Sikandar Movie Review: Salman Khan gives it a shot—then gives up
Sikandar(2 / 5)
If you thought Salman Khan was on autopilot in his last, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan (2023), in Sikandar he desperately tries not to be. I don’t know what is worse. While in KKBKKJ Bhai played Bhai, in the latest AR Murugadoss actioner he plays a character. There is a semblance of a story, a hint of a plot. I know that is the bare minimum requirement in a film, but that’s what reviewing for Hindi cinema has become: hunting for scraps. A Salman Khan film is a genre of its own, comparable only to another Salman Khan film. I can report that Sikandar is marginally better than KKBKKJ. Marginally, with a capital M.
Director: AR Murugadoss
Cast: Salman Khan, Rashmika Mandanna, Sathyaraj,Kishore, Prateik Smita Patil, Sharman Joshi, Kajal Aggarwal, Anjini Dhawan and Jatin Sarna
Salman, with his latest releases, delivers an ineffective performance that feels strange. One that is unpredictable. You don’t know in which bizarre space he will take a scene. While mourning the death of his wife, he will suddenly start humming ‘Ajeeb dastan hain ye’ and that too without any emotion, like somebody would do while doing a mindless chore, like lathering your face before a shave. If he is being updated on the villain’s machinations, he will widen his eyes and constrict his facial muscles like he is trying to find the source of a stench. Salman doesn’t lift a mediocre scene; in fact, he sits on it like a stiff log, and you ask yourself, Why is Bhai not even trying? Then he starts crying, and you know what is worse.
In Sikandar, Salman plays Sanjay, the benevolent king of Rajkot. In a scene he explains to his wife, Queen Saisri (Rashmika Mandanna), why he is called by different names by his praja (subjects). “My mother was a fan of King Alexander and wanted to name me Sikandar. My father was a fan of Sunil Dutt and Nargis, so he named me Sanjay. My people call me Raja sahab because my kaka (uncle) used to call me ‘Raja beta’.” But, won’t that be because you are an actual king? After Sikandar’s wife dies, solely to give his character some motivation, he leaves his empire for the metropolis of Mumbai. In any other mass-actioner, his reasons would have been revenge (Ghajini’s Sanjay Singhania comes to mind). However, in this film, the protagonist does so because he wants to make sure the people his wife donated her organs to after her death are taken care of. It is a flimsy motive but not entirely unsaleable; Salman’s nonchalance, however, weakens it further. Queen Saisri’s organs—eyes, lungs and heart—have been donated to a submissive homemaker, Vaidehi (Kajal Aggarwal); a smartmouth orphan, Kamaruddin; and a lovelorn teen, Nisha (Anjini Dhawan). In the process of saving his wife’s last living elements, Salman’s Sikandar teaches feminism to a patriarchal family, solves Dharavi’s garbage dumping and pollution problem and makes a misguided girl realise that expecting emotional availability from an “alpha male” is not worth it.
It's actually ironic to see the alpha male phenomenon being criticised in a Salman Khan film. If I may say so, Sikandar seems to want to explore the softer side of the superstar, and here’s where it errs because Salman can’t emote to save his life. The film also jettisons the usual hoot-catcher Salmanisms. There are no meta-references to the actor’s off-screen persona; we don’t even get a heavily VFXed shot of the star baring his torso. The die-hard Salman fan might feel cheated. The effort in his action sequences is at times even less than what he puts into his dance numbers—both of which are negligible to begin with. And it’s not only Salman; AR Murugadoss’s screenplay too is threadbare. There are mere action scenes and not set pieces. I wouldn’t be surprised if Salman strolls into an action sequence, and that should be enough for goons to go flying. Sathyaraj and Prateik Smita Patil are cartoonish villains who exist only to be defeated by Bhai. The relationship between Salman’s Sanjay and Rashmika’s Saisri is the emotional core of the film, but there isn’t any chemistry between them, which will make you care for their characters. While most of the supporting actors in the film, including a seasoned one like Sharman Joshi, have no other dimension other than being Salman’s subordinates, Sacred Games (2018) fame Jatin Sarna as Mumbai taxi driver De Niro is quite enjoyable.
In Salman’s last collaboration with producer Sajid Nadiadwala, Kick (2014), he mouths a dialogue which takes a cheeky dig at his superstar persona. “Main dil mein aata hoon, samajh mein nahi (Feel me in your heart, don’t try to understand me).” I don’t think it is happening to me anymore. I need a heart transplant or, preferably, a lobotomy.