Summary
Sardar Ka Grandson is a mess with bad writing, cringy performances, and unconvincing plotlines that will test your endurance.
This review of the Netflix film Sardar Ka Grandson contains no spoilers.
Netflix’s Sardar Ka Grandson is the story of a 90-year-old grandma whose last wish is to visit her native place in Pakistan, which she had to leave due to partition. And to fulfill her last wish, her grandson gets a weird plan to bring the home back to her instead of taking her to Pakistan. Directed by debutant director Kaashvie Nair, the film seems like a very sweet potential story about a grandma-grandson relationship on paper, but the end product is a complete mess. This film is a painstaking endurance test with cringy performances of the pivotal characters, illogical and convenient plotting, and bad writing.
The film stars veteran actor Nina Gupta in the lead role of the 90-year-old Grandma, Sardar. She is portrayed as a woman who is physically old but more lively than a teenager. This role reminds me of Amitabh Bachchan in the film 102 Not Out. But the role is miscast with Nina Gupta, as I never felt her as a 90-year-old woman for a single time in the film. She tries her best to do justice with the role, but it goes in vain in the end. The other pivotal character, Arjun Kapoor as the grandson, Amreek, is not convincing throughout. His loud and cringy dialogue delivery is just disastrous. His love interest played by Rakul Preet Singh is just irrelevant in the whole narrative as she has nothing to do. It is a pity that the film consists of such a great group of supporting actors like Soni Razdan, Kumud Mishra and Kanwaljit Singh, and they do not get much space to flesh out their roles.
The screenplay is hurried in that it does not give you the time to attach the characters and their emotions. Some scenes are just illogical and downright unconvincing that it never gives us the high we seek from it. However, the editing by Maahir Zaveri has scored some good points and is the only positive point in the whole film. Two scenes, in particular, are greatly executed with the editing. One where Amreek’s travel to Pakistan is intercut with Sardar’s exodus. And the second, the whole ending sequence.
Sardar Ka Grandson is a film that can be a teary drama of relationships, but it is a cringy illogical comedy that can test your endurance.
