'Sikandar' review: Salman's film is undercooked, bland, and lifeless
What's the story
Not the Eid treat you were hoping for.
Salman Khan's Sikandar, directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, released on Sunday amid immense buzz.
The film feels like a mish-mash of old projects, and a been-there-seen-that feeling never leaves you while watching it.
Bland and devoid of soul, it's predictable and marinated in clichéd tropes, ending as a forgettable affair.
Plot
Khan plays a wealthy, royal man
The film tells the story of Sanjay Rajkot (Khan), a man of royal lineage who uses his extensive wealth for charity.
Things take a turn for the worse when he has a run-in with Arjun (Prateik Smita Patil), the scheming, conniving son of a powerful minister, Pradhan (Sathyaraj).
After Arjun dies, Pradhan makes it his life's mission to track down Sanjay.
Will he succeed?
#1
It's unsure about what it wants to do
Looking for Sanjay in the film? Tough luck. You will only see Khan, the superstar.
With a bland and overburdened, lethargic screenplay, dull, archaic ideas, and uninventive execution, Sikandar is caught in a trap of its own.
There are numerous actors here, but nobody gets a meaty part, and everyone is always kept at the periphery.
A confused film, it confuses you.
#2
Rashmika Mandanna disappoints despite her brief screentime
Rashmika Mandanna (28) and Khan (59) have a huge age gap, and to say that their pairing looks jarring doesn't even begin to cover the problem.
Mandanna's lack of grip over Hindi gets in the way of her performance, even though she has limited screentime.
This was also a major drawback of Chhaava and Goodbye, and now Sikandar has joined this (seemingly growing) list.
#3
It's like every bad masala film ever
Sikandar also fails because of its heavy-handed storytelling, and though some dialogues are clever, most sound like sermons.
It tries a Jawan-like template, but at least Jawan had catchy music and a series of interesting sequences, even if it could not come together eventually.
In Sikandar, everything is turned up to 11, there's little nuance, and the lack of logic chokes the project.
#4
Khan's performance leaves a lot to be desired
Khan fumbles greatly in the emotional sequences and just about manages the rest of the scenes.
It's tough to buy his character, even though the supporting characters sing his praises for over two hours.
Having said that, it's interesting that Sanjay is presented as a flawed man—it's a welcome change in mass cinema famous for presenting its male protagonists as demigods.
#5
A complete, tonal mess
Because of the philanthropy subplot, Sikandar feels like a cinematic cousin of Jai Ho, and that's a red flag enough.
Scenes are haphazard and disjointed, tonally different tracks run parallel to each other, and it's tough to know where one scene ends and the other begins.
While the first half still offers some entertaining moments, the film loses its identity and falls apart post-intermission.
Verdict
Offers nothing new, skip it; 2/5 stars
Sikandar isn't able to rise above its mediocrity, and a story like this would have worked a decade back, but it's too archaic in 2025.
It makes such questionable choices that it's tough to believe it's from the same director who made Ghajini and Holiday.
This samaaj-sudharo mission hardly has any merit, and you'll be protecting your sanity by skipping it.
2/5 stars.