Sarfira Movie Review: Sir, phir se

SarfiraU Biography dramaDir Sudha KongaraCast Akshay Kumar Radhika MadanRating 25Therersquos a fair argument to be made about how a grain of truth truly elevates fiction Picking my favourite moment from this movie thenWhich is the bit when the hero in this case an Air Force trainee must fly soonest to meet his father in his village whorsquos likely on deathbedThe hero is at the ticket counter There are no economy seats left in the airline The next flight is only a couple of days ahead He must buy a business class ticket thenmdashto hop on to the only hope he has to see his dad the soonestHe begs others in the line to borrow some money for a business class ticket This is the trigger apparently for why the protagonist in this picture subsequently aspires to build an airline that Indiarsquos poorest can affordOnly that there is absolutely no grain of truth to the anecdote abovemdashinspired by the life of exArmy man later serial entrepreneur Captain GR GopinathAs it is Sarfira is the story of the same Sir phir semdashin the sense that for all intents and purposes a nearly sceneforscene remake of Soorarai Pottru 2020 in Tamil by the repeated director Sudha KongaraHeremdashthe Hindi fictional avatar Vir Jagannath Mhatre Akshay Kumar is from the interiors of Maharashtra Theremdashas Nedumaaran Rajangam Suriya he belonged to Tamil NaduCapt Gopinath is originally from Karnataka Irsquom unsure why then is the lowcost airline he starts on screen still Air DeccanThe one actor therefore the character common between two versions of the same film is Paresh Rawalmdashas Paresh Goswami owner of an airline named JazWhich is of course direct allusion without any subtleties whatsoever to Naresh Goyal Until merely a decade and half ago Goyal was one of the richest Indians formerly boss of the upscale and muchloved Jet AirwaysHersquos the vilest villain yoursquoll meet in a moviemdasha shamelessly condescending capitalist don governmentrsquos crony willing to risk human lives in order to kill competitionI wonder what Goyal might think of his onscreen self But then again surely Goyal has more worrying things to think aboutmdashhersquos been ailing in jail as we speak under trial for a moneylaundering case worth over Rs 500 croreFrankly I find the story of the flight and fall of Goyal himselfmdashwho rose from a minor travel agency into the poster boy of Indian aviationmdashquite intriguing Which could make for parallel episodes if this biopic was a seriesBut this isnrsquot actually so much a biopic as a heroic hagiography on a breathlesshyperventilating mode that Capt Gopinath himself described for Soorarai Pottru as ldquofictionalised for cinematic effect but beneath the lsquomasalarsquo there is good meatrdquo Of course he should be mighty pleased with this movie that makes him look so goodMore so literally as the meatybrawny Akshay Kumarmdashracing down a flying plane on his motorbike giving it off to government officials warming up to the woman of his life Radhika Madan dancing like the whole world is watching gently emoting with his family and loved ones from the underclasses swiftly switching between callow youth and rugged early middleagehellipAs a genre this picture is closer to say how Mani Ratnam would deal with complex issues in the mainstream spacemdashlike riots Bombay terrorism Roja Dil Se etc Over here itrsquos the hardship of doing business in India especially dealing with untested ideasEven as Irsquom not convinced if lowcost airlines were a novelty for the world Many had existed before Deccan Also there is barely any surviving legacy for Deccan itself No such thing as a proper lowcost airline in India anymore They all cost the same which is a bombYou watch a Vijay Mallya type figure getting lampooned in this film Nowhere in the epilogue is it even mentioned that less than half a decade of operating Deccan itself sold out to Mallyarsquos KingfisherJust as you never quite question if Deccanrsquos maiden flight did get sabotaged the same way as in the moviemdashwherein Deccan Air equalled death in airAs the lead character however relentlessly overcoming multiple such obstaclesmdashwith all the masala deliberately mixed with the meatmdashI think Akshay aces it in his own athletic way I guess itrsquos just easier for me to connect with Akshay as a Bollywood audience over almost four decades than say SuriyaSure this is another biopic and that too a remakemdashboth lowest hanging fruits To be fair I wouldrsquove recommended Sarfira stillmdashif I hadnrsquot already watched Soorarai Pottru on Amazon Prime Video Thatrsquos progressively going to become the case with audiences thoroughly engaged with content on OTT already Wish this movie better luck with the others then

Sarfira Movie Review: Sir, phir se

Sarfira
U: Biography, drama
Dir: Sudha Kongara
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan
Rating: 2/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / Sarfira Movie Review: Sir, phir se

Sarfira Movie Review: Sir, phir se

SarfiraU: Biography, dramaDir: Sudha KongaraCast: Akshay Kumar, Radhika MadanRating: 2/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Sarfira
U: Biography, drama
Dir: Sudha Kongara
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan
Rating: 2/5