Sikander Ka Muqaddar review: Fate, Obsession and Collision

Sikander Ka Muqaddar review: Fate, Obsession and Collision

What: Over the last 15 years, director Neeraj Pandey has chiseled the art of constructing and narrating engaging stories. With ample dose of intrigue and urgency, Pandey’s craft circumscribe to strong protagonists in jeopardy and extraordinary situations and how they overcame them. He has a penchant for alternating between timelines. In all his films, the plot unfolds in two different time periods. ‘Sikandar ka Muqaddar’ is no different - the heist takes place in one, the excavation of the mystery takes place in the other, hopping between Mumbai, Agra and Abu Dhabi.

Sikander Ka Muqaddar movie synopsis

The film features its eponymous protagonist Sikandar (played by Avinash Tiwar) a computer technician who gets entangled as a suspect in a diamond heist along with Kamini (Tamannaah) and Mangesh Desai (Rajeev Mehta). The Investigation Officer, Jasvinder Singh(Jimmy Shergill) is a tough, hard-nosed cop who will not leave any stone unturned until they are proven guilty. That’s because he puts his moolvitri (instinct) before anything else. But with no convictions being made, the case fades from the eyes of the public but not from his badgered mind which continues to obsessively and relentlessly stalk his suspects.

Sikander Ka Muqaddar movie review

The leitmotif of 15 years respires in ‘Sikandar ka Muqaddar’ with Jasvinder shaping up as a watchdog, scrutinizing every action of Sikander. His suspicion never ceases and so does our curiosity in knowing what happens next. With long camera movements and aerial shots (DoP Arvind Singh) which form his trademark paraphernalia, Pandey takes us through a meandering journey of a cat and a mouse game amplified with a solid background score (Sanjoy Chowdhury). The length of the film hurts, demanding a better precision of the editing scissors but it never fails to thoroughly engage you.

A cop with a 100% success track record seeks redemption after his instinct fails him. Still not able to come in terms with the failure, he pursues the three accused whom he had convicted. Jimmy Shergill is exciting to watch with crackling dialogues (additional dialogues by Vipul K Rawal) and a cocksure swagger that refuses to die, while seminally perpetuating our minds since ‘Tanu Weds Manu’. Avinash Tiwary embraces the antics of a chameleon with panache, never actually revealing the true colours of Sikandar. He us bruised, battered but not broken.

On the contrary, Tamannaah’s Kamini comes across as singular note, uni-dimensional, a sulking ablaa naari straddling the life of a divorced single mother. That's a shortcoming I have observed in Pandey's writing - he doesn't fleshes up and layers his female protagonists. A talented actor like Divya Dutta is hardly given any weightage reduced to a cameo of Jasvinder's ex-wife. The reason for the cracks in their marriage is miles away from convincing.

 

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