Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar

Dibakar Banerjee's direction is not upto the mark. The filmmaker has made some fine films in the past and he knows his craft. But here, he just doesn’t seem to be in form. His genius streak shines only in a few scenes like the long-drawn opening scene, shot in one take beautifully, or where Sandeep breaks down in the first half. But in most parts of the film, he falters. The first half is bearable and one expects fireworks in the second half. However, the second half is flawed and needlessly stretched. One fails to understand what’s happening at several places. This also occurs because the sound mixing is horrible. Several dialogues are inaudible. It’s shocking why the reputed makers would release a film with bad sound.

‘Sandeep and Pinky Faraar’ is one of those neo-noir films that set out with a promise to engage, entertain and educate by slowly unraveling its layered subtext. But with its preposterous execution and frustratingly slow pace, it’s the audience who might want to escape, much before Sandeep and Pinky.

The stars’ need to shine becomes a bit of a problem: Kapoor, who is indistinct to the point of unintelligible when the film begins (even when I strained to hear, I couldn’t make out a lot of what he was saying), gets a break-out sequence or two but manages to keep himself tamped down. It works for his buttoned-up, surly Pinky who lectures Sandeep about her privilege. It is Ms Chopra’s occasional calling attention to her ‘acting’, with the script generously allowing her time to do so, that jars. But still, I was happy watching Sandeep and Pinky’s shenanigans, co-written by Banerji and Varun Grover. This is a film that comes from a trenchant world-view which looks at issues beyond the obvious and the trite. A world that can be savage yet shot through with unexpected warmth and understanding, where scowls and smiles are part of the whole.

The lead actors have their limitations and that gets exposed when Neena Gupta and Raghubir Yadav come on screen. Playing a good-natured, middle-aged couple, they are so fabulous that they make us forget all about the two runaway characters. One instead wishes to linger on and stay with them. And then just like that the film seems in a hurry to tie loose ends and the end appears like a hurriedly put together set up completely at odds with the unforced storytelling so far. Somewhere Pinky and Sandeep are unable to evoke the requisite emotional play-off necessary to keep us invested. Dibakar Banerjee conjures a world that sure is tantalising. However, the unhurried pace might prove to be too slow for comfort for many.

It's disappointing as is Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar's confused focus and stiff disposition. There is not as much running around to make it a road movie. The whistle blowing on bank frauds is cursory. The running rot of the system isn't too deeply dwelt upon. We get a sense of Pinky's disenchantment but never quite the cause of it. Mostly though, it is the clinical response to Sandeep's horrifying agony that left me perplexed to the core. If Banerjee's gruesome obsession with her suffering is supposed to make us see a deeper meaning into it, he has picked the wrong actor. To be fair, Parineeti talks numbers very well.