘Gadar’, it bears no blame. It makes you cherish your loved ones – and appreciate others too. Sarbjit makes a point. Humans come and go. Humanity survives.

…is a landmark film with great performances and a superbly told narrative. The entertainment quotient is missing which is compensated by the phenomenal manner in which the story is told. At the box office, it will be appreciated by matured audience.

Powered by good story telling and amazing performances, ‘Sarbjit’ is bound to sail ahead, anchored by its true spirit and commitment.

Watch this film at least once for its honesty and the hard work that has gone into it. For me, despite the flaws, it was a much more enriching experience than “Bhaag Milkha Bhaag,” which is the biggest hit so far among the biopics.

In many ways Sarbjit feels half-baked and wanting. But the performances – particularly Randeep Hooda’s – keeps you invested in what’s on the screen. It’s not a perfect film, but there is enough to appreciate here.

Overall, the film takes you on an emotional ride and makes you question a lot about the political crisis between two countries. It is up to the audience to judge whether Sarabjit was an Indian spy or an innocent farmer. However, his journey is something that must be experienced in the theaters.

Omung Kumar has a solid plot in ‘Sarbjit’. This biopic, unlike the earlier one he made on Mary Kom, is not of the triumphant survival saga of an underdog. This is a story of Sarabjit Singh, a farmer, who, on a fateful night, is said to have just wandered off across the border in drunken stupor, never to return home as he gets caught by the Pakistani cops, tortured and kept in jail for 22 years.

Sarbjit has immense poignancy at its heart. But the execution of the theme of a homesick dying man imprisoned in a hostile country often tends to lean dangerously close to populism.

I did tear up a couple of times, but only for Sarbjit. Randeep Hooda is mostly shown inside his dark, fetid cell, his hair filthy, his hands gnarled. He nails the look and the accent, never letting either overpower him, and is the only reason to sit through this sagging saga.

If you want to know about Sarabjit, google it for free. You’ll know more than what the film has to offer.

Sarbjit should have been the film that could have brought out issues of human rights being oppressed in favour of political games, but what it turns out to be is a nearly three hours of inconsistent and flawed storytelling. Watch the film purely for the performances, especially Randeep’s and the core plot!

Rai Bachchan is making a plea to all to be humane, however some of her voice is drowned as the makers are desperate to make it an edible film for the Bollywood movie fans who like a bit of dance and drama.

The story is sad. The treatment is bad. It is long and loopy and manipulative but it hurts more because it is based on a true story.

You walk into the theatres film expecting a grim, sombre movie but Omung instead mets out a half-baked tale that woos you in bits but is inherently too dull to move you. The only reason you remain invested in this flimsy screenplay is because of Randeep Hooda. He is fantastic in every frame.

With the star not shining all that bright and the actors in the mix not allowed to play the game their way, Sarbjit is a well-meaning outing that fails to do justice to its subject. Watch it only if you are an Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan fan no matter what.

Sarbjit fails to rise above its commercial nature to actually hit you in the gut with its real story.

Sarbjit is a brave attempt, but the treatment is so melodramatic and so shrill, you come away with a heavy aching head, instead of a heavy heart at the tragedy of the peoples from both sides of the border.

There is no denying that Randeep & Richa are very skillful actors and are capable of delivering a marvellous performance and, as always, the duo shine in this film too.

It’s a tough movie to get right, and Oomung should be lauded for choosing the story and for picking a star to get the story out to wider audience (like he did with Mary Kom). But, Oomung fails to deliver a moving, poignant film and instead leaves us with a load of melodrama.

Sarbjit is an irresponsibly sloppy film, a film so focused on artless emotional manipulation and trying to make the audience weep, that it trivialises an important true-life story.

The blame lies largely in the script which doesn’t leave much for its actors to do other than excessively cry or scream or otherwise sit sulking. 

In the wake of Sarbjit Singh’s story and its relevance, all shortcomings of the movie become redundant. But end of the day, this is a commercial film and you can’t discount the quality of cinema. On that count, Sarbjit is a definite letdown. Considering the subject matter, this movie should’ve been a lot better than it turns out.

One small mercy is that the film isn’t exactly jingoistic at heart and attempts to further the idea that India and Pakistan are essentially the same country. But the way things are depicted, especially a scene in which Dalbir says of Pakistanis that they are experts at backstabbing (with good reason, at that point), it’s likely that many portions will be interpreted as being anti-Pakistan. This is what happens when a good idea is dumbed down — a tragedy tends to lose its complexity and becomes a convenient tool for propaganda.

When you watch Sarbjit, you must accept it as a given that the makers believe Sarabjit Singh Atwal and his family’s version of events, not the Pakistani authorities. The reason why that is okay is because the film is not pretending to be a journalistic exercise telling all sides of the story; it is open about its stance that it is a feature recounting one side of the story. Besides, unlike the Akshay Kumar-starrer Airlift released earlier this year, the fictionalisation here does not amount to outright, blatant lies revolving around a protagonist who never existed in reality.

Sarbjit has an emotional drama as its plus point but its slow pace, docu-drama-like feel, tragic ending and unfulfilling drama will be the stumbling blocks in its box-office journey. This Sarbjit is destined to suffer at the turnstiles and to fight a losing battle.

While watching a film based on a real-life, heart-wrenching story, you expect it to create an impact on you or perhaps, make you feel patriotic for a bit. But with Sarbjit, you feel that the true essence of the movie is lost.

Omung Kumar’s Sarabjit Singh biopic is too overwrought to be effective

Randeep Hooda stands out in this melodramatic melange of cardboard cut-outs that substitute for characters.

‘Sarbjit’ is a tragedy in capital letters…The loud and insistent melodrama takes away from the pathos of the central character’s story.