Sarfira Review - Akshay Kumar Tries Hard To Lift A Subpar Remake

Sarfira Review Movie Talkies

Sarfira Review: Aviation films were really fun back in the 1930s and 1940s, when superstars like Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, and others used to do biopics or movies based on World War (I and II). The airplanes, war sequences, and emotional drama looked best then because the aerial stuff was so new. The trend changed over the years, and we never got such heart pumping dramas again. Cut-to: Soorarai Pottru (2020) actually came as a big surprise classic in the peak period of the pandemic and left everyone stunned with several aspects such as story, screenplay, acting, and direction. No complaints on why it won several national awards. The success really reached many corners of the country, and thanks to the pandemic habit of the audience, it made a Tamil film a national film. Of course, that's how Sarfira makers were driven to it. Fans and productions can deny the claims for their own pleasure, but the fact is that neutral audiences just hate remakes/adaptations nowadays unless you actually make it a pan-India thing like Salaar by providing a new twist in the climax. Even that film isn't a huge hit, which it should have been. Sarfira is neither grand nor front-loaded, and I don't need to tell you how the drama genre has fallen in the post-pandemic period. Sarfira could have been better and might have felt much better if it wasn't a remake of an acclaimed film like Soorarai Pottru. Some films just set standards that are hard to match, even if you copy them frame-to-frame. Sudha Kongara did exactly that with a few honest attempts by the cast and some miscast portions, but forgot to add the "FEEL." That's exactly what Sarfira lacks—THE FEEL.Based on the life of Captain Gopinath, who brought a revolution with his low-cost ticket rates in the aviation industry, Sarfira's story is translated into Marathi ghetto from Tamil. The first scene in the Tamil flick sees the hero dancing madly in the funeral ride, which is actually a tradition in that culture. Sarfira just copied and pasted that, but forgot that Marathi culture doesn't have any such rituals. (P.S. Please correct me if I am wrong, and I will remove this line.) Anyways, Veer Mhatre (Akshay Kumar) has resigned from the Air Force and wants to start a revolutionary business by bringing low-cost aviation to the middle class, who have grown up believing that they can't "fly." He meets Rani (Radhika Madan), a Marathi mulgi with the idea of setting up her own bakery, and they get married despite their age gap. Veer shares his business proposal with Paresh Goswami (Paresh Rawal), who owns the biggest airlines in India. However, arrogant Paresh denies his proposal, and there begins a war of egos and dreams between these two. Will Veer be able to make it?Shalini and Sudha have transferred the story to Maharashtra, but there are no other changes in the film except for Suriya's cameo and a few frames differing from the original one. Rest; it's a frame to frame Ramake. That was a tough call, I guess. Because in today's time, if you copy the original frame to frame, people call it a copy-paste, and if you make some changes, people say, Why the hell did you spoil the original material? That's how difficult remakes are today, and that's why you shouldn't do it. It's not that Bollywood, Hollywood, or any other cinema industry in India hasn't made remakes; it's just that the time has changed now. OTT has filled that gap between the original film and its local-language remake. Remakes are being made right from Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, and Amitabh Bachchan's times, but that time was different. It was fine until last decade, but now it's a warning of "game over" even before you start playing the game.Sarfira struggles a lot in the first half, and you actually lose half of your interest there. Thankfully, the second half is better, and the climax really works on a high level to come as a saving grace. The songs have made the film lengthy because the numbers are too mediocre and have no "watch-me" or "listen-to-me" value. Sarfira also lacks the production value and color grading that's been expected here, and the locations don't really live up to the mood of the scenes. On the positive side, the emotional climax will move you for a while, and seeing the efforts of Captain Gopinath get their due really takes you into a sentimental zone.Akshay Kumar has been missing out on character-driven and dramatic roles recently, and whatever he got wasn't really good. Sarfira gave him that opportunity, and he has done a decent job. Decent because the first half doesn't live up to the build-up, be it the character or the drama, but he picks up in the second half. Watch out for the climax; it's been years since I have seen Akki like this. If comparisons are to be made, then definitely Suriya was much better. Radhika Madan seemed like a big miscast to me from the beginning, and the film proved me right. I mean, I just can't accept Radhika replacing or creating someone like Aparna Balamurali. Aparna actually looked like a village girl, and Radhika is more like a convent college girl wearing a saree. She is too gorgeous for that role. Thanks to the humor and that bindass attitude, which added a fine layer to her character. Paresh Rawal has done well, but I couldn't get over those copy-pasted frames. Seema Biswas, Saurabh Goyal, Krishnakumar Balasubramanian, Prakash Belawadi, Iravati Harshe, and others were good in their roles.Sarfira's biggest misfire is the music. You just can't understand why it's there, or you might feel that it's there because Soorarai Pottru has all those situations. My message to the editor: just remove all those songs and see how sharp your film becomes. The cinematography of Niketh Bommireddy was fine, the background score by GV Prakash Kumar was decent, and the sound design was unnecessarily dramatic and loud. Sudha directed the original, and it seems like she reshot the same film again in a different language, minus the gripping connect Soorarai had. She could have tried to recreate the scenes in a different style, but no. Playing safe is a new funda. As a whole, Sarfira is a decent watchable film for freshers, but a subpar remake for those who have loved Soorarai Pottru. Choose your side.