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Throughout its 155 minutes, every scene is doused in blaring background music and melodrama.
Disappointment alone won't do, it must feel like a full blown catastrophe, observes Sukanya Verma.
Mission Mangal, Mission Raniganj, Mission Ram Setu, Mission Menstruation and now Mission Deccan Air, Akshay Kumar's shed so much blood, sweat and tears in rescuing, rehabilitating and restoring the nation in the past few years, no amount of amnesia in the world can wipe off the monotony of this imagery.
Once again his latest is a remake of a South Indian hit inspired by a true story fulfilling Akshay's criteria to take on a movie, preen in its heroics and colour it in his patented hue of patriotism.
Directed by Sudha Kongara, Sarfira is the Hindi retelling of her 2020 Tamil drama Soorarai Pottru, which opted for a direct Amazon Prime Video release when pandemic clouds loomed large and takes loose inspiration from Captain G R Gopinath's autobiographical book, Simply Fly.
When Captain Gopinath realised his socialist vision of an airborne Udipi hotel by setting up Air Deccan, India's first low-cost airlines in 2003, his objective was to facilitate accessible, affordable travel for people across all budgets and do away with economic barriers and snob value.
Despite its well-intentioned model of no frills efficiency designed to put a dent on agent culture and promote online booking, Deccan couldn't keep the momentum going, resulting in its merger with Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher brand in 2008. Everyone knows it wasn't 'and-they-lived-happily-ever-after' for either.
But the fictionalised take on the pioneer's extraordinary versatility as he shifted gears from army to agriculture to airline business is dedicated to the highs where the hero is a farmer, pilot, MBA, engineer, activist and proverbial David against Goliath, all rolled in one, seizing the day purely on the strength of his charisma and can-do spirit.
Personifying these qualities to the hilt, Suriya's simmering eyes and pounding tenacity did all the job in the often overwrought Soorarai Pottru. As did Aparna Balamurali as his spunky half equally equipped in the art of entrepreneurship.
Having watched Akshay Kumar do the gig umpteen times, even his earnest attempts feel like they're operating on autopilot. It doesn't help that Konagra's hopes to faithfully adapt it for Hindi suffers from the same old problem plaguing most Bollywood remakes -- grammar. The indigenous sur of the Tamil original is completely lost in its overdramatic Hindi translation.
Kongara shifts the action from a village in Tamil Nadu to one in Maharashtra as flashback within flashback within flashback document Veer's (Akshay Kumar) journey from a man protesting on railway tracks looking like Sonu Nigam on a bad hair day to air force officer rubbing off his senior in the wrong way to a Bhagat Singh supporter unable to mend ties with his estranged Gandhian father owing to shoddy landline services, exorbitant airfare, unreliable Indian road transport prompting him to resign and form his own airline.
Between the waiting game, generating funds, bureaucracy led hiccups, sabotage at every step, Bollywood's go-to Samaritan A P J Abdul Kalam's cameo and Abbas Mustan-level twists, Sarfira livens up a little in the altercations between Veer and Paresh (Paresh Rawal), the blue-collar allergic kingpin of the airline industry.
The movie is at its best when it pits Veer's gumption against Paresh's arrogance. That's what fuels the plot and plane, rest is all hot air.
Yes, even the romantic banter between Veer and Rani (Radhika Madan), the firebrand he marries. What was the strongest suit of the original proves to be a down side in the remake. Creepy swaps places with charm every time a 56 year old and 29 year old flirt.
We are no stranger to widening age gaps between leading men and women but even the oddest pairings work within fitting dynamics or uncomplicated chemistry. Perhaps Sarfira, too, is mindful of it and doesn't venture beyond serviceable intimacy.
On her own though, Radhika does a swell job of reiterating her command at 'pataakha' roles. As the mutton gobbling Marathi mulgi, she's far more consistent than Akshay Kumar in holding on to her Marathi accent.
Not only the latter's rural lingo miraculously acquires urban finesse but Onitsuka Tigers in his shoe collection too, which wouldn't be such a sore point if he wasn't neck deep in debts and taking loans from his wife and village.
Sarfira has the depth of a potato chip. Rani is a baker because there are cakes around her. Paresh suffers OCD because he wipes his hands in sanitiser.
Instead of the struggle gone in making a low-cost airline work or the partners flanking Veer like props not receiving due importance, Sarfira is interested in pressing our emotional nerves to the point of plugging them out.
Throughout its 155 minutes, every scene is doused in blaring background music and melodrama. Disappointment alone won't do, it must feel like a full blown catastrophe.
In her bid to amp up the drama, Kongara throws so many glitches and oversights in the path, it's no wonder no one takes Veer's business model seriously. Not all 'market tod' ideas are practical, Paresh tells him early on.
It's never a good sign when the villain starts making more sense than the hero. And often the nature of Veer's actions strike more as sanki (eccentric) than sarfira (hot-headed).
