Son of Sardar Review

A tedious effort at making a comedy ends up with the audience also feeling tedious watching it. The problem with this Ashwani Dhir attempt at tickling you is that it is so laboured and consequently contrived that you laugh with an effort.
The boisterous Punjabi backdrop for a slap stick revenge drama is just what the doctor ordered. Yet the translation and for the informed the remake from the Telugu original Maryada Ramana loses its plot too early and you are left laughing at PJs rather than at the happenings in the film.
Jaswingder Singh – or Jessi (Ajay Devgn) living abroad has just finished his musical eulogy in favour of the Sardar. He next gets to bashing up a set of goons. Now he makes Rajnikant and Sachin Tendulkar look human in compare. He has just inherited some huge property back at Phagwara. Jessi thus lands in apni desh ki dharti after sharing train space with Punjabi lass Sukhvinder or Sukh (Sonakshi Sinha). At Phagwara we have an entire family waiting to avenge Jessi on the basis of some family feud that has been on for some centuries and is more locally popular than the Ashes.
The members of the feuding family includes Balwinder Singh – Billu (Sanjay Dutt), Tony (Mukul Dev) and Tito (Vindo Dara Singh – who continues to look stupid without any effort). They have spent a life time in wait for decades and have been egged on by an aged matriarch (Tanuja). Alright for humour the guys Tony and Tito have pledged not to have ice cream and cool-drinks till they avenge the death of their kith in the family feud. Blissfully unaware that he is the victim of the revenge plan, Jessi comes to the village to take stock of his property alienate it and go back to bashing goons in London. He walks straight into the lion’s den- and that is to his advantage. The unwritten custom with Billu et al is that they shall not attack any person in their house based on the Athiti devo bhava theory. Having come to know of the plan Jessi decides to stay within the house and the members of the family are waiting to get at him once he sets foot outside the house.
There is also Parmeet – Pammi (Juhi Chawla) who is a adi suhagan – wedded to Billu in mind and soul but waiting for the revenge drama to unfurl before she walks up the altar to take him as her lawfully wedded husband. He has vowed to stay away from the distraction of matrimony till he gets Jessi off the planet. The next point without a twist is that cupid strikes Jessi and Sukhi.
The resultant cacophony is what the script is about and is loud as they come. The ambience and the title seem to justify the path taken. The film however has some good performances to recommend. While Sonakshi continues to do what she does in every film, Sanjay Dutt carries his dead pan signature expression with characteristic ease. Ajay Devgn gets a script close to his heart and could mentally just walked out of a Rohit Shetty set.
Classy comedy has never been a Bollywood menu. The latest offering is just in tune.

L. Ravichander