Sadiyaan Movie Reviews

Sadiyaan is the kind of film that was made in the Bollywood of the 60s, the ones which Rajendra Kumar and Joy Mukherjee acted in. Where the hero and heroine met on a summer camp in Kashmir and love blossomed. Where the doting mother served a glass of malai waala doodh to the son every night and whipped up kheer every birthday. Where the son came screaming in, “Maa main poore university mein first aaya hoon” and the mother’s eyes welled up

We rarely make desi movies these days. Palatial mansions, swanky cars, designer outfits, the latest handsets and gizmos have replaced large kothis, traditional outfits, ghoda-gaadis and makke di roti aur sarson ka saag. True to its name, SADIYAAN takes you to a different era, when the warmth of relations mattered the most, when blood was thicker than water, when promises were meant to be honoured. SADIYAAN is set in the 1970s

This one's not only dealing with history, it dabbles with a kind of cinema that seems to have become history too. You have the boy and girl serenading each other by singing songs in Kashmir; you have them taking a shikara ride; and you even have them ending up in a fire-lit hut after a skiing accident with the girl freezing of cold and the guy doing stuff that Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore did in days of yore.

We're so familiar with the story, it must've seemed like a good idea at the time. After all, a kid raised by foster parents quite unlike his birth parents, is a recurrent theme through Indian mythology and several films through the years. As such, Sadiyaan, set in the '70s for the most part (it starts during the Partition era), follows the story of Ishaan (Sinha) who gets left behind by his Muslim parents (Sheikh, Malini) and is raised by Hindus

Bollywood, for fair part, is the voice of Punjab. In this film, Punjab itself has a voice. The film starts off with, “Main Punjab hoon” (I’m Punjab). Like samay (time) in BR Chopra’s television show Mahabharat, Punjab is an oldish male, with a grainy voice. He speaks glowingly of his own past, legends he’s birthed, and the bloody holi (khoon ki holi) of Partition he witnessed, when dead-bodies ferried on trains from Pakistan. A couple (Rekha, Rishi Kapoor) survived

Perched on a shikara and clad in traditional Kashmiri attire, the heroine impishly strokes her cheek with a yellow gerbera while the ogling hero reprimands his friend with a, Zyada gaur se mat dekh, maili ho jayegi. (Don't stare too hard or she'll get dirty). Once upon a time such exaggeration actually made sense, especially if these corny lines came out of Shammi Kapoor's mouth and the lady on the boat would happen to be the famously-dimpled Sharmila Tagore

If you are one of those inveterate Bollywood trackers, you must have been wondering where Raj Kanwar had got to. He’d been lying low for a while now, and has returned with `Sadiyaan’. Except it should have been called, by rights, ‘Mummiyan’, as in plural for Mummy aka Maa aka Ammi. Ostensibly, it’s the debut vehicle crafted for Luv Sinha, Shatrughan’s son. And Luv does everything that a Hindi film hero needs to, in a film of this nature

Sadiyaan is a highly embarrassing film, long, pretentious and ponderous, with nothing new to offer. It is written, composed, shot and directed in an old 1980s style, like a stale relic from the past, tedious and boring. It has a range of former top stars, since, incredibly, this is the debut vehicle of Luv Sinha, the son of Shatrughan Sinha. Unfortunately, Luv cannot act at all. In fact, it appears he really doesn’t want to act, since absolutely no effort shows on screen.

Star cast: Luv Sinha, Ferena Wazeir, Rishi Kapoor, Hema Malini, Rekha. Plot: Luv Sinha is a born Muslim who is ...