Sarfira movie review: Akshay Kumar soars in this inspirational, moving biopic

Sarfira movie review: Inspirational stories of grit and determination have been a favourite trope for our filmmakers, more so when they’re inspired by true events or based on someone’s life.

They instantly strike an emotional chord. Akshay Kumar’s Sarfira is a testament to the fact that when you have a good story at hand, even if it’s a remake, there’s a lot you can do to present it to a different set of audience in a whole new setting.

Directed by Sudha Kongara, who also helmed the Tamil original Soorarai Pottru (2020) starring Suriya, Sarfira, an adaptation of GR Gopinath’s memoir Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, is beyond just being a rags-to-riches story. It talks about resilience, and how when one decides to stand against the system and fight all odds, there’s no stopping them. Though there have been way too many films on people chasing unachievable dreams, Sarfira stands out in its treatment and execution, and definitely for the consistency in its script. There’s just right amount of every emotion it plays with and it doesn’t get stuck in it for long. You experience happiness and sadness, and the next moment, there’s a sense of pride in seeing the events unfold in the manner they do.

Sarfira follows the story of Vir Jagannath Mhatre (Akshay Kumar), a middle-class guy hailing from a small village in Maharashtra, who harbours the big dream of launching a low-cost airline to break cost and caste barriers. Against the non-violence principles of his teacher-father, who he calls a coward, Vir believes that one has to take charge to bring about a change and end the tyranny. Though both father and the son are visionaries in their own ways, their conflicting beliefs about hooliganism and revolution form the core of this story.

After an argument, Vir leaves home to join the Indian Air Force and soon leaves that too, along with two of his batchmates, to fructify his dream. He pitches his idea to aviation tycoon Paresh Goswami (Paresh Rawal), who not only ridicules him, but ends up becoming his arch nemesis. Each time Vir’s dream to launch his airline (which he refers to as udta hua Udupi hotel), is about to see the light of the day, he encounters corruption, power play, red tapeism, betrayal, and class divide. How he overcomes all the challenges despite failing multiple times is what Sarfira keeps us hooked on.

Back home, Vir has a supportive wife in Rani (Radhikka Madan), who is equally ambitious and wants to run her successful bakery business. This shared passion of doing something they love and not conforming to societal norms brings the two together. And they have some endearing moments together. For once, the age gap between Kumar and Madan might raise the usual question, but I liked how the story very smartly establishes the fact in the very beginning itself that why Vir is still single at his age and how Rani, after 20 rejections, finds a suitable partner in him.

Kongara’s story makes you clap and cry at the same time and you feel for each character from the word go. Throughout its runtime, the film highlights and celebrates Vir’s journey of perseverance and strength to battle all obstacles. It gets a bit repetitive in between, but there’s enough to draw you back into the actual story at hand. Pooja Tolani’s dialogues are nothing over-the-top, yet they make you emotional and have a tinge of humour peppered here and there, which organically flows in conversations. The screenplay that Kongara has co-written with Shalini Ushadevi gets a bit complicated at times, especially when it switches between various timelines – Vir’s young days, his struggle with father, his marriage proposal, courtship with Rani, and back to present day. The constant flashbacks tend to confuse you but fortunately, Akshay’s changing looks make it slightly easier for us to understand which sequence he and the story are referring to.

There has been quite some time we saw this vulnerable side of the actor on the big screen. Though Mission Raniganj (again a biopic) and Raksha Bandhan showed him bring that side out, but the way Sarfira presents him looks like a gamechanger. There’s rawness, conviction and sincerity in his portrayal and he doesn’t let you blink an eye each time he is in the frame. The portions, where he is training at the air force camp, look physically taxing, and at 56, he is acing it like nobody’s business.

There are quite a few scenes featuring him that totally left me awestruck. The one where is asking people at the airport to loan him some money so he can go back home to meet his ailing father, or when he asks his wife to lend him ₹15,000 so he can close a deal, with a promise that he would return it soon, are heartbreaking, and performed so beautifully.

Completing him well, Madan is in her element quite well. Feisty and fiery, she brings her spunk and charm to her character. A bit loud sometimes, she still manages to deliver an impressive performance and hold her ground alongside a star like Kumar. Rawal as the evidently painted villain sadly fails to evoke any emotion that stays with you. He is the least impactful of all, and even the supporting cast manages to rise above his average performance. I wished to see more of his face-off with Kumar on screen. Alas, beyond his OCD of sanitising his hands each time Vir touches him, we don’t see the real side of his eccentricities. Prakash Belawadi, Seema Biswas, R. Sarathkumar and Anil Charanjeett have some heartwarming scenes, even though you often feel they very conveniently enter and disappear from the story.

India and China will be followed in the population rankings in 2100 by Pakistan (511 million), Nigeria (477 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (431 million), and the US (421 million), with the last being one of the 62 countries in the world where immigration rather than excess of births over deaths or increase in life expectancy is expected to be the major driver of population growth, according to the biennial World Population Prospects (WPP), released by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) Population Division. The US’s current population is 345 million.