Gippy Grewal-starrer Subedar Joginder Singh is the story of an Indian soldier who is one of the 21 Param Vir Chakra awardees of India. Subedar Joginder Singh, a soldier of the 1st Battalion of the Sikh Regiment is shown and remembered in history for fighting bravely in the Indo-Sino war despite getting very little help from the higher command. The regiment soon ran out of ammunition but this did not deter them from fighting.
While the screenplay of Subedar Joginder Singh lacks focus and fails to highlight the pivoting part of the storyline, the songs and acting performances of the supporting cast especially Gugu Gill and Gurcharan Aulakh helps the film to be just about watchable.
The trailer of Subedar Joginder Singh was very well received by the audience but the film does not live up to the hype. While the film was expected to be a grenade, it fizzles out like a sutli bomb!
Gippy Grewal of the ‘Angrezi Beat’ fame can be seen taking the beating from the audience for this one. This is Gippy Grewal’s first film since his Bollywood debut in Lucknow Central and he has done a fair job in leading his ‘paltan’. While there are times when the acting seems overdone, Gippy has managed to steer the film well with his patriotism laden dialogues and Border like action sequences.
Subedar Joginder Singh constantly runs back and forth between the love story and army life of Subedar Joginder Singh. Though the film does justice to the emotional side of the life of a soldier, it is not enough to hold the storyline of the film.
Aditi Sharma who plays Subedar Joginder Singh’s wife does a decent job but that is not enough to keep the audience engaged. While the film does have a few high points, they aren’t able to cover up for a lot many lows.
The production quality in Punjabi cinema has seen a significant improvement in recent times, especially with films like Sajjan Singh Rangroot. This film is no exception. The production is at par with Bollywood. The battle scenes have been choreographed well and it fills the audience with a sense of patriotism.
The film has scenes where Subedar Joginder Singh loudly chants ‘Jo Bole So Nihal’ and you can see the audience all pumped up with their fists raised up in the air chanting ‘Sat Sri Akal’. While many would argue that moments like these is why filmmakers make a film, the audience actually leave the theatre unsatisfied.
The Chinese speak their language in the film as the filmmaker tries to keep everything real, but this “authenticity” soon fizzles out when the same people start speaking in Hindi and then again in English. The subtitles for Chinese language are in Punjabi, so if you can’t read Gurmukhi, then best of luck dealing with this.
Though laden with heavy dialogues Subedar Joginder Singh is not able to keep you engaged. The first half seems sluggish and one is left wondering when it will get over. Although some songs are beautiful and soulful, the placement of songs every 10 minutes in the first half spoils the pace of the film. It is in the second half, when the battle begins that the action unfolds and the love story of Subedar Joginder Singh is shared which makes the film much more watchable.
While Subedar Joginder Singh tries really hard to force humour on the audience (and succeeds a lot of times), the film runs really low on the ammunition. While it is a great step towards bettering the production quality in Punjabi cinema, the narrative flow makes it just a one time watch. If you are a Gippy Fan and are driven by patriotism, do give it a watch.
On a scale of Bura to Burrraaahhh, I give this film 2.5 quints.
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