Turbulent times Film: Sarfira Cast: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal Directed by: Sudha Kongara Duration: 2 hours 25 minutes Rating: * * It is not often that you see a director remake their own film but that is what Sudha Kongara has done. Sarfira is a remake of Soorarai Pottru (2020) which I didn’t think too highly of, but it bagged a handful of National awards including Best Feature Film. The Tamil film itself was based on the life and memoirs of G.
R. Gopinath, the founder of Air Deccan, which was India’s first low-cost airline. This is again a story of an underdog who fought against the odds but instead of keeping it nice and simple, Kongara once again steps on the peddle of melodrama and paints everything in black and white.
This film is so over the top that perhaps even an Air Deccan plane didn’t fly so high. Usually, any worthy biopic has in-built drama, it is up to the writer and director as to how they put it across. Sadly, our biopics are plastered with overtly dramatic scenes which takes away the essence of what they want to convey.
Akshay Kumar with Afro hair plays Vir Mhatre, who was once a pilot in the Air Force. Now he lives in a village and wants to start his own airline – the actor is 56 and so the long hair is supposed to make him look young, since he is tending to an arranged marriage proposal from a feisty young girl Rani (Radhika Madan) who has her own ambitions of starting a bakery. Many biopics tend to focus on the personal and professio.
