Soorma
Introduction
It is raining biopics in Bollywood!! After one of the best biopics, Sanju, which released a couple of weeks back, this week releases Soorma, the biopic of the hockey legend Sandeep Singh aka Flicker Singh. I have been following hockey(and I believe many of you don’t go beyond football and cricket) and I was aware of his story but to put it all on the silver screen would always be an interesting watch. The trailer looked promising, was the movie good too…lets find out.
Story & Screenplay
Soorma is the story of arguably the best drag flicker ever produced by India, Sandeep Singh who made one of the great comebacks ever in world hockey(I won’t tell you from what injury and if you do know then lets keep it a secret, shall we?). The story is quite inspirational. But as in case of biopics, the screenplay is what I was keen to witness. The first half was light and frothy and although good, it did seem a little far fetched. Also it had shades of the Salman Khan starrer, Sultan. But, that soon changed as the twist right before the halfway mark paved way for one of the best second halves of the year!! This is where the content lay and boy did it arrive just in the nick of time!! The dialogues are sharp. The music is outstanding with the title track standing out. Director Shaad Ali who last tasted success 13 years ago(Bunty aur Babli) and who is known to mess up good scripts(Ok Jaanu his last release) just hits the ball out of the park this time. He is in amazing form here!! Full marks to his direction.
Performances
Taapsee Pannu, who after Pink seemed to have lost her way gets back on track with her portrayal as Harpreet. Angad Bedi is endearing as Bikram and shares some of the best moments onscreen with Diljit who is terrific as Sandeep Singh. His drag flicks are almost on par with the man himself. A special mention of Vijay Raaz who gets to mouth some of the best dialogues of the film. All other characters are superbly cast.
Conclusion
All in all, Soorma is another excellent biopic coming from Bollywood and deserves to be watched. About a decade ago, there was a hockey revival with the movie Chak De India. I just hope this movie revives the lost National Sport of India, once again!! Go watch Soorma in a theatre near you and witness Sandeep creating a world record(fastest drag flick ever) all over again!!