Xtreme Vogue Mumbai Desk: Komal Qureshi
Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Radhikka Madan, Seema Biswas, R. Sarath Kumar, Saurabh Goyal, Krishnakumar Balasubramanian, Irawati Harshe Mayadev, Anil Charanjeett, Prakash Belawadi, Rahul Vohra
Director: Sudha Kongara
What’s Good: Every element of a mainstream movie is incorporated here without diverting from its core storyline.
What’s Bad: The length could have been curtailed—a bit!
Loo Break: Not during this flight!
Watch or Not?: Definitely
Language: Hindi
Available On: Theatrical release
Runtime: 155 Minutes
User Rating:
The disclaimer during the end-credits states that the film is inspired by multiple stories on aviation, but it is clear that writer Sudha Kongara, who has directed the film as well, has predominantly used Capt. Gopinath’s biography (Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey) as her base, which is also admitted by the makers! The story, whose setting (as in locations) is also modified, is of this crazy (Sarfira) son of a village teacher whose dreams literally touch the sky, as he wants to start India’s first low-cost airline that can make even a humble sweeper fly. Quite obviously, he meets with opposition galore, including from airline magnates, bank officials and people who support the big names in aviation and want to bring him down (pun intended!).
He doughtily goes on, backed by his equally strong-willed and enterprising wife, memories of his late father who would always castigate him for his methods yet firmly believed in his abilities, his mother and his entire village.
Script Analysis
“Ideas don’t make films. Scripts do!” said peak-time Subhash Ghai once. And this film is perhaps the best recent example of this truism. We have had biopics galore in the last decade on screen and web, a bevy of them featuring Akshay Kumar himself (Airlift, Rustom, Toilet—Ek Prem Katha, Pad-Man, Gold, Kesari, Mission Mangal, Selfiee, Mission Raniganj), but not all have connected with the audiences. The same is true of earlier biopics this year.
But Sarfira has everything going for it. Yes, the title (though apt for the main character) could have been much more interesting, but the script (Sudha Kongara and Shalini Ushadevi with dialogues by Pooja Tolani) more than makes up for this. Kongara takes off (!) dramatically with a crash-landing, moves back swiftly to her protagonist, Vir Mhatre (Akshay Kumar), who has rejected innumerable marriage proposals. The strong-willed Rani (Radhikka Madan), who he has also rejected, is determined to see this ‘boy’, as she too has turned down many suitors. The eccentric Vir fascinates her, and soon, Rani and he reach a mutual agreement that they will first attain their professional goals (she wants to start a bakery) and then decide on whether they want to marry.
Rani manages to open her bakery soon, but for Vir, it is a long struggle. Midway, Rani decides to marry him, and he agrees, as by that time, he is earning his living after working hard at exams and joining the Indian Air-Force. But Vir has never forgotten his dream, and everything he does is geared towards it. The path of his undiluted ambition is littered with setbacks, humiliation and demoralizing happenings, but he strides on, bravely taking everything on his chin and moving on. He is egged and supported by his wife and others who believe in him even if they lack the prime requisite Vir needs—money! And his troubles are not over even when his planes finally get off the ground. But, as they say, hard work always pays in the end.
Star Performance
To say that Akshay Kumar is the life and soul of this film may sound like a much-repeated cliché, but it remains a fact. He is simply amazing in the chameleonic manner he transforms with each role (real-life based or fictional) without gimmicks like losing or gaining weight and other major health risks…Oops! I mean changes!
As the mercurial yet impassionate and single-minded Vir, he is so believable and correct that this is decidedly one of the best performances of this year—and of his illustrious career. His unkempt look all through, where we see his priorities and focus do not change despite hurdles aplenty, is brilliantly used as a nuance to boost his struggles. His eyes speak everything—happiness, frustration, love, anger, hurt, hope, despair, amusement and more—and his body language follows suit.
A sterling performance comes from Radhikka Madan as Rani. She is impeccable as the strong woman of substance who is often the despair of her parents but is morally supported by her maternal uncle (Jay Upadhyay, in a low-key but strong performance).
Seema Biswas is pitch-perfect as Vir’s mother, though the role does enter the terrain of old Hindi movies’ long-suffering Sulochana-Durga Khote-Nirupa Roy mothers’ terrain. Paresh Rawal, returning to negative roles, is superb as Paresh Goswami, his character modeled on a real-life magnate.
Ravi Khanvilkar as Vir’s father and R. Sarath Kumar as Vir’s strict coach in the Air Force are both impressive in their relatively brief roles. Great turns also come in from Prakash Belawadi as the finally-slimy businessman who encourages Vir, Rahul Vohra as the government official in cahoots with Paresh Goswami, Krishnaswamy Balasubramaniam and Saurabh Goyal as Vir’s loyal associates and Anil Charanjeett as his village friend.
Direction, Music
Sudha Kongara’s mastery is evident throughout this narrative. Her use of Marathi is commendable in the way she brings in the nuances of the culture, and that is just a small addition to the superlative manner in which she mixes real and reel. Having had the advantage (!) of not watching her multiple National Award-winning original, Soorarai Pottru, I can look at this movie as a new enterprise (which it is in terms of adaptation to the pan-Indian milieu) and come to the logical conclusion that her work is luminous in its excellence.
G.V. Prakash’s compositions (others by Tanishk Bagchi and Sunil Abhyankar) shine in the score, especially “Chaawat” and “Maar udi” and his background score is excellent.
The Last Word
After a long time, we have a biopic that is full of entertaining sequences and not just seriousness. Akshay Kumar has been having a bad patch since 2021’s Sooryavanshi (but for his cameo in OMG 2) and this one deserves to end the dull phase.
Four stars!
