Sardar

Directed by PS Mithran, the film stars Karthi, Rashi Khanna, Chunky Pandey, Laila, and Rajisha Vijayan.

He is an advisor to the government, and with the help of Chinese moles within the administration, has convinced everyone that this is a good idea — even the International Court of Justice, at the Hague. Sardar’s long agitated shots, the dramatic staging of seas and ships, of scale and sweep, of dams and damsels, is so effective, it hurts that Mithran and his cinematographer George C. The second half is a quick, almost reckless recap of Sardar’s life, where we are introduced to his wife (Rajisha Vijayan) — but just like with Shalini here, too, is a love that is established already before we lay eyes on it; that the two have known each other for decades. This is, afterall, a film that is about a father and son. We are told Sardar — with a stitched white beard and sagging skin that can only be described as prosthetic — has 8 passports, and speaks 24 languages, a fact that is flung at us without needing any additional scene expressing this, showing us that, indeed, this is a man of many tongues. There is something meaty here, the idea of a corporate entity so monopolising, so powerful, so close to political power, that it subverts justice in favour of profits. The silliness and humour that I mentioned above is as much a genre demand as it is a character demand, both blending seamlessly. This cobbling together of country names is affecting, not just because water wars are imminent but because of how the film frames this moral monologue. The moral puzzle at the centre of the film is regarding water. The villain, the man who wants to build a pan-Indian pipeline to control all the water is Rathore — a name and an actor, Chunky Pandey, pulled from the North, because such is South Indian villainy. A masterclass of staging, the world of Sardar is established with style, dramatic intensity, and when needed, that silly comedic charm. The other is all oiled-up swagger, the pre-interval blast that pulsates with both anticipation and excitement.

breaking : With the title credits, Sardar introduces us to a spy who appears to have gone rogue in 1988. The story then shifts to the present, where we meet ...

If there is a flaw, it is that the movie never engages our hearts as much as it engages our minds. Additionally, Mithran provides his protagonist a number of heroic moments that feel natural rather than forced, as is frequently the case. And his superspy father (again, Karthi), who is exiled, is the only person who can stop Rathore, an evil tycoon (Chunky Panday), and his terrible schemes.

Mithran's script is so overstuffed with ideas that none of them has the space to grow. Is this a movie about capitalism? Is it about environmental ...

The hair and the makeup are badly done, and do little to make us believe that this is a completely different person from Vijayprakash. Sample this – towards the end, Sardar has only a few seconds to fulfil his mission. He speaks in a growly voice that sounds like Sardar never had access to Vicks drops in all the years he spent in prison, but that’s the only ‘transformation’. The guards at the Bangladeshi prison where this scene is set speak Tamil with a Malayalam accent, while in a later scene, the officers of the Pakistani army speak English with a British accent. The plot of Sardar revolves around a ‘One Nation, One Pipeline’ project that will link all the water bodies in the country, and make the essential life resource a pricey commodity in the hands of private players. Except, all this is difficult to accomplish when a film has Chunky Panday speaking without any lip-sync 50% of the time.

On Twitter, fans have termed it a "Diwali Winner''. The audience was spellbound by the stars' performance and the overall plot. This happens to be the third ...

The views expressed here are that of the respective authors/ entities and do not represent the views of Economic Times (ET). Along with Karthi, the film also had Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha and others. The audience was spellbound by the stars' performance and the overall plot. However, a fan said that the duration of the movie could have been reduced by ten to fifteen minutes. The film's direction has also been praised; credits go to P. [Tamil movie](/topic/tamil-movie)'Sardar' has been released in theatres on Friday, October 21.

Sardar movie review: Karthi-starrer spy thriller is engaging and fun despite several glaring flaws largely due to some brilliant action and the lead star.

The young Karthi is more of a crowd-pleasing character which is fun to watch initially but gets lost with no purpose in the second half of the movie. At some point, the film isn’t sure whether it wants to be a spy film (which it could’ve been more effectively if only it didn’t try to preach a message) or an awareness film on water mafia. Tamil cinema has had very few spy films over the years and Mithran’s Sardar, despite its share of glaring flaws, is definitely a solid addition to the list. The rest of the story is about Vijay trying to find out if his father really went rogue and turned against his own nation. As Vijay tries to unearth more information about his father, the story introduces him as a stage artist turned spy in the flashback. However, Vijay’s commitment towards his work is marred on account of his father, a former spy who has been branded a traitor by the government.

Sardar movie review: Karthi and PS Mithran film is outright fun thanks to tight writing and a firecracker of a script.

What keeps you glued to the screen is that everything in Sardar is about the central plot. As far as the plot goes, when Vijay sets off to investigate a theft of a top-secret file by an activist, it takes him to places that reveal a lot about his life and the true story of his dad. He is the son of a secret agent who lives for the spotlight. The purpose of the sequence is not just to give a glimpse into how police gathers intelligence, it also leads up to the introduction of one of the film’s heroes, Inspector Vijaya Prakash ( As far as the story goes, Vijaya Prakash is a fame-hungry cop, who wants to make sure that even a small deed of his gets wide attention. As his team hatches the plan, we are shown how the information leaks to the police through a range of spies and planted sources, eventually ending up as a report on the police department’s table.

The film also features Chunky Pandey, Rajisha Vijayan and Raashi Khanna. The espionage thriller is directed by PS Mithran. Rating: Release Date: ...

With a few misses here and there, the film makes for a compelling watch. Sardar is a film that suffers from an overload of information. Chunky Panday as the mastermind behind the water theft is appropriate. In Sardar, Mithran delves deep into water theft, which is a growing concern in the country. Vijaya Prakash (Karthi) is a police inspector, who is haunted by the ghost of his past. One thing that Mithran relies on is packaging his film with his findings from the pre-production.

Sardar strikes a neat balance between being a mass masala entertainer, and a message film with its heart in the right place.

Sardar is a true blue action thriller with the spy angle amply explored to justify the hint of a sequel. The narrative takes a dip whenever we have a bit of forced humour here, and unnecessary romantic detours there, but it manages to recover just in time thanks to the focus shifting to a pressing issue that definitely warrants introspection even if the route taken to its predictable end is utopian. A surprise highlight of Sardar is the presence of child actor Rithvik, who plays a precocious kid with a decent arc. These technicians, in tandem with the art department lead by Kathir, give us a fantastic look into the world of Sardar. In his three films so far, the heroes have changed, the heroines have changed, the setting has changed, the look and feel of the films have changed, and the producer has changed, but one thing remains unchanged — the villain. Another highlight of Sardar is definitely the ensemble cast, which comes together to deliver a compelling film.