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The challenge is real. In almost every frame and sequence of this Eid release, Salman Khan aka Sanjay, the Raja of Rajkot, aka Sikandar, struggles to be present.
You can see him go through the motions of emotion and action, delivering dialogue, dancing, romancing, shedding tears –yes, he’s man enough to cry– but nowhere do you see traces of the one and only Bhai, who has never pretended to be anything other than who he has been in the last thirty years– the star with his very specific style-and-swag– the blue bracelet and the bulked-up arms-and-torso akimbo adorning his favourite avatars of the loveable rascal-cum-the desi Robin Hood with the golden heart.
In 2025, when the three Khans turn 60, the struggle to stay relevant has never been as difficult: the world has changed, and Salman hasn’t adapted. Nor has AR Murugadoss, who became familiar to Hindi-speaking audiences with Aamir Khan’s ‘Ghajini’, a masala film which found its beats in its star, and his presence.
In ‘Sikandar’, both the director and the star flounder spectacularly, failing to give us anything we haven’t seen before. The opening sequence starts with faint promise, with Bhai coming on and schooling an entitled minister ka beta (Prateik Babbar) in the first class cabin of an airplane.
After that it’s all downhill: you are hard put to see any freshness in the lazy, formulaic writing which pits the Raja of Rajkot against arrogant neta (Sathyaraj), complicit cop (Kishore), and their goons, when he is sharing some softer moments with faithful wife (Rashmika Mandanna).
At this rate at which she is repeating herself as the sweet, submissive wife who will do anything for her lord and master, Rashmika herself is in danger of becoming a trope: here her character has been given a line about the age difference between her and Sikandar, but the gap of 30 years plus-minus is glaring, and just adds to the number of things that shouldn’t have been in the movie, which does nothing but add to the downward trajectory of this Khan.
The other supporting actors revolve around Sikandar, with the talented Sharman Joshi being relegated to the background, literally. A mouthy slum kid named Kamaruddin is quickly reduced to Kamar. Why? Because Muslim references needed to be tamped down?
You can see the attempt to make this film ‘pan-Indian’ by bunging in a South Indian family segment, the traditional ‘thaatha’ (grandfather) who doesn’t want his daughter-in-law (Kajal Aggarwal) to work agreeing meekly to change overnight because the Gujarati-spouting Sikandar, who not only owns his tears but is a feminist to boot, gives said grandpa a lecture about how women should be free to do anything they want.
But nothing works. In the past, love him or hate him, Bhai has always managed to arouse feelings: his walk-on part in Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Pathan’, which captured a wry acknowledgement of his advancing years, brought the house down.
You can’t see any of that in this lacklustre, dull offering, fronted by a distinctly uninterested and uninvolved Salman. Where has the Bhai who strode on to the screen, agate stone dangling from his wrist, beating up the baddies, making things better, gone? Can someone bring him back? In this iteration, I was bored out of my skull.
In an early moment in the film, Sikandar says, ‘I’m done, bro’. That feels, um, prescient. So are we bro, so are we.
Sikandar movie cast: Salman Khan, Rashmika Mandanna, Satyaraj, Sharman Joshi, Kishore, Kajal Aggarwal, Prateik Babbar, Jatin Sarna
Sikandar movie director: AR Murugadoss
Sikandar movie rating: One and a half stars
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