Sikandar

This taut, fast-paced action flick is all about the usual host of issues that leap to mind with Kashmir----violence, jihad, gun raj and the army vs militancy. Yet, ‘Sikandar’ is also about something else that is new and refreshingly different----encroached childhood.

The plot is complicated but racy, with a number of nail-biting twists in the story-line. Sikandar (Parzaan Dastur) is a 14-year-old orphan who one day finds a gun on his way to school. It changes his life forever, and slowly, he begins to use it indiscriminately. Nasreen (Ayesha Kapoor), his teenaged friend, secretly uses him as a pawn to help her father’s jihadi group.

In the battle-ground of violent games among politicians, religious heads, armymen and militants, Sikandar and Nasreen become scapegoats. Finally, both of them realize the folly of violence and return to aman.

The film is built on a great idea, and keeps the narration going at a taut and relentless pace. The switch from one sub-plot to another is not clumsy, and does not interrupt the flow of the screenplay. There are some picture postcard shots of the disturbed Valley, which forms a beautiful, dispassionate framework to the political drama.

The performances keep the movie-interest high. Piyush Jha’s direction and script is crisp. Parzaan Dastur gives a very interesting and convincing portrayal of the confused child who makes a mistake. Ayesha Kapoor, the ‘Black’ girl, is disappointingly wooden and deadpan, and does not seem to suggest any layers of complexity. Madhavan gives a creditable performance. Sanjay Suri as the politician is very pallid and insipid. But the real find is Arunoday Singh. His complex role is brilliantly executed.

Shankar Ehsaan Loy’s background score is very appropriate, but the songs fail to make an impact. The mellifluous language, though, more than makes up!