Sikandar Ka Muqaddar review: Neeraj Pandey’s Tom and Jerry-esque thriller is decent, far from perfect | Bollywood

Neeraj Pandey knows his audience. In his thrillers – from Baby (2015) to Special 26 (2013) – he likes to keep you up to date. His last release, Auron Mein Kahaan Dum Tha, went a step further – by making you guess what happened to the filmmaker who could otherwise tell a compelling story. The film was painfully slow and suffered from an identity crisis: was it a romantic drama, a thriller or a daily soap passing around as a film? Luckily, Pandey is back to what he does best with Sikandar Ka Muqaddar.

But is he rehabilitating himself?

Sikandar Ka Muqaddar: The Plot

The film stars Avinash Tiwary as protagonist Sikandar, Tamannaah Bhatia as his wife Kamini and Jimmy Shergill as police officer Jaswinder Singh. The Story: Some diamonds are stolen from a jewelry exhibition with Sikandar, Kamini and Mangesh Desai (played by Rajeev Mehta) being held by Jaswinder as prime suspects. Sikandar’s entire life is turned upside down, although his guilt is not proven. He marries Kamini, a single mother, and one day she falls ill. He is even excluded from work. Basically, his “Muqaddar” here is a character in his own right. He had promised Jaswinder that one day he would apologize for not trusting his innocence. And after 15 years, Sikandar actually gets a call from him. What happens next is the rest of the plot.

The film begins with an urgent note. You are drawn into the world that Panday (also the author) creates and are desperate to know who stole the diamonds. He knows exactly how much information to give viewers at any given time to intrigue them. It works.

And it fell apart

But somewhere in the middle, the tone of the film suddenly changes and things slow down. From a thriller about who committed the robbery, the focus shifts entirely to Sikandar’s hardships. This may not go over well with some viewers, if only because it started quickly. The filmmaker in Neeraj, who has done theater projects so far, can’t resist adding a romantic song. Only this way. It’s things like these that stop Sikandar Ka Muqaddar from being a true thriller. The big twist is…not as big as you would imagine. It takes time to get there and isn’t as exciting as building it.

A common problem shared by his last film Auron Mein Kahaan… and this one is – Neeraj doesn’t know where to end his film. He keeps adding so much that it takes a lot of time to clear up the loose ends at some point.

Avinash tries with all his might to bring Sikandar to life and he almost succeeds. The story between him and Jimmy is based on the Tom and Jerry equation and he rises to the occasion. Shergill does what he does best: it’s interesting how the man managed to carve out a space for himself despite several previous roles as a cop/gangster. Tamannaah supports the story well.

Overall, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar is a decent thriller. I like the play on words in the title, which ultimately makes you realize that it undermines Muqaddar ka Sikandar. If only Neeraj had refused to burden the film with many things. It will be streaming on Netflix from November 29th.