Sikandar Ka Muqaddar

Neeraj Pandey has a knack for plucking stories from crime pages and turning them into dramatic thrillers that carry the flavour of pulp fiction sold on stalls at railway stations. Like his much loved Special 26(2013), Sikandar Ka Muqaddar exudes energy and purpose as it lays out a puzzle for us. The title is inspired by Manmohan Desai’s crime drama Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978). Some of the leaps of faith that Neeraj takes could indeed have piqued the interest of Desai whose cine universe was rooted in Kismat (1968) and Naseeb (1981) but today they come across as nothing more than a well-meant tribute to the master.

चलो-चलो इक फिल्म बनाएं, नाम कैची-सा ढूंढ के लाएं, हीरों की चोरी करवाएं, चोर के पीछे पुलिस दौड़ाएं, चूहे-बिल्ली का खेल दिखाएं, अंत में एक ट्विस्ट ले आएं, पब्लिक को मूरख मान जबरन अपनी थ्योरी पकड़ाएं, चलो-चलो इक फिल्म बनाएं। सोच कर ही रोंगटे हरकत में आने लगते हैं कि नीरज पांडेय जैसे थ्रिलर बनाने में उस्ताद समझे जाने वाले निर्देशक की फिल्म में 50-60 करोड़ के हीरे चोरी होंगे, शक तीन लोगों पर जाएगा, अपनी मूल वृत्ति यानी इंस्टिंक्ट पर हद से ज़्यादा गुमान करने वाला एक पुलिस अफसर आकर केस सुलझाएगा लेकिन इस काम में 15 साल बीत जाएंगे और फिर एक ऐसा ट्विस्ट आएगा कि बस…!

Think up a character. Name him Sikandar. He may or may not master of his destiny. Pit the clean-cut guy against a dogged lawman determined to control the man’s muqaddar. Lo and behold, you have a handy title that harks back to a 1978 Amitabh Bachchan megahit with which this Netflix film has nothing to do.

Heist dramas can be a lot of fun as National Award-winning director Neeraj Pandey proved with his ‘Special 26’. Based on a real life crime of 1987, it remains one of cinephiles’ favourite films on the subject. Only, as Pandey once again wields the directorial baton for a heist film, as promised by him, ‘Sikandar Ka…’ isn’t anything like ‘Special 26’. We can’t say for sure whether that is a good thing or bad, only we don’t expect a director of Pandey’s calibre to repeat himself.

A large jewellery exhibition in Mumbai becomes the site of a heist. A hysterical phone call raises alarm, gunfire is heard, the cops on duty herd the panicked gathering into a secluded area, and during the melee, a fistful of precious gems go missing.

Neeraj Pandey is credited with some incredibly sharp films that have remained iconic for years after their release. Pandey has the knack for making quintessential Bollywood thrillers engaging with his screenplay, plot line and technical finesse. Sure he has also had a few misfires but films like A Wednesday, Special 26, Baby, and MS Dhoni remain popular and relevant till now. His latest Sikandar Ka Muqaddar starts on a promising note and one almost finds Pandey’s Midas touch to the narrative but somewhere through the course of 2 hours 23-minute-long film. Starring Avinash Tiwary and Jimmy Shergill, the film is a heist drama that shows potential in the beginning to be an engaging story but becomes an exhausting watch by the end of it.

Neeraj Pandey’s Sikandar Ka Muqaddar is a face-off between two stubborn men played by Jimmy Shergill and Avinash Tiwary, both of whom believe they are in the right. The Hindi feature goes back and forth between their perspectives, and as the story goes from 2008 to 2003 after a diamond heist remains unsolved. The writer-director tries to get us emotionally invested in this twisty tale of wills, but the nearly two-and-a-half-hour film drags out its premise.

For Tarantino, it’s the foot shot. For Rohit Shetty, it’s the drone shot. And for Neeraj Pandey, it’s the walking-talking shot: unbroken over-the-shoulder and full-frontal shots of self-serious men striding in and out of spaces, between rooms and corridors, between people and objects. Cops walk. Robbers walk. Waiters walk. Dogs walk. Thoughts walk. The air walks. No cinematographer finishes a schedule unfit. Basically, walking equals narrative momentum. Pandey is a master at making it look like something is always happening even when nothing is — but not in a good way.