Surkhaab

Illegal immigration is a hot topic at the moment, and this excellent movie provides an insight into the trials and tribulations of people seeking their fortune in the Indian diaspora.

Barkha Madan is superb as the protagonist. Not only is she very watchable, but she conveys the emotion and desperation of someone entering a country illegally via dubious people traffickers.

The interplay between the narrative and the backstory worked well, and I particularly liked how the back story rewound further as the movie progressed.

On the level of an out-and-out thriller it worked well too and had me on the edge of my seat.

This movie is definitely a good movie, and there is no doubt about it. I was not willing to watch it, but Barkha Dutt's acting and the direction of the movie made me watch the entire movie. There is grip, and a message as well. I am planning to show it to my family, which means I want to watch it again, but not sure if the channel is going to show it again. Also, it not available on the webcast or the dvd libraries, so I am hoping that I will get it someday for sure.

If you are tired of watching mindless films that Bollywood throws at you every week, then Surkhaab will be a blow of fresh air.

Jeet (Madan) is a young pretty woman who immigrates to Canada to live with her brother Pargat (Bahl) and start a better life. However, she gets entangled into a messy business with two idiotic kidnappers and their anonymous boss. Now in Canada, she finds that her and Pargat's lives are threatened by none other than Kuldeep (Suri), the same guy had helped them before and who now seems to have shed his friendly nature.

It's both a thriller as well as a drama about the lives of immigrants and how they are misused by crooked businessmen to smuggle illegal goods over borders. The narration is inventive and full of sentiments as the viewer is gradually taken on a flashback routine about Jeet and what led her to move to Canada. There's an emotional connect that happens where Jeet introspects about her life, her lonely mother back in Punjab, and the status quo. That is the best thing one will take away from Surkhaab.

Talking about the theme, the makers seem to have got themselves confused. Because at one side, you have the immigration story and on the other you have this active thriller story which they eventually choose to resume the film with. It all ends in a puff because of low imagination. The actors do a pretty good job at portraying the characters.

Far from all, Surkhaab is about familial love and a woman's fight to make things right.

BOTTOM LINE: Surkhaab is one of the few good films to have released in Indian in 2015. Flawed it is, but it is at least a one-time watch for the efforts that have been put into making this.

GRADE: D+

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES