Paan Singh Tomar review
Paan Singh Tomar - Movie Review - Irrfan Khan, Mahie
Paan Singh Tomar - Movie Review - Irrfan Khan, Mahie
| Sonia Chopra | |
Chambal - a region one instantly associates with dacoits and old Bollywood baddies. Circa 1950: Our central character Paan Singh Tomar comes from there, and is in the army. When his superior asks him if his relatives are dacoits, he answers "daku nahin, baaghi [rebel] hai," also adding with an unflinching pride that the police was never able to catch them. But Paan Singh has no intentions of roaming the jungles with a gun. He is focused on just one thing - eating.  When rudely asked to cut back on his lunch, Paan Singh decides to switch to the sports department for the no-limit food ration. That he runs like the wind is an added advantage. His officers are spell-bound by the spectacle of him winning a race. It is almost never without drama.How then does this gold-medallist sportsperson turn into a feared dacoit forms the rest of the story. Was it an inevitable path for Tomar who considered a race a war, and can this dreaded dacoit really take the sport out of him? Irrfan Khan alone makes it worth seeing the film several times over. Imposing, intense and vulnerable at once, you feel for this character and root for him despite his murderous ways. The film angers you at the system that won’t respect a national champion; that puts a gun in the hand that once showed off a trophy. Actors playing the peripheral characters give masterful performances. As the nervous journalist, Brijendra Kala is a class act. Mahie Gill is dependably superb. And Tigmanshu Dhulia (Haasil, Shagird, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster) remains one of the most underrated directors in the industry. He blends in the stark tale with bits of delicious humour surprising the viewer ever so often. One can tell that Dhulia's talent is just biding its time, with huge success waiting just around the corner. | |
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