PS Mithran’s ‘Sardar’, with Karthi and Raashi Khanna, is an engaging spy thriller that sticks close to the genre

Spoilers ahead…

PS Mithran may have developed a new genre: ShankarWood. Like the director Shankar, he takes an issue and makes it the basis for a Hollywood-style, hero-centric action movie. In Irumbu Thirai, the issue was cybercrime. In Hero, the issue was education / intellectual theft. In his new Karthi-starrer, Sardar, the issue is that of putting a price on water. The villain wants to control all the drinking-water supply in India, by bottling the water and selling it. But the real danger may be from the plastic bottles. The second half of “ShankarWood” comes from Hollywood. Unlike Shankar, whose sensibility is quite Indian, Mithran seems to be like Lokesh Kanagaraj: a lover of Hollywood genre cinema. Sardar is not without Indian-isms – say, a couple of needless duets. But Mithran is smart enough to intercut them with other actions. So the songs don’t exactly become speed breakers.

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https://www.galatta.com/tamil/movie/review/sardar/

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