Sardar ka Grandson released on 18 May on Netflix. It stars Arjun Kapoor and Neena Gupta with cameos from John Abraham and Aditi Rao Hydari. It is the directorial debut of Kaashvie Nair.

The story revolves around Amreek, our protagonist and the herculean task of transporting his grandmother’s Lahore house to India to fulfill her last wish. We see Amreek struggling with hardened bureaucratic officials to make his grandmother’s long lost dream come true. 

An event involving international cooperation between rival countries would obviously need a witty lead with strong convincing arguments and a ton of charm. Amreek’s character is a walking talking contradiction of all the qualities I’ve just listed.

His character should be a case study on how not to write a protagonist. Within the first 10 minutes, he displays every toxic characteristic you don’t want in a lead and quickly alienates the audience from rooting for him.

Had the creators softened the forced comedy bits and gone for a mature lead I am sure I would have enjoyed this movie. Amreek, however, has the emotional range of a blank sheet of paper. 

I personally did not find Arjun Kapoor’s casting for the role of Amreek appropriate.

The granny is whisky swinging, abuse hurling, tech savvy Punjabi grandma. Basically the stereotypical Punjabi, but since it is played by Neena Gupta, she manages to make us laugh with all her antics and her character is quite lovable. Neena Gupta proves her acting prowess and versatility with yet another role.

Near the end of the movie, we see her expertly portray the fragile emotions of a victim of partition and it’s violence. 

Everytime I felt like remarking ‘Oh well, that was a nice moment’ , the movie instantly senses my mood and proceeds to add a cringe scene to ruin all my expectations. 

The alternative storyline running along the main plot is the family drama of Amreek’s family back in Amritsar. It was not needed and led to an uneven pacing in the movie.

Though most plot twists were predictable and anyone could have guessed the conclusion, I still liked these cliched parts. The seed of a good idea to carve the story around was there, but the finesse required for its execution was definitely absent.

In the end, I did not feel angry for my stolen 2 hours 20 minutes. I just felt disappointed because I felt the movie had potential, but failed to live up to it.

The premise of the filmt was interesting and could have been so much more had it not fallen in the hands of an inept casting, scripting and editing, which are three important pillars of film production.

I recommend watching this movie only if you’re looking for a mindless way to spend your evening. But if you want to dive into a well-thought out film with substance, then you won’t find it here. 

Movie Rating 

2.5/5