Rating: 2/5

Siddharth’s new film ‘Striker’ has hit the theatres with great expectations. Let’s take a review about the film.

Casting:

Cast: Siddharth, Aditya Pancholi,

Others - Anupam Kher, Padmapriya, Nicollete Bird
Director: Chandan Arora
Producer: Chandan Arora
Music: Shailendra Barve, Amit Trivedi, Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography: P S Vinod

Story:

Striker is a film in the backdrop of Malwani slums of Mumbai during 1980. Surya (Siddharth) hails from a poor family and turns a carom champion at 12, after being deceived for a job in Dubai. He’s then falls in Zaid’s (Ankur Vikal) company his childhood friend, who in turn introduces to Jaleel (Aditya Pancholi) and frequents his carom club. Incidentally, Jaleel is also a gangster of Malwani carrying illegal businesses.

Amidst this, Noorie (Nicolette Bird) becomes Surya’s neighbor and cheers up his life. And Surya decides to lock horns with Jaleel in his own backyard. Striker’ also has some sequences pertaining to December 6, 1992 Babri Masjid demolishing. The story subsequently explains how through the excruciating pain of frightful survival, Surya discovers himself.

Performances:

Siddharth, as expected is exceptional as Surya and we all know that he did lot ground work for this character. But he doesn’t sport a slum or massy look, no matter what’s his attires are, but he covered it up well with his performance.

Aditya Pancholi looks too good to sport a poisonous villain and he needs to be commended for his spirited performance as the gang leader. Albeit has gone past his prime. He’s done a great job. Anupam Kher is seen in a sublime role as Inspector.

Nicollete Bird is looking very good; Ankur Vikal looks like a typical Mumbai Tapori, but could have done better. Padma Priya is dusky and is alright her small roles. Vidya Malvade and Seema Biswas were pretty convincing. Anoop Soni and Noorie have done pretty well.

Analysis:
The film gives the impression as if it was shot in misty conditions. Perhaps to resemble the mafia meeting rooms. The dialogues are pathetic many a times to the extent that it can make you recoil. The film is utterly baffling at some stage. And the rape scene gives you the goose bumps. Every now and then, you might just get the feeling that scenes are being dragged and taking time.

The casting has been pretty alright, but a technician of Chandan Arora’s caliber could have done really better, particularly in script. But he has proved his desire to make different cinema with his earlier. And this is not a good follow up for Siddharth after his ‘Rang De Basanti’.

The first half is so so, but the second half is a touch vicious and insistent. Audience might lose interest as the script hops without any links. The completely loses grip on entertainment and thus it might cater to selective category.