MOVIE REVIEW | 'SIKANDAR'

MOVIE REVIEW | 'SIKANDAR'

By RACHEL SALTZ
Published: August 21, 2009

“Sikandar,” a boy-meets-gun film set in Kashmir, wants to make a statement about hatred and cycles of violence. But this odd, unsuccessful movie, written and directed by Piyush Jha, is too rigged to have any broader implications about the bloody standoff in Kashmir between militants and the Indian Army.

Sikandar (Parzaan Dastur) is a 14-year-old Muslim boy whose parents were killed by jihadis. He lives with his aunt and uncle in a small Kashmiri town, dodging bullies on the soccer field and making eyes at Nasreen (Ayesha Kapoor), a beautiful schoolmate. One fine day he stumbles upon a gun, at which point his life spirals out of control and Mr. Jha’s film becomes increasingly improbable.

Sikandar can’t stop pulling out his gun and using it to threaten people. Lo and behold, this leads to trouble.

Ms. Kapoor is a fine actress who can convey volumes with her eyes. And her character has the movie’s one great idea: she camouflages Sikandar in her spare burqa when the police are chasing him. But she can’t save the film. There’s too much baffling behavior and too many coincidences. That makes the final surprise a head-scratcher rather than a thought-provoker.

SIKANDAR

Opens on Friday in Manhattan, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, and North Bergen and North Brunswick, N.J.

Written and directed by Piyush Jha; director of photography, Somak Mukherjee; edited by Dev Jadhav; produced by Sudhir Mishra; released by Big Pictures. In Manhattan at Big Manhattan, 239 East 59th Street. In Hindi and Urdu, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 50 minutes. This film is not rated.

WITH: Parzaan Dastur (Sikandar Raza), Ayesha Kapoor (Nasreen), R. Madhavan (Rajesh Rao), Sanjay Suri (Mukhtaar Mattoo) and Arunoday Singh (Sahgeer Quadir).




via:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/movies/21sikandar.html?ref=movies