Salman Khan's Sikandar is full of torture and boredom. Rating: 1/5
Film Review: Sikandar - should have been titled "Being Human"
Rating: 1/5
Plus Points: None
My reason for giving the film a one-star rating is to acknowledge the hard work of all the technicians, junior artists, and security guards
Minus Points:
Acting: Zero
Direction: Zero Story
Screenplay, Dialogue: Zero
Music: Zero
Entertainment: Zero
Romance: Zero
Editing: Zero
Box Office: Disaster
Acting
Salman Khan is a major disappointment. He has lost his charm, looks ordinary on screen, and seems to have worked in the film reluctantly.
Reports suggest he made life difficult for the director by repeatedly arriving late. Despite being in the film industry for over 40 years, Salman Khan has only basic knowledge of story and screenplay. He selected garbage in the form of a story. It is high time he switched over to strong character roles.
It's foolish on the part of the makers to pay Salman 120 crore towards his acting fees.
Rashmika Mandanna is miscast. She has no scope to perform and should focus on quality scripts instead of money. Thanks to Salman, her name is now added to the library of flop films.
Kajal Aggarwal, Anjali Dhawan, Sharman Joshi, Satyaraj, and Prateik Babbar all look like junior artists without delivering a single good scene.
Direction
Murugadoss fails to deliver anything fresh. The film is full of outdated drama with no memorable scenes. The film has been cut by over 23 minutes due to poor execution, wasting over ₹50 crore by shooting irrelevant scenes. Shameful!
With six consecutive flops since 2018, it's high time he considers retiring.
Story, Screenplay, and Dialogue:
The story and screenplay are written by the highly overrated director Murugadoss. The film features a boring and torturous story, better suited for an NGO-themed project.
The screenplay is pathetic, failing to deliver even a single entertaining moment. The action sequences feel forced into the drama. The dialogues are too, ordinary and meaningless, with some even picked from the film Deewar.
Story is unrealistic. And who’d like to see raja-maharaja’s in these times?
Action
The action is meaningless, with the hero single-handedly beating up 100 goons, making it feel like a Bhojpuri film. Audiences are fed up with such tasteless South Indian-style action.
Music
Pritam is overrated. In the last 10 years, he has delivered only two or three hit songs. All four songs in the film are forgettable and painful to the ears. Despite being released three weeks ago, none of the songs have gained popularity.
Editing
The original runtime was 2 hours 38 minutes, but the makers cut 23 minutes to reduce the length. Despite this, the 2-hour 15-minute runtime feels torturous and boring.
The makers of Sikandar have delivered seven flops since 2020, including Baaghi 3, Tadap, 83, Bachchan Pandey, Heropanti 2, Satyaprem Ki Katha, and Chandu Champion. Sikandar would be the eighth flop in a row.
The Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor starrer Bawaal, directed by Nitesh Tiwari, struggled to find buyers for a theatrical release, leading to its direct release on OTT.
Box Office Performance
The Salman Khan-led Sikandar gets a MASSIVE release in India!
Pen Marudhar is distributing the film across 5,500+ screens with over 22,000 shows, marking the highest show count ever for a Hindi film.
In spite of Eid week, film is disaster at Box Office.
Advance booking started on Tuesday but was miserable. By Friday, fewer than 1 lakh tickets were sold, generating less than ₹6 crore in revenue. Had it released on Friday, the opening would have been under ₹10 crore.
Even in mass theaters like Gaiety and Galaxy, 60-70% of the seats were empty. Salman Khan fan clubs in Goregaon Movie Time Hub and Gaiety Theatre were giving away free tickets, yet there were no takers.
Ticket prices range from ₹200 to ₹2,500, which is too high for such a weak film due to poor promotion and lack of audience interest after watching the teaser and trailer.
In a city like Mumbai, practically all theaters had an audience of only 5-20 people in the morning shows. This clearly shows that people no longer want to watch Bhaijaan.
The first-day collection is expected to be ₹25-30 crore. However, can Salman Khan match the ₹50-80 crore openings of stars like Prabhas, Yash, Ranbir Kapoor, or Rajkummar Rao? Highly unlikely.
A lifetime collection of ₹300 crore seems impossible.
Final Verdict
Salman Khan's stardom is fading fast after Sikandar. It’s time he chooses roles that suit his age rather than pairing up with heroines half his age.
Regards,
Narendra Gupta
Thankfully atleast we have honest Critics like you who call spade a spade. Well written