Meghna Gulzar’s latest film dramatizes Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw’s adventures and witticisms without nuance. Bollywood actor Vicky Kaushal is finally on our bring screens. However, he has yet again delivered a forgettable film. The actor is struggling to make an impact at the box office. Fans of the actor hoped that the ace filmmaker Meghna Gulzar and Vicky Kaushal would recreate their Raazi magic, but all in vain.
Movie Details:
Director: Meghna Gulzar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Sanya Malhotra, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, and Neeraj Kabi.
Runtime: 2h 25m
CBFC certification: ‘U/A’
Genre: War/Drama
Production company: RSVP Movies
Release date: 1st December 2023
Where to watch? At the theatres!
Storyline: Sam Manekshaw is a decorated officer in the Indian army, having served for over four decades and fighting in five wars. He is the first officer in the army to be promoted to Field Marshal.
Sam Bahadur movie review:
Sam Bahadur has a lot going for him. It follows Meghna Gulzar’s previous two critically acclaimed films, Talvar (2015) and Raazi (2018). It stars Vicky Kaushal, who has played men on a mission against the nation’s enemies in both fictitious and real-life roles in Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019) and Sardar Udham (2021). Finally, it tells the story of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, a near-mythical colossus who survived after being shot nine times by a Japanese soldier during WWII.
For the longest time, you twitch and fidget in your seat, waiting for that decisive moment of cinematic brilliance. When writer Bhavani Iyer and director Meghna Gulzar try to make you laugh, you crack up. And yet, at the end of it all, the point of Sam Bahadur is completely lost on you. Biopics are a risky genre because most of them follow an episodic structure and are constrained by the concepts of veracity and length. What distinguishes a film of this genre is how and where the central conflict is located.
In the individual segments of Manekshaw’s life that comprise the film’s plot, Sam Bahadur can be seen as sweet and engaging. They are very well shot, designed, and acted (kudos to cinematographer Jay I Patel for his work on the air strikes and combat scenes in Burma) and may just make it worthwhile to see this larger-than-life vignette reel in theatres.
Final Word: If you are a fan of biopics, then you should go for it. Or else, wait for its OTT release.
Rating: 3/5 stars
