Sikandar

Plot synopsis:
Sikandar Raza (Parzan Dastur) is a 14-year-old schoolboy in the Kashmir valley. Ever since his parents were killed by jihadis (from Azad Kashmir) (militants) 10 years ago, he has lived with his aunt and uncle, in a small town called Kupwara in Kashmir valley. All Sikandar’s desires revolve around the happiness of his foster parents and getting the ball into the goal on the football field.
One day, on his way to a school football match, Sikandar finds a gun lying on the path. Despite admonishments by his newly made school friend, 14-year-old Nasreen (Ayesha Kapoor), Sikandar picks up the gun and begins a journey into the darker side of his nature. The quiet-yet-strong Nasreen becomes Sikandar’s conscience keeper. She tries to dissuade him from giving in to the lure of the gun.
Sikandar gets embroiled further and further in situations beyond his control, and people get killed. At first it seems that the happenings occurring alongside Sikandar’s predicament are not connected. But, as layer upon layer is revealed, it becomes clear that Sikandar is the innocent victim in a game being played out between the militants, the army, the peace-bartering politicians and the religious heads of the little Kashmiri town. The pieces of the puzzle come together at the very end, leading to a shocking revelation. The movie is a portrayal of how child psychologies can be moulded, how terrorists are made. "Bholi bhaali rahne do" by Prasoon Joshi wonderfully sums up the movie.

Tags: romantic

Review:
Prithviraj Kapoor & Sohrab Modi magic. A historic epic produced & directed by Sohrab Modi is basically based on faceoff between Alexander the Great & King Puru, whilst Sikander enters Indian subcontinent en route to his journey to conquer the world. Who wins the battle is a question for everyone to find out but the movie is a feat for movie lovers. Everyone knows the story but watch out for two acting power houses, Prithviraj Kapoor & Sohrab Modi, facing each other. First two scenes, featuring both of them together, are sheer magic. You will love their dialogues & dialogue delivery. Watch this movie to find out that Prithviraj Kapoor was the first dashing hero of Indian silver screen. He was not less than a Dilip Kumar, a Dharmendra or a Vinod Khanna or a Salman Khan. He looks amazing.. Indian view on well-known story. As there was no rewiew here, I think it would be good to put some words about this quite unusual movie.First of all - I saw this movie with subtitles, since i couldn't find voiced version. With a rare movies from 'talkies' era like this it's quite common. At some moments i had the feeling that subtitles may be more or less incomplete and did not reveal all details of sophisticated language, but still i found dialogues interesting and the overall story was easy to understand.The movie focuses on indian campaign of Alexander the Great, and depicts it more from indian perspective - meaning at some point we can see Alexander more like invader and king Porus like idealised protector of homeland. From the very beginning we see impressive decorations of palace settings - I was very surprised to see such good depiction of foreign costumes in an indian movie (although in closer look a nimble eye can see fakeness of all greek armors). Visuals are the stongest side of the movie - although camera work isn't so impressive and sometimes diminishes the aestetic effectiveness of scenery. Battle scenes in movie - they are different... Sometimes depiction is nominal and sometimes we can see an elephant charge through infantry made without any special effects - absolutly mindblowing!Although the story is not very complicated, the movie has very slow pace. Some simple dialogue scenes are more several minutes long. Its good to show character's deepest motivations, but in the middle of the film we know motivations of every character quite well - and neverthenless movie has this slow temp to the end.Few words about characters - there is some very distinct and interesting ones. Alexandr is depicted always optimistic and joyful neverlosing young conqueror - pretty realistic in my opinion. Rukhsana is just adorable in her youth and passion. Aristotle showed here very astere and cold but later we see, that there is still humanity beneath logics of the wise. And of course Porus - an idealized near-chakravarti (ideal ruler in buddhism) in this movie, still has a stong bit of charm in his all-about-virtues attitude of mind.What an indian movie without songs? There is some (not too much), and they are pretty lovely, although one song choice still make me scratch my head - a greek soldiers, singing 'Life is all about love' while marching on conquest? That must be some bad translation or maybe here comes that long expected cultural difference?..