PLOT
Gangaram ( Pankaj Tripathi) is the sarpanch of a small backward village, in the Pilibhit Saga. Gangaram is willing to give his life to protect the villagers. Tripathi’s character intends to be killed by a tiger for his village to receive compensation from the government for Rs 10 lakhs, thus preventing his villagers from going hungry.
REVIEW
Gangaram, the leader of an unremarkable village in a remote area of Uttar Pradesh, is forced to go to extraordinary lengths to improve life for his family as a result of hunger, poverty, and climate extremes. Since all of his other options have failed, Gangaram persuades the villagers to offer himself as food to a hungry tiger. He then urges them to use his remains to file a case for compensation from the government against a scheme.
The film deftly draws attention to how humans have invaded animal habitats. How much more greedy people are than any animal could be, and although there are religious divisions, nature has created everyone more alike than not. The story’s setup took up a significant portion of the film, which makes the proceedings tedious. The arguments the movie tries to make through its dialogues, which are loaded with irony, philosophy, and some political quotations would have been much more clearly understood if it had been shorter. If the writing and editing teams had not started a little too indulgent, they might have been able to do a better job.
The first half of the movie seems slow in comparison to the second half. A more accurate balance might have worked. However, the cinematography and sound design are good. The soundtrack of the movie deserves special attention. Though it hasn’t received much publicity, the movie contains some amazing songs that are original and exquisitely composed.
Here, Pankaj Tripathi saves the movie. He is flawless as Gangaram. Neeraj Kabi as Poacher Jim also gave a good performance and we wish we had seen more of him. The conversations in the jungle reveal so much about the battle between humans and animals, poverty and greed, as well as a few other important topics. These things will make you question why this didn’t begin a bit earlier. Sayani Gupta is capable of sustaining her meager screen time. The supporting actors also performed well with very little to do. Overall, it’s an average film.
RATING
Sherdil deserves 3 out of 5 stars. It appears that Srijit Mukherji had the proper intentions when he began writing this movie. But somewhere meanwhile, he lost track to maintain the script, which has a significant impact on the outcome.
Sherdil – The Pilibhit Saga is an Indian Hindi-language film directed by Srijit Mukherji. It is produced by Reliance Entertainment Studios and T-Series. The film stars Pankaj Tripathi, Neeraj Kabi, and Sayani Gupta in the lead roles. It was released theatrically and now you can see it on Netflix.
