Sam Bahadur Review: The biographical war drama stars Vicky Kaushal as Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, Sanya Malhotra as Siloo Manekshaw, Fatima Sana Shaikh as Indira Gandhi, Neeraj Kabi as Jawaharlal Nehru, Govind Namdev as Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub as Yahya Khan, and others. The Hindi movie is based on Sam Manekshaw, India’s first field marshal. The film is directed by Meghna Gulzar.
The story is penned by Meghna, along with Bhavani Iyer and Shantanu Shrivastava. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy has composed the songs, and the background score is by Ketan Sodha. The cinematography is by Jay I. Patel, and the editing is done by Nitin Baid. The runtime of Sam Bahadur is 150 minutes.
Sam Bahadur Review: Plot Summary
Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur traces Sam Manekshaw’s journey from 1933, from being a trainee in the army to his promotion as India’s First Field Marshal. The movie focuses on his contribution to being a part of the army, leading different platoons, and his contribution during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War and beyond.
The December movie mania begins as some of the promising releases are happening in the coming month. I was eagerly waiting for Sam Bahadur, as I am an admirer of Meghna’s filmmaking and the way she brings characters from books or true stories to life on screen with her direction. I had the same hopes for her latest directorial. Sadly, the film turns out to be her weakest.
Sam Bahadur Trailer
The movie focuses on various war occurrences in which Sam made key contributions, saved lives, took bullets, and led the army. Some of these major wars include the World War II fight against the Japanese, the post-independence disruption due to the India-Pakistan division, and, of course, the 1971 war. The story starts with a flashback showing us Sam’s journey from his training days to his growth as a smart and fierce soldier.
Considering the title of the movie and the fact that it’s a biography, you hope to get to know Sam Manekshaw as a person. However, the film focuses so much on the various battles of Indian history that the war aspects dominate Sam’s essence. As the timeline keeps shifting, new characters enter the frame. Even though Sam is the only constant in these chronologies, the conflicts always overpower him as a person. The focus is more on how these wars were fought, instead of giving us an in-depth idea of who he truly was!
Even other characters, like former PM Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi, don’t have a deeper impact in any sense. The screenplay doesn’t give us anything solid to keep us interested in Sam’s personality. The contorted war narrative gets repetitive. The multiple and random time jumps are a challenge to follow. If it weren’t for the hair and make-up of the characters, you wouldn’t even know that the story has now changed its timeline to years later.
The overuse of footage from several major wars takes away the chance of such key events creating an impact on the narrative. The fight sequence in the Sam Bahadur movie is mainly captured with the Badhte Chalo song in the background. It was a loud scene, and I wonder, when did Meghna Gulzar become a director who brings so much noise to the screen?
In terms of performance, Vicky Kaushal looks striking and confident in every frame. He’s tall, his eyes are dense, and he has completely submerged himself in the physicality of Sam Manekshaw. He has given his heart and soul to displaying a war hero who’s respected by many, and you can see the admiration growing in every scene. Yet, at times, it looked like Vicky was trying to speak like Sam instead of being Sam. Some dialogues were inaudible, not just by him but by several other characters. Fatima and Neeraj played prominent figures from India’s history and politics, yet they failed to captivate you with their performances.
Sanya is as natural as Siloo; however, I wish we had more of Sam and Siloo’s love story. It would help us understand him better as a human, along with just being a war hero. Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, as Yahya Khan, was one of the weakest characters in the movie. The make-up department did such a great job of making Vicky resemble Sam. But Zeeshan’s prosthetic was visible in every frame. The actor is finely talented, but he struggled to speak, mainly because of the odd make-up.
Sam Bahadur Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, Vicky Kaushal’s hard work is clearly visible in every frame. However, the writers did very little to make him stand out. The story didn’t have a head and tail, as you just have to accept what’s happening on screen. Sam Bahadur is Meghna Gulzar’s weakest film, mainly because of how scattered the narrative was. It felt like the writers had too much information, and they didn’t know how to fit everything in 150 minutes. So they jumped from one timeline to another, yet the viewing experience was tiresome.
The movie is releasing in theatres on December 1, 2023.
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