Akshay Kumar’s latest release Sarfira is a remake of Suriya’s Tamil Classic Soorarai Pottru. Soorarai Pottru and Sarfira is directed by the same director, Sudha Kongara. Sarfira is a frame to frame copy of Soorarai Pottru and offers nothing new to those who have seen the original. Passengers (audience) who have already boarded (watched) the Soorarai Pottru flight (film) should stay away from Sarfira.
The trend of remakes has been going on in Bollywood for years. In recent years, remake or adaptation has become a very negative term. The current movie watching audience is not much interested in remakes or adaptations unless it has something appealing for the viewers.
Post-pandemic only 2 remakes/adaptations have worked at the Box Office, Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan. Drishyam 2 was a remake of Mohanlal’s classic Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan was an adaptation of Gujarati film Vash. Drishyam 2 was a frame to frame copy, but it had the goodwill of Drishyam which made it work on the Box Office. Mohanlal’s Drishyam 2 was not dubbed in Hindi and this was the main reason why Ajay’s film worked at the Box Office. Gujarati film Vash has hardly been watched by Hindi movie watching audiences and the makers of Shaitaan had done some necessary changes in the script. The climax of Shaitaan varied from Vash and was presented on a grand scale. Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan were well made films and with luck by their side, did well at the Box Office. In the case of thrillers like Vikram Vedha, Hit, Gumraah and Bholaa, audiences had already seen the Hindi dubbed version of the original. If you remake a thriller, the thrill is finished and the suspense is out, so no one will take much interest in watching the same repetitive content again and again.
Apart from Drishyam 2 and Shaitaan, Bollywood has made many remakes/adaptations in post-pandemic times such as Bachchhan Paandey, Jersey, Hit: The First Case, Laal Singh Chaddha, Dobaaraa, Vikram Vedha, Mili, Cirkus, Shehzada, Selfiee, Bholaa, Gumraah, Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ka Jaan and Chatrapathi. All these mentioned films badly failed at the Box Office.
Akshay has done 4 remakes after the pandemic, out of which 2 were released directly on OTT platform. His 2 theatrical remakes Bachchhan Paandey and Selfiee badly flopped at the Box Office. His 2 OTT releases Laxmii and Cuttputlli were badly criticized by the viewers. Sarfira will definitely join the elite list of flops for Akshay. Akshay’s upcoming release Khel Khel Mein is also an adaptation of Italian film Perfect Strangers. Post-pandemic Akshay had 10 theatrical releases excluding Sarfira, and only 2 of them emerged as clean Hits at the Box Office. Sooryavanshi worked because of Rohit Shetty and Cop Universe whereas OMG 2 had Akshay in a very small role, and the brand value of OMG helped the film to survive at the Box Office. Akshay’s Bell Bottom, Bachchhan Paandey, Samrat Prithviraj, Raksha Bandhan, Ram Setu, Selfiee, Mission Raniganj and recent big budget action entertainer Bade Miyan Chote Miyan bombed at the Box Office.
Akshay Kumar is good in his role as Vir Jagannath Mhatre, but if we compare him with Suriya, Suriya was better. Akshay is good in emotional scenes, but he copies each and every single expression of Suriya and does not bring anything new to this character. Radhika Madan is a big misfit. She doesn’t look like Akshay’s wife even for a second. The pair of Akshay and Radhika won’t find any acceptance from the audience. Radhika’s attitude and dialogue delivery are decent, but she was never made for this type of role. She doesn’t look like a rural Marathi girl from any angle. The saree look just did not suit her. Aparna Balamurali who played Suriya’s wife in the original was convincing enough and she made us believe in the character. Paresh Rawal is the same as he was in the original. Suriya’s cameo seems to be unnecessarily added. Seema Biswas gets a tailor made role and nails her part. Iravati Harshe and Prakash Belawadi were good in their parts. The remaining cast is decent.
Sudha Kongara has simply copy-pasted the original film, frame to frame. She has tried to play safe and doesn’t tamper a single scene. What Sudha misses in Sarfira is the engagement with the audience. Soorarai Pottru was gripping, intriguing and inspirational, but Sarfira doesn’t seem to be much appealing. Those who have seen the original won’t feel much connected with Sarfira.
The songs have ruined the whole narrative. One thing which the makers should have done was to remove all the songs from the original one. There are 6 to 7 songs which create a huge noise problem for the passengers who are seated in this flight. These songs have unnecessarily increased the duration and have spoiled all the fun. The flight is not on time and inconvenience is being caused to all the passengers because of these songs. The removal of all the songs would have made this film more engaging. GV Prakash Kumar’s background score is good.
Soorarai Pottru became a very popular film during the pandemic because of its emotional storyline, inspiring subject and powerful content. If it would have not been officially dubbed, there were chances of Sarfira becoming a success. There is a large section of the audience who have already seen the original and that’s the reason they won’t pay much attention to its remake. Sarfira is only meant for Akshay Kumar fans and those who haven’t seen Soorarai Pottru. All the frames in Soorarai Pottru had a yellow color grading and frames of Sarfira have a blue color grading, that’s the only technical change done by the makers. This flight does not provide a pleasing experience and turns out to be an average affair for those who have already seen the original.
Remaking a Classic film like Soorarai Pottru is very difficult. Even if someone tries to simply copy paste the original, the essence will be missing. The same magic won’t work again and again, and makers who are trying to buy remake rights should understand this basic thing. The time has changed and so has the audience.
Akshay Kumar should stop doing such films which are only bringing his career graph downwards. Doing such kind of films is only harming his goodwill among the neutral audiences. Akshay should also stop doing remakes. He is the only Bollywood actor who has done 5 remakes post-pandemic. We all wish to see the old Akshay Kumar back, who was a treat to watch in his prime phase.
Akshay has been a part of many remakes in the last decade such as, Rowdy Rathore, Holiday, Gabbar Is Back and Brothers, which people had enjoyed a lot. All these films were a remake of ordinary films, but Soorarai Pottru was a classic. A classic like Soorarai Pottru should not be touched. Nowadays audiences are not interested in watching the drama genre, unless it has something out of the box offering for them.
Sarfira is that flight which you should not board if you have already experienced Soorarai Potrru. Those who haven’t watched Sarfira, should watch Soorarai Pottru instead, as it is of a superior quality. Soorarai Pottru is business class and Sarfira is economy class, so the choice is yours.
Rating – 2.5/5*
