Review: ‘Sikandar’ (2025), starring Salman Khan, Rashmika Mandanna, Sathyaraj and Kajal Aggarwal

April 5, 2025

by Carla Hay

Salman Khan in “Sikandar” (Photo courtesy of FunAsia Films)

“Sikandar” (2025)

Hindi with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Indian cities of Rajkot and Mumbai, the action film “Sikandar” features an all-Asian group of people representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A rich vigilante is targeted for revenge by a wealthy politician while the vigilante travels around Mumbai to meet he people who received organ donations from the vigilante’s deceased wife.

Culture Audience: “Sikandar” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and don’t mind watching overly long and stupid action movies.

Sathyaraj in “Sikandar” (Photo courtesy of FunAsia Films)

The horrible action movie “Sikandar” can’t decide if it wants to be a revenge rampage flick or a feel-good drama about organ donations. Everything about this atrociously acted and long-winded abomination is obnoxiously stupid. This is the type of junkpile film that doesn’t even try to have a good story, while the over-the-top action scenes are actually quite boring in their lack of imagination.

Written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss, “Sikandar” is a 135-minute jumble of incoherence in what this movie is trying to convey. The movie (which takes place mostly in the Indian cities of Rajkot and Mumbai) has an identity that is just a confused as the movie’s characters who have multiple names. The “hero” of the story is Sanjay “Sikandar” Rajkot (played by Salman Khan), also known as the King of Rajkot, who is described as “a king with vast empires.”

Sikandar lives in an opulent mansion with his wife Saisri Rajkot (played by Rashmika Mandanna), also known as Rani Saidha, who is a painter artist. “Sikandar” wastes some time on shallow flashback scenes of what the relationship between Sikandar and Saisri was like before they got married. Expect to see multiple scenes of Sikandar and Saisri on courtship dates where they have mindless conversations as they flirt with each other.

Saisri is a loving and devoted wife, but she is frustrated that Sikandar is a workaholic who often seems preoccupied by things he won’t discuss with her. Sikandar isn’t actually seen doing working at a real job. The movie just shows him as a wealthy guy who likes to go around assaulting people whom he thinks deserves to be assaulted.

Saisri says to Sikandar that he has given her everything but his time. There are plenty of scenes of Sikandar spending time with Saisri. Sometimes he pays attention to her in a loving way, and other times his mind seems to be somewhere else. Another strain in their marriage is that Saisri hasn’t been able to get pregnant for years.

“Sikandar” begins with a bizarre and ridiculous scene taking place on an airplane that’s in flight. A woman named Monica (played by Neha Iyer) is traveling with her son Dhruvit (played by Dhruvit Pethadia), who’s about 6 or 7 years old. The plane doesn’t seem to have many passengers, so Dhruvit is able to sit in an empty seat across the aisle from Monica.

A creep named Arjun Pradhan (played by Prateik Smita Patil, also known as Prateik Babbar) suddenly sits down next to Monica and shows her a porn video that she made years ago when she was a porn actress, before she was married. Monica’s husband doesn’t know about her porn past. Arjun says he will show the video to Dhruvik if Monica doesn’t let Arjun have his way sexually with her, right then and there.

Arjun points to two of his bodyguards who are seated nearby and warns Monica not to say or do anything, or else his bodyguards will hurt her. A terrified Monica lets Arjun cover himself and Monica with a blanket. Just as Arjun is about to sexually assault her, Sikandar bursts into this part of the plane, gets into fight with Arjun and the bodyguards, and easily defeats them.

This fight scene is badly staged. Sikandar just came from another section in the plane. How did he see what was happening and know when to start attacking these criminals? Don’t expect an answer to that question. And during his entire bloody and violent fight, the airplane employees are nowhere to be seen until after Sikandar defeats these criminals.

Arjun and his cronies are arrested, which is a humiliating scandal because Arjun comes from a prominent family. He is the only child of Minister Rakesh Pradhan (played by Sathyaraj), who vows to get revenge on Sikandar. Rakesh bribes the corrupt Inspector Prakash (played by Kishore Kumar G.) to have police go to Sikandar’s mansion to arrest Sikandar.

When the police get there, Saisri tells them that Sikandar has left to turn himself in at the police station because he heard he was going to be arrested. It makes absolutely no sense, but that’s an example of how bad this movie is. And the movie gets worse as it continues on a downward spiral of idiocy.

Sikandar is very popular with the “common people” because he’s a charitable royal, so a mob of people gather outside his mansion to protest against the police who were there to arrest Sikandar. The mob goes as far as committing vandalism on the police cars parked outside. Rakesh wants to ends this civil unrest because it will affect his chances of getting re-elected, so he reluctantly lets Sikandar get released from police custody and says that Sikandar was “saved by the mob.”

The feud is reignited when Arjun is at his lavish birthday party and he finds out that an unknown person videorecorded his attempted sexual assault of Monica and uploaded the video on the Internet, when the video goes viral. To add to the shaming, someone has arranged for the video to be played on one of the giant video screens at the party. An enraged Arjun thinks Sikandar is behind this leaked video and vows to get revenge.

“Sikandar” then goes off on an entirely different tangent when Saisri gets killed in an explosion. She was an organ donor, so about half of the movie consists of Sikandar tracking down three people in Mumbai who received some of her organs. An orphaned pre-teen boy named Kamaruddin, also known as Kamar (played by Ayan Khan), received Saisri’s lungs because Kamar was the victim of environmental pollution. A vadam shop owner named Vaidehi Ranga (played Kajal Aggarwal) received Saisri’s eyes. A lovelorn woman named Nish (played by Anjini Dhawan) received Saisri’s heart.

Sikandar does what can only be called a “do-gooder” tour, where he becomes saintly person as he goes to Mumbai. He is chauffeured by a taxi driver who calls himself De Niro(played by Jatin Sarna), who tells unfunny jokes about “Taxi Driver,” the 1976 movie starring Robert De Niro. These “jokes” include insufferable impersonations of De Niro’s “Taxi Driver” character Travis Bickle.

During this “do-gooder” part of the movie, Sikandar battles environmental pollution caused by “real-estate shark” businessman Virat Bakshi (played by Nawab Shah); fights against sexism because Vaidehi’s father-in-law doesn’t believe that women should work in business; and becomes a crusader against domestic violence when he finds out that Nisha was in abusive relationship with her ex-boyfriend Kapil (played by Ayaan Lall), who dumped Nisha to marry another woman. The storyline about Arjun and his father Rakesh gets shoved to the side and then comes crashing back with predictable results.

Adding to the cringeworthy aspects of the movie are the movie’s bombastic song-and-dance numbers, where Salman Khan uncomfortably does the choreography, and the songs are utterly forgettable. “Sikandar” is also one of those terrible movies where the sound mixing of the music score is turned up to detestably high levels. Note to filmmakers: Having music that’s too loud in a movie won’t improve the movie. It makes the movie worse.

“Sikandar” has plenty of fight scenes, but none look believable, including the very fake-looking visual effects. Some of the fight scenes are absolutely nonsensical. For example, there’s a nighttime scene where Sikandar and Saisri are in a car that Sikandar is driving. And for no reason at all, he stops the car to fight some thugs, with no explanation of who these thugs are. There’s no explanation for why “Sikandar” exists, except to rob viewers of their time, money and patience.

FunAsia Films released “Sikandar” in select U.S. cinemas on March 30, 2025, the same day that the movie was released in India.

Review: ‘Connect’ (2022), starring Nayanthara, Sathyaraj, Haniya Nafis and Anupam Kher

December 27, 2022

by Carla Hay

Haniya Nafis in “Connect” (Photo courtesy of Rowdy Pictures)

“Connect” (2022)

Directed by Ashwin Saravanan

Tamil with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2020, in Mahabalipuram, India, the horror film “Connect” features an Indian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: During the COVID-19 quarantine lockdowns, a widowed businesswoman finds out that her teenage daughter is possessed by a demonic spirit.

Culture Audience: “Connect” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching horror movies that don’t have many surprises but have above-average acting and plenty of suspenseful moments.

Nayanthara and Haniya Nafis in “Connect” (Photo courtesy of Rowdy Pictures)

“Connect” is not a groundbreaking movie about a teenage girl possessed by the devil. However, this horror flick delivers some effective jump scares and has very good acting, despite the predictable story. The movie excels at creating a foreboding and creepy atmosphere through its cinematography, production design and musical score.

Directed by Ashwin Saravanan (who co-wrote the “Connect” screenplay with Ramkumar Kaavya), “Connect” begins with a deceptively cheerful scene of four family members spending time together on a beach in Mahabalipuram, India. The family members are business executive Susan Joseph (played by Nayanthara), her doctor husband Joseph Benoy (played Vinay Rai), their teenage daughter Anna “Ammu” Joseph (played by Haniya Nafis) and Susan’s father Arthur Samuel (played by Sathyaraj). The adults watch in delight as Ammu, who is a talented singer/musician, plays an acoustic guitar and sings a song for them.

Ammu, who is about 16 or 17 years old, has been accepted into the prestigious Trinity School of Music in London. She’s excited about this opportunity. However, her parents aren’t quite ready for Ammu to live so far away from home. Susan tells Ammu that she can pursue whatever dreams she wants, but the timing has to be right. Ammu can sense that her parents won’t let her go to this school, but something happens that prevents the family from discussing the matter in more detail.

The COVID-19 pandemic comes on in full force, causing worldwide quarantine lockdowns. Joseph is a medical doctor at a hospital, where he has to work long hours during the pandemic crisis and he doesn’t have time to go home. Susan and Ammu communicate with him by videoconferencing. Ammu is considered a “daddy’s girl,” so she is very worried about what will happen to her father being around so many people infected by COVID-19.

Within a matter of days, the family’s worst fears come true: Joseph gets infected, and he quickly dies. The family is devastated by this loss. One night, Ammu secretly goes into a room by herself, lights a candle in front of a Oujia board, and communicates via a video chat with an unnamed woman (played by Mekha Rajan) who claims to be a spiritual medium. Ammu wants this spiritual medium to help Ammu contact the spirit of Joseph.

A ritual is performed. The spirtual medium sings an eerie song that seems to put her in a trance. Suddenly, Ammu’s computer screen freezes, and the room where the spiritual medium is goes dark. And almost immediately, the closed door behind Ammu opens, and Ammu notices that no one visible has opened the door. Ammu gasps in fright. And then the scene fades to black.

The next scene shows Susan on the phone with a doctor to report that Ammu hasn’t been eating or sleeping very well. Susan thinks that she and Ammu might have been infected with COVID-19 but are not showing severe-enough symptoms to go to a hospital. Ammu and Susan have been quarantining, and the only person Susan can think of who might have infected Susan and Ammu is the family housekeeper, who is never seen in the movie.

Ammu then begins to act strangely. She stays in her room for hours and refuses to let Susan inside. By the second day of Ammu appearing to be sick, Ammu refuses to talk to Susan. The rest of “Connect” goes exactly how you think it might go in a movie about a teenage girl plagued by demonic possession.

However, what will keep viewers interested is seeing how what happens during Ammu’s transformation and how Susan deals with it. Because they are stuck in a house together during pandemic lockdowns, it’s not as simple as leaving the house to get help. Similarly, people who could help are reluctant to make home visits during the pandemic. A priest named Father Alex (played by Avinash Yelandur) and a therapist named Sheela (played by Praveena Nandu) are contacted and try to help, but viewers see how Ammu deals with them. (It’s not as cliché as you might think it is.)

There’s also a great deal of the story where Susan has no idea that Ammu is possessed. She thinks that Ammu is going through a mopey teenage phase and grieving over the death of Joseph, until it reaches a point where Susan sees some things that she can’t ignore. It’s one thing for Ammu’s bedroom to have upside-down crosses drawn on the walls like graffiti. But it’s another thing when Ammu starts hiding in dark places and hissing, or when Ammu vomits when Susan makes Ammu drink a glass of water that Ammu doesn’t know has holy water in it.

As shown in the movie’s trailer, Anupam Kher has a supporting role as Father Augustine, the priest who is contacted to perform the exorcism. (Ammu and her family are Roman Catholic.) “Connect” is convincing in how it depicts Susan’s claustrophobic fear of being stuck inside because of quarantining from a deadly pandemic but also feeling like her life is in danger because of the person who’s stuck inside with her.

Nayanthara gets most of the screen time in “Connect” as Susan, but Nafis makes an impessive feature-film debut as Ammu, who becomes a genuinely sinister character. “Connect” director/co-writer Saravanan cleverly keeps Ammu off screen for most of the movie, in order to keep viewers on edge to see when Ammu might show up again and what she might do next. “Connect” isn’t gory by most standards of scary movies. What the movie does so well is show the horror of feeling trapped somewhere with a loved one who has become a monster.

Rowdy Pictures released “Connect” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on December 22, 2022.

Review: ‘Veetla Vishesham,’ starring RJ Balaji, Sathyaraj, Urvashi, Aparna Balamurali and K.P.A.C. Lalitha

July 8, 2022

by Carla Hay

Urvashi and Sathyaraj in “Veetla Vishesham” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

“Veetla Vishesham”

Directed by RJ Balaji and N.J. Saravanan

Tamil with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in Tamil Nadu, India, the comedy/drama film “Veetla Vishesham” features an all-Indian cast of characters representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: When a 50-year-old married woman unexpectedly gets pregnant and decides to keep the baby, members of her family and community have reactions that include embarrassment, fear, scorn and reluctant support. 

Culture Audience: “Veetla Vishesham” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in watching realistic movies about how a later-in-life pregnancy can affect families.

Aparna Balamurali and RJ Balaji in “Veetla Vishesham” (Photo courtesy of Zee Studios)

Without being preachy, the comedy/drama “Veetla Vishesham” adeptly depicts issues of ageism and sexism that arise when a 50-year-old married mother unexpectedly gets pregnant. The realistic performances from the movie’s talented cast enliven this story that can be heartwarming and heartbreaking. The movie could have been exploitative or demeaning in the subject matter, but “Veetla Vishesham” admirably handles it with grace and wit.

Directed by RJ Balaji and N.J. Saravanan, “Veetla Vishesham” (which takes place somewhere in Tamil Nadu, India) is a remake of the 2018 Hindi-language film “Badhaai Ho,” which was a big, award-winning hit in India. Amit Ravindrenath Sharma directed “Badhaai Ho,” which was written by Akshat Ghildial by Shantanu Srivastava. (“Badhaai Ho” means “congratulations” in Hindi.) The adapted screenplay for “Veetla Vishesham” (which means “special at home” in Tamil) is credited to RJ Balaji and Friends.

“Veetla Vishesham” sticks very closely to the same story as “Badhaai Ho,” but with a few differences. Many of the same scenes are recreated. Both movies are told from the perspective of a mid-20s man who’s the eldest child of the 50-year-old woman with the unplanned pregnancy. In “Badhaai Ho,” he was an office worker who’s dating a co-worker and contemplating a relocation to the United States. In “Veetla Vishesham,” he’s a schoolteacher who also works with his girlfriend, but the added twist is that her family owns the school, and she is his supervisor.

The gender dynamic of a male employee dating his female boss makes “Veetla Vishesham” a little bit more interesting and complicated than “Badhaai Ho,” in terms of how this work relationship will affect the couple’s personal relationship. In “Veetla Vishesham,” this schoolteacher protagonist is 26-year-old Ilango Krishnan (played by RJ Balaji), who really likes his job and has no intentions or thoughts about leaving India, unlike the protagonist of “Badhaai Ho.”

Ilango (sometimes spelled as Elango) is dating Sowmya (played Aparna Balamurali), who is the school principal. They are happy in the relationship, but they’ve agreed to keep their romance a secret from their families until they both feel comfortable revealing their relationship. (It’s another big difference from “Badhaai Ho,” where the co-worker romance was out in the open with everyone in the couple’s lives.)

However, the people at the school know about the romance, so Ilango and Sowmya are sometimes the subject of gossip at work. Sowmya is intelligent but somewhat insecure over the perception that her career accomplishments are largely because of nepotism. It’s a big reason why Sowmya doesn’t want people to think she is giving Ilango special treatment at work.

Ilango is a biology teacher of students who are about 9 or 10 years. And because “Veetla Vishesham” is a movie about pregnancy, there’s a predictable scene where Ilango asks his students if they know how humans reproduce. He gets very different answers from the students, and all of the answers are incorrect. For example, one boy says that his parents told him babies are made when parents drink milk from the same cup, the mother vomits the milk, and then the baby is born. This scene is the movie’s way of showing that parents are uncomfortable with telling their children the truth about the biology of human conception.

Eventually, Ilango meets Sowmya’s widowed mother (played by Pavitra Lokesh), but Ilango is intimidated because Sowmya’s family is wealthy, while he has a working-class background. In addition, Sowmya’s mother (whose first name is not mentioned in the movie) owns the school where he works. When he first meets Sowmya’s mother, Illango admits to her that he was afraid of meeting her.

That’s because in addition to the differences in social class, Ilango could tell from the way that Sowmya talks about her mother, Sowmya’s mother is very domineering and judgmental. It also makes Ilango uncomfortable when Sowmya tells Ilango that she confides in her mother about her love life. Later in the movie, viewers find out that Sowmya is desperate for her mother’s approval because her mother doesn’t really visit or communicate with Sowmya on a regular basis.

Because of his modest schoolteacher salary, Ilango still lives with his family. Sowmya wants to meet Ilango’s family, but he has been delaying this meeting. Ilango’s easygoing father Unnikrishnan, nicknamed Unni (played by Sathyaraj), has been a longtime ticket taker working for Indian Railways. He is planning to retire in the near future.

Ilango’s mother Krishnaveni, nicknamed Auchu (played by Urvashi), is a mild-mannered homemaker. Ilango’s younger brother Aniruth, nicknamed Ani (played by Visvesh), is about 15 or 16 years old and is a student in high school. Also living in the household is Unni’s outspoken and cranky mother (played by K.P.A.C. Lalitha), a widow who does not have a name in the movie. Unni’s mother often scolds Unni when she thinks that he’s not being a dominant patriarch.

After one of these arguments, Unni and Auchu retreat to their bedroom and are sexually intimate. About 19 weeks later, a concerned Unni has accompanied Auchu to a doctor’s appointment because she’s been feeling sick. They think it might be food poisoning. They’re in for a shock when they find out that Auchu is four months pregnant.

Auchu tells Unni in a private conversation in their car that she wants to keep the baby. Unni’s immediate reaction, once he gets over the shock, is to say he feels too old to start raising a child again. He also wonders if Auchu and the baby will have health problems because of this later-in-life pregnancy. And he worries about what other people in the community will think about him being a father of a young child at an age when most people are expecting him to be a grandfather.

After listening to Unni ramble on about how the pregnancy will affect him, Auchu snaps at him and reminds him that she’s the one who’s pregnant. She also tells him that she won’t change her mind about keeping the baby. Unni makes a sincere apology to Auchu and tells her that it really is her choice, and he promises to support her decision. He still feels a lot of apprehension over how people he knows will react to this pregnancy news.

For whatever reason, Auchu has decided to let Unni tell the rest of the family this news. It leads to some comedic moments where Unni stammers and gets nervous because he doesn’t know how to tell people about this pregnancy. Ilango’s first reaction to this news is embarrassment. Ani’s first reaction is annoyance that the baby might get his bedroom, and he will have to share a bedroom with his grandmother. Unni’s mother reacts with pure disgust because she thinks Auchu is too old to have a baby.

Auchu gets this disgusted reaction from many other people who find out about her pregnancy. Meanwhile, Auchu’s sons Ilango and Ani start to avoid being around her. When her pregnancy starts to show, they often don’t want to be seen in public with her. This shunning deeply hurts Auchu, and it takes a toll on her self-esteem. She starts to become emotionally withdrawn and becomes a lot less talkative.

The pregnancy also affects Ilango’s relationship with Sowmya, because he has been thinking about proposing marriage to her and starting a family with her after they’re married. However, Ilango worries about how Sowmya will feel about having a child who’s close in age to the unborn child who will be Ilango’s youngest sibling. Ilango is also concerned that Sowmya’s snobbish mother will think less of his family, when he knows she already somewhat disapproves of him because he comes from a working-class family.

Social class differences and society’s prejudices against pregnant women in their 50s all come to the forefront in the emotional conflicts that ensue in “Veetla Vishesham.” The movie’s comedy pokes fun at how ridiculously mean-spirited people can be with these prejudices, but the movie doesn’t make light of the damage that these prejudices can cause. And sometimes, the worst damage can come from what family members, not strangers, do to each other.

“Veetla Vishesham” doesn’t excuse any of the awful things that people say or do when expressing these prejudices. The movie shows in no uncertain terms that these prejudices are often rooted in misogyny. Unni and Auchu made this baby together, but Auchu is the one who gets most of the shame and ridicule for this pregnancy. Fortunately, Unni is a kind-hearted husband who respects his wife, but even he has to learn what his boundaries are when it comes to getting criticism from other people about this pregnancy.

What makes “Veetla Vishesham” so interesting to watch is to see how all of the actors stay true to their characters in a manner that looks natural and effortless. Urvashi’s role as Aushu is probably the most difficult to perform because Aushu is fairly quiet for much of the movie, so Urvashi has to convey a lot of emotions through facial expressions and body language. Balaji’s performance as Ilango is also a standout, since he’s the family member who’s the most conflicted about the pregnancy. Balamurali is also very good in her role as Sowmya. There isn’t a bad performance from any of the cast members in “Veetla Vishesham.”

Many times, movies with this subject matter will have character transformations that are abrupt and look very phony. The screenplay and direction of “Veetla Vishesham” make any learning experiences that the characters go through look realistic and not forced. Just like in real life, “Veetla Vishesham” shows that the biggest learning experiences can come from making painful mistakes, and personal growth comes from admitting those mistakes and making an effort to do better.

Zee Studios released “Veetla Vishesham” in select U.S. cinemas and in India on June 17, 2022.

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