Sarhad Paar

I watched this movie with a lot of expectations because it starred two of my favorite actresses Tabu and Mahima Chaudhry. When I read the synopsis it looked very promising. I had the chance to watch it last night and man, was I disappointed. The worst thing about the film is its amateur direction. The direction was so bad that it leads to other aspects such as performances get worse. Only, the leading women, Tabu and Mahima deliver fine performances. If their roles were any longer I would have said they were the saving grace. Sanjay dutt overacts and Chandrachur Singh does not act at all. All other performances are terrible. Music is another plus point but it was put into the screenplay like a mess. The action scenes were so bad that it reminds you of those cheap stunts you would see in Sunny Deol's dishum dishum. With a synopsis like that and a cast of accomplished actors, the movie could have been something much much better. But it majorly disappoints. Avoid it or if you get it on DVD just fast-forward everything except the scenes with Tabu and Mahima, something I should have done.

Despite a promising cast, Sarhad Paar is certainly not a masterpiece. Sanjay Dutt is one of my favourite actors and obviously there's little wrong with the way he is playing his character Ranjit... but to put it bluntly, it's not the kind of role he needs to put much effort in, and so he visibly didn't. The roles of Pammi and Simran, on the other hand, are too limited in scope to allow Tabu and Mahima Chaudhry to show off their skills: they mostly seem to be there to add colour, beautiful smiles and heart-breaking tears to the story.

Sarhad Paar is definitely not a piece of crap. Agreed, the characters are cardboard, and I found it hard to identify with any of them. The scenario is neither particularly strong nor particularly consistent, but I've seen much, much worse. Especially in the second half one might expect more, some big events, a bit of good action, or at least some psychological development within the various characters. But instead, the story flows on, quietly, without any major surprises. That, I believe, is the biggest problem of this movie: it simply fails to catch. Even Ranjit's tragedy is shown with so many shortcuts and in an such an uninteresting way that it fails to evoke empathy. Thus, we are witnessing the chain of events from a safe distance, without ever caring much.

The movie has a few assets as well. The music, written by Anand Raj Anand, is absolutely gorgeous. Besides, the film is beautiful visually, offering lots of wonderful pictures from Punjab that give a great impression of the atmosphere in that region. Fans of Sanju will be delighted to see their idol as a Sikh.

All in all, this movie is neither good nor bad. It's worth giving it a shot, though, but don't expect too much of it. Personally, although I don't find it a dull movie, I don't think I will return to it soon.