Nobody can be trusted in writer-director Neeraj Pandey’s Sikandar Ka Muqaddar, streaming from 29 November on Netflix. Not even Neeraj Pandey, who keeps dropping one surprise revelation after another, until there comes a point when the viewer puffs and huffs and implores, “Yaar, bass bhi karo! Aur Kitna?”
At a running time of over 160 minutes Sikandar Ka Muqaddar has no dull moments, trust me on that. Every likely , and unlikely, twist tumbles out in an eager torrent. Yes, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar is that wedding where the father of the bride is determined to entertain the baraati till the very end.
The eagerness to stay a step ahead of the audience does prove to be a damper eventually. But not before we are absorbed in this police procedural with the cop and the suspects proving to be formidable adversaries .
The ever-dependable Jimmy Shergill plays the hard-nosed cop Jaswinder Singh with a ‘cent percent’ record of nabbing criminals, a fact that is mentioned more than once. Avinash Tiwary gives the actor a solid opponent. But Tamannaah Bhatia struggles to make her presence felt. Her character need stronger motivations.
Neeraj Pandey’s over-cleverly written screenplay opens with a jewellery theft at a diamond exhibition where the prime suspects are Sikandar Sharma (Avinash Tiwary), Kamini Singh (Tamannah Bhatia) and Mangesh Desai (Rajeev Mehta, the actor who had stolen the show from Aamir Khan in the restaurant scene in Rangeela).
In no time at all, the cat-and-mouse game narrows down to Jaswinder and Sikandar , with the one at the other’s throat in a crime clasp that squeezes the breath out of the plot. Both Jimmy Shergill and Avinash Tiwary are skilled enough actors, more than capable of navigating the plot out of its craggy hurdles, of which there is no dearth.
As the narrative gathers momentum, it becomes evident that Neeraj Pandey has forfeited rationale for celerity. The plot hurls towards one “big reveal” to another like a breathless express train unsure of where it is heading.
We get two of what the screen announces as “oops” endings. Makes you wonder if crime doesn’t pay , then stretching its parameters morally and physically must be a lucrative task for those filmmakers who are not too fastidious about the logistics of the criminal procedure.
The location shifts from Mumbai to Agra and a bit of Abu Dhabi thrown in. But the director’s grip over his characters loosens as the plot travels. If we discount the diminishing volume of credibility in the plot, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar is a mildly fun watch. But there is not a moment that here reminds us of Neeraj Pandey’s special ability to tackle heist headlong in Special Chabbis.
