Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar : A review

After the long drought brought about by Covid19 in 2020, which seemed to have affected Hindi / Bollywood movie industry more than the regional Indian movie industries, I finally saw a watch-able Hindi movie - Dibakar Banerjee's Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar (SaPF).

The opening scenes of SaPF are uniquely NCR-ish with a camera mounted on the hood of a fast-moving car, trained on a bunch of rowdy passengers as they zip past the almost deserted Delhi highways in the dead of the night. The viewer is placed directly into the fight or flight situation of the lead characters right after this high-octane ride meets an abrupt end in the first few minutes of the movie.  And the protagonists - Parineeti Chopra (Sandeep) and Arjun Kapoor (Pinky), decide to make a break for it. Why, What and Where to will be revealed as the movie progresses.

Sandeep aur Pinky Faraar reminds me of a few other movies. I could catch glimpses of Ishaqzaade in SaPF. Ishaqzaade  was Arjun Kapoor's debut movie where he was paired with Parineeti. That too was an us-against-the-world story of escape. I recently watched an exceptional 2021 Malayalam film - Nayattu (meaning the Hunt) which is about a group of three people escaping the system that is trying to hunt them down. SaPF is very similar in its theme with Nayattu. Instead of three almost-strangers, in SaPF we have two hitherto unacquainted persons thrown into a dire do or die situation and fleeing across geographies just as in Nayattu.

The burly Arjun Kapoor (Pinky) is a suitable fit for a cow-belt roughneck who is a suspended Haryanvi cop and a hitman for hire. Parineeti has held her usual bubbly persona in check and comes across competently as an educated and sophisticated woman (Sandy Walia) at the top of the corporate ladder. 

 

By giving a girlish name - Pinky, for the brutish cop and a masculine name for the female character, the title of the movie offers an insight into gender bender roles the director has envisioned for his protagonists. The film and the script also feature several artful instances where these two unconventional leads scrape against the pillars of the patriarchal landscape they flee across.

Although there is predictability at many places, it is while watching movies like SaPF (versus something like Parineeti's previous disastrous outing - "The Girl of on the Train") you realize how much of the actor's output and performance is molded by the director. Dibakar Banerjee is not only able to extract outstanding performances from the lead pair, but the actors who played side characters like Raghuvir Yadav, Neena Gupta, Jaideep Ahlawat, Rahul Kumar are also remarkable in their modest but fully fleshed out roles.

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Ishaqzaade

Ishaqzaade was an unexpected treat. I had seen its posters before the film came out and was baffled what made Parineeti Chopra chose such a film after her amazing debut performance in Ladies vs Ricky Behl. And Arjun Kapoor was nothing more than yet another star spawn who zipped up the fast track thanks to his genes, squashing the chance of many struggling, aspiring Bollywood wannabes.

The first half of Ishaqzaade proved me wrong. It also affirmed the age old adage that you can never judge a film by its poster, even if it looked twenty years too late or Ek Duje Ke Liye-ish. The second half of the movie was mostly directionless in terms of story but I could excuse that considering its beautiful frames, audacious tunes and a genuine lead couple.

Arjun Kapoor's movie collection has stood the actor in good stead, it has definitely helped him learn acting. Parineeti is so honest and natural it is hard not to like her ebullient spirit. Habib Faisal, the director of Isqzaade has his finger on the pulse of North India. Or to be more precise New Delhi and the towns and villages surrounding the capital city forms the geography and the language of his films.The dusty cow belt city of Almore where this Hindu-Muslim love story is set is your everyday North Indian town and the dialogs and the characters are just what you'd hear and see if you happen to land in such a town. Amit Trivedi's defiant and upbeat music sets the tone for the story. Another low cost-high returns hit from Yashraj films.

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