An easy puzzle to solve

Jasmine Singh

There is something interesting that Neil Armstrong said about mystery—it creates wonder, and wonder is the basis of man’s desire to understand! If we put Punjabi film Gadaar in this bracket, it creates wonder (precisely in the first half), and it definitely throws us in an uncomfortable place where we try to understand…many things. Directed by Amitoj Mann, the film stars Harbhajan Mann, Bobby Sandhu, Shavinder Mahal, Manpreet Grewal, Ashish Duggal and Girija Shankar in the lead roles.

Gadaar definitely opens to a mystery; takes interesting twists and turns. Director Amitoj Mann, who has also written the story of the film, begins the story on a good note by making Harbhajan Mann almost like Leonardo Di Caprio of The Wolf Of Wall Street!

Amitoj, who has also acted in the film, has given a good lift in the beginning, till he can’t hold the weight of the film and begins to lose balance. The mystery around which the film revolves suddenly begins to decline and half-an-hour before the climax, when the mystery is already revealed, you don’t want to know anything. Or let’s say there is nothing left to know. Amitoj has done a fairly neat job of the story only to drop the entire suspense, revealing it too early. There are many things that remain unanswered even after the opening of the mystery.

A pretty secret agent who is employed by the government of Canada is suddenly seen only working for the protagonist, Harbhajan Mann. The film, nonetheless, dives into the interesting phase when this secret agent is opening the mystery.

The camera work is lovely. This will definitely be counted as a very different kind of a role, which Harbhajan Mann has attempted (thanks to the director), and he has indeed done a neat job of what he was asked to do. The work that he has put in his character shows clearly even when some goof-ups stare from behind. The problem comes when as a viewer you don’t feel for Harbhajan (Jai Singh)—you just can’t feel his pain. And if only, other than this brisk walk here and there, and ‘what for’ giggling in the second half, he could have been made to be someone who actually has a reason to fight!

Bobby Sandhu, the Sandy of Gadaar, well, could have done more than just being the Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall) of The Godfather. Did someone know he is a good actor? More than half of the time, Harbhajan and the secret agent Manpreet speaking their accented dialogues look like Sherlock Holmes and Watson, only here, Watson comes across as more intelligent than his boss! Actor Shavinder Mahal, in his small part, stands justified. Ashish Duggal and Girija Shankar in their needlessly stretched roles have justified their presence.

Now that the mystery has been solved early and there is nothing more to look forward to, well before the end you can admire Harbhajan’s voice in the songs. The voice is magical, always. Now, this wasn’t a mystery!

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