Review of Striker

On the whole, Striker looks like a film made for the people of Malwani (a ghetto in a suburb of Bombay) and even if they give the film the thumbs up, it will be far from enough because at other places, the film will fail to strike a chord with the masses or the classes.
Studio 18 and Makefilm’s Striker (A) is the story of a poor boy, Surya­kant Sarang (Siddharth), who lives in Malwani ghetto of Bombay, which is known for communal harmony. As a child, he had learnt to play carrom from his elder brother, Chand­rakant (Anup Soni). He had even won the Junior Carrom championship but had left behind the game to make it big in life. Chandra­kant had had a fight with the local bully, Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi), when he (Chandrakant) was still a young boy because he had lost Rs. 2,000 to Jaleel in a game of carrom, which, obviously, he could not pay.
Suryakant applies for a job in Dubai but is fleeced of his family’s hard-earned money, by the employment agency which shuts down. He learns that the man responsible for the agency going bust is Jaleel. Suryakant, seething with anger, swears reven­ge against Jaleel who, instead,  makes him play carrom for him as he bets on carrom players.

Slowly but surely, Suryakant keeps winning for Jaleel who, by now, has be­come a local don inciting communal tension and riots. Surya­kant’s very close Muslim friend, Zaid Khan (Ankur Vikal), also works for Jaleel but he invites the latter’s wrath one day after he complains against him (Jaleel) to the police. Jaleel sends his goons to kill Zaid but police officer Farooq’s (Anupam Kher) timely intervention saves him. However, Zaid finally succumbs to his inju­ries. Suryakant swears rev­enge on Jaleel. He also has another score to settle with Jaleel: the don’s men had rob­bed Surya­kant’s hand bag containing jewellery which he had to deli­ver in the course of his job as an angadia. Worse still, the communal riots orchestrated by Jaleel have led to the murder of Suryakant’s sister, Devika (Vidya Malavde), and her husband. Surya­kant ultimately finishes off Jaleel even as police inspector Farooq tries to restore peace.

The story, researched and pen­ned by Sunita Rajawar and Iqbal Merchant, is not new except for the game of carrom. But this novelty factor won’t appeal to the audience because carrom is not such a popular sport in India. Also, using the game for illegal activities like betting is quite an alien concept for the audience. The screenplay writers – Sunita Raja­war and Chandan Arora – have woven an exhaustive screenplay around the routine revenge story, but the screenplay, again, is far from novel. Also, probably, since the writers have tried to pack in too much, they’ve left some things unsaid. For ins­tance, it is not clear why Jaleel starts a communal riot and whether this is his first. The film covers a time span from the late 1970s to the early 1990s and rather than narrating the story in a linear fashion, the writers and the director have chosen to go back into flashbacks at irregular intervals.

While this going back and forth adds nothing to the drama in terms of impact, it definitely comes in the way of comprehension of the proceedings by the viewers. As the story progresses, the viewer realises that there is so much of carrom in it that it irritates him. No doubt, the ambience and milieu of Malwani are perfectly creat­ed and the characters look very real, but that’s only one aspect. Other than that, the routine drama fails to help Suryakant make a place for himself in the audience’s hearts. For, he himself resorts to illegal activities to make a fast buck and that is only for his personal gain, not to help society or the downtrodden or the like. Dialogues (Sagar Kapoor, Sanjay Maurya and Pankaj Saraswat) are very well-written.

Siddharth acts with a whole lot of conviction and does an excellent job as Suryakant. He is very natural. Padampriya is good in her debut role in Hindi films but she hardly gets any scope. Ankur Vikal does a fine job and looks the character of Zaid Khan. Aditya Pancholi shines as Jaleel. He gets into the skin of the character and does full justice to it. Anupam Kher plays his part ably. Vidya Malavde is wonderfully natural and endearing. Anup Soni also leaves a good impression. Seema Biswas gets limited scope but is first-rate. Rajendra Gupta is good in the little he has to do. Nicolette Bird has an inconsequential role. The rest of the artistes lend able support.

Chandan Arora’s direction is quite nice except that the narrative style is confusing at times. He has successfully created the Malwani ambience and extracted good work out of his cast members. His choice of script, however, is of the kind which would find favour with a very thin minority of the audience. Songs (music scored by Shailendra Barve, Amit Trivedi, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Swanand Kirkire, Vishal Bhardwaj and Blaaze) may go well with the mood of the film and may be good but they are not popular. Background music (Shri) is effective. P.S. Vinod’s camerawork is splendid. Edit­ing (Sajit Unnikrish­nan) should have been crisper.

On the whole, Striker looks like a film made for the people of Malwani (a ghetto in a suburb of Bombay) and even if they give the film the thumbs up, it will be far from enough because at other places, the film will fail to strike a chord with the masses or the classes. In fact, completing even a week’s run will be an uphill task for the film. Disaster.

Released on 5-2-’10 at New Ex­celsior (daily 2 shows), Liberty (daily 1 show) and 40 other cinemas of Bombay by Studio 18. Publicity: weak. Opening: very poor. …….Also released all over except in Orissa. Opening was horrifyingly pathetic everywhere. Shows had to be cancelled at some cinemas due to lack of audience!

Issue dated Feb 7 – 13, 2010

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