Memories of the Partition collide with viral videos on relocating massive structures in the Netflix drama Sardar Ka Grandson. Kaashvie Nair’s film debut centres on an ailing 90-year-old Amritsar woman and her grandson’s attempts to fulfil her greatest desire. Her desire is to return to the Lahore home she fled during the 1947 unrest. Sardar (Neena Gupta), a woman from India, is unable to travel to Pakistan. Since Sardar is unable to travel to her Lahore house, Amreek (Arjun Kapoor) promises to bring them home to her.
It also helps that Amreek used to own and operate a transportation and logistics business in Los Angeles. He’s had a falling out with his business partner and fiancee Radha (Rakul Preet Singh). It is just one of the many plot twists that help stretch a one-note concept into a 140-minute feature. The film also serves as a coming-of-age tale for Amreek, who is as similar as an overgrown teenager who can’t keep his promises.
Amreek is, on the whole, more mature than the rest of his family. This makes Arjun Kapoor the most notable member of the ensemble cast. Amreek’s parents (Kanwaljeet Singh and Soni Razdan), as well as his extended family, flail about aimlessly at all times. Sardar, his beloved, is the manifestation of the sassy, whisky-obsessed grandmother who appears in so many movies. However, despite make-up to bolster her case, she doesn’t make for a very credible nonagenarian.
Moving an actual house was a treat to watch!
The Pakistanis, ranging from a grumpy mayor to a precocious boy who becomes Amreek’s greatest ally, are no better. The Indo-Pakistani friendship spreads to their states, propelling Nair and Chauhan’s screenplay even further into fairy-tale territory.
The actual relocation of Sardar’s two-story home, which should have been the focus of the film. That is more rushedly portrayed with simple visual effects. All of Amreek’s efforts are based on his fish-out-of-water antics in Lahore and Sardar’s antics at home. Radha appears at the perfect time to assist Amreek in relocating a piece of Lahori heritage to Amritsar.
Sardar’s house is with a Muslim man who moves to Pakistan after selling his home in India. The cultural meaning of this forced uprooting, as well as the sensitive issue of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims moving into abandoned houses after Partition. Sardar Ka Grandson have a great comedy with a backside as big as a truck and a volume loud enough to be heard across the border.
Checkout more series and movies coming on Netflix India in May 2021.
