Review of Punjabi Film Needhi Singh starring Kulraj Randhawa, Nirmal Rishi, Shubh Ghumman, Ashish Duggal, Aman Sutdhar. Directed by Jaivi Dhanda.
Starring: Kulraj Randhawa, Nirmal Rishi, Shubh Ghumman, Ashish Duggal, Aman Sutdhar
Director: Jaivi Dhanda
Producer: Inder Bhandaal, Sumeet Singh
Music: Gurnazar, Kuwar Virk, DJ GK, Gurpreet
Running Time: 104 minutes (U/A certified)
Synopsis: Needhi Singh is a real life based incident of a normal village girl living her life with full of fun frolic and she is the apple of her parents eyes. They have brought her up like a son. But later she comes up with a situation where she has to face social evils, she fights for her right and never lose her confidence. She stands to fight till she win over Social evils who always do their all efforts to crush the dignity of a women. Rush to your nearest cinemas on 22nd July for this action-packed thriller.
Review: Needhi Singh marks the directorial debut of Jaivi Dhanda who also happens to be the co-writer of the film. The film features Kulraj Randhawa in an author backed role which in itself is an achievement for Punjabi Cinema. Earlier this year, Neeru Bajwa was also seen in Channo..Kamli Yaar Di which was a female-lead oriented film but the role wasn’t as meatier as this one.
Coming to first things first, the story of the film has been written by Jaivi Dhanda himself and the story depicts the female pratoganist in a very strong role towards the second half. The first half depicts her bubbly side. The screenplay is where there are some issues. Gaurav Bhalla joins hands with the director to co-write the screenplay and it seems kiddish and amateurish in many portions. The scenes are far from reality and the film is ‘said to be based on real events’.
For example, the visuals in the climax are hard to believe where Needhi takes down 20 goons with weapons in one go without any weapons in her hand. Dialogues are written by Prateek Singh Rai and Gaurav Bhalla and they are fine and suit the mood of the film. The film is short and crisp and there are hardly any songs here. Just 2 songs in the beginning and a Preet Harpal version of ‘Ek Onkar’.
Jaivi Dhanda makes his debut as a director with this film. His name has been associated with many projects before and even this film has been in the making since the summer of 2014. So finally the film was released this weekend and Jaivi seems to have done an okeyish job. He has pulled off some aspects very well whereas he’s lacked the skills in others. Overall, it was a job half-baked.
Coming to the performances, Kulraj Randhawa who has shown some great talent in her films like Mannat and Tera Mera Ki Rishta finally returns to the screen after ages. Of course she’s done 2 Bollywood films and a forgetful role in Double Di Trouble in the meantime but her performance as Needhi Singh is what the expectations are from her and she should do such powerful roles more often. She gets to display all her acting talent in one film and she’s done a wonderful job. She should be a front runner for the critic’s choice award at the awards next year.
Nirmal Rishi was also there in the film. She had a small role and it was fine. The problem in the film was Ashish Duggal’s performance. He’s had 3 releases in less than 60 days and all the roles have been somewhat similar and he keeps 1 tone 1 expression in all of them. He’s a veteran when it comes to acting and its high time he chooses some great roles. Other members in the star cast were pretty unknown or I’ll put it as relatively new when it comes to acting.
The cinematography was pretty average in the film. The editor saved the film a lot by keeping it shorter to a mere 104 minutes.
Overall, Needhi Singh is a film which could’ve been miles better but all things which sound good are not meant to be good. Kulraj Randhawa is the only saving grace in this otherwise sinking ship. Kudos to Golden Fox Films and Saga Music for risking their money in an ambitious project, it was a brave attempt but in vain.
