A still from Ik Sandhu Hunda Si
Film: Ik Sandhu Hunda Si
Director: Rakesh Mehta, Director Jass Grewal, Prince Kanwaljit Singh
Cast: Gippy Grewal, Pawan Malhotra, Neha Sharma, Vikramjeet Virk, Roshan Prince, and others
Manpriya Singh
There’s nothing wrong with a film that follows the mainstream masala template—romance, action and student politics. As long as it evokes a few laughs, a few tears and the script is not sketchy and the characters are convincing. To begin with, this Sandhu is too behind his times, easily two decades behind.
He punches well, saves his friends and stands up for the students and spits dialogues like ‘University de vich sirf do hi cheeza chal diya ne, Ik kitaba te duja Sandhu da naam.’ So far, so average.
But still better than his lady love (Neha Sharma), who wears a Patiala salwar kameez on the university campus, a red one at that and dreams of being a housewife, instead of a city life. “Tu kheti karen te main roti le ke aawan.” So far, so very average.
Equally unconvincing is their love story. The one you do not connect with even for a split-second. Because it’s mar-mitan vaala love at first sight and one that suffers from a convenient script. Picture this, the heroine walks in, scolds the boy for wearing shorts and being violent and the next day he is a pant-shirt clad white collared convert, who wakes up early.
Wait, the first half still keeps you glued and expectant as every scene introduces a new character against the repetitive overplayed background score…Sandhu, Monty, Gill, Virk… you get the picture. Literally all of whom play their part and deliver the dialogues to perfection, especially Vikramjeet Virk as Kala and Pawan Malhotra as Jagga MLA.
Despite the ever fit and favourite Gippy playing the titular Sandhu and a compelling ensemble cast comprising also Roshan Prince and Babbal Rai, the film fails to take you along their journey. Which is why the buck clearly stops at the poor script, clichéd dialogues and lazy direction, which unfortunately involves names that are other otherwise recognised in Pollywood, that of writer Jass Grewal and director Rakesh Mehta. What, however, would keep any Punjabi amply distracted are the aerial shots of Open Hand, Panjab University lawns, the famous Students Centre and ample scenes shot around the City Beautiful, the PU election rallies, the colourful pamphlets and the works.
Now come to the clichés (no, we spared you so far), the girl is about to be married off to the friend of her brother, who happens to belong to the rival faction. Or, something like that. Does he get the girl? Does he manage to convince the brother or beat him up? The brave ones can go and find out. By and large, it’s also a story of bromance in the university hostels, of errant boys with golden hearts and subjective values. Maybe if they added the subtitle, Ik Sandhu Hunda Si —1980 Vich, because clearly it takes a lot more to pull off a Dabangg or a Rajinikant, if that’s what the makers tried to do. This Sandhu will be soon forgotten and remain in the past much like its title, but hopefully Gippy, you can overcome this and rise like a phoenix and be still relevant.
