Sardar

An amazing movie on an Indian politician, which is probably better than Gandhi by Sir Attenborough. Paresh Rawal, always a brilliant actor, was outstanding in this movie. The subtleties of politics at that time, the characterization and the attention to minute details makes it a gripping movie from the start to the end. Yes, probably every aspect of Sardar's life was not covered but then it would be unrealistic to do so in a movie. The movie tries to portray the strong political will of the great man, especially during the biggest crisis state of Indian history, the partition, and succeeds in it. His quick decisiveness, his ability to convince Congress, his differences with Nehru on almost all major issues, are all lucidly elaborated and well executed. The movie game me goosebumps, that such a strong man indeed existed on Earth. Sardar Patel was responsible for shaping India as we currently know if. If only he was India's first Prime Minister (sigh). All in all, a must watch for all Indians, current politicians included!

Its a very noble attempt to portray a great man in another perspective. The facts are shown very honestly and without adding a lot of unwanted drama. I specially liked the original B&W clippings in between so that viewers can relate to the happenings around that era. The portrayal of Nehru is very natural. He is shown a little childish yet loyal to Sardar Patel.

Paresh Rawal did a tremendous job at playing Sardar Patel as did Benjamin Gilani and Tom Alter. I couldn't take my eyes off the movie even though there were minor editing glitches. The movie is very fast paced so even a dull autobiographic topic like this turns to be very interesting. A must watch for all Indians and people interested in Indian history!

The movie portrays the period of India when India got independence, a time when the Sardar gave the most to our nation and made us one whole nation. It is no doubt that we needed Gandhi when we needed gandhi, but we only need Sardar when we needed Sardar. It is remarkable what he did.

The movie portrays not only Sardar's very realistically. All the other characters are also well portrayed. The events in the movie are well paced and well cut. Acting is phenomenal by Paresh rawal as well as other characters. By watching this movie one would not only peek into life of Sardar but also visualise how the time was after we got independence.

A must watch for everyone who is interested in our nation's history. Must watch for every Indian. One should know how efforts of our freedom fighters have shaped our nation and biggest democracy in the world.

What worked:

• amazing screenplay and execution; it's hard to not be mesmerized by the storytelling. The makers put strong priority to the dialogues and editing which makes it a powerful movie.
• it's a true story and also an important movie; the use of the real life footages and images worked as a surplus positive narrative for the movie . I personally did not know much about him till I watched this movie
• great ensemble cast; Paresh Rawal, Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter and Annu Kapoor brought life to their respective characters

What did not work:

• real footages; although the use of footages were meant to enhance the storytelling, the repeated and constant clips of the newspaper article over the pivotal period of the movie can be disturbing and unnecessary at times, unless extremely essential in the narration
• run time; the movie is tight and engaging but it would be better if the run time was shorter

Final verdict: Highly recommended

First bad points editing leaves a lot to be desired. cinematography is good in patches. Annu kapur is not impressive as Gandhi. Many crucial details of sardar's life are left out as how he organised congress ? his relationship with Bose. his early struggle to become lawyer.

gud points. A different take from NEhru-Gandhi view on Indian freedom struggle. Brings out grayness of various characters not always black or white. shows Nehru's communist leaning which kept India poor for last 50 yrs. doesn't blame partition on British but shows that Muslims never wanted to live with Hindus. Shows how honest sardar was as he refuses his brother in law business favor while Nehru got everyone in his family appointed to constitutional posts. overall a must watch & should have got Paresh rawal a national award.