Dinesh Kamath's column on film 'Son of Sardar' that was published in Newsband

Son of Sardar and Jab Tak Hai Jaan are the two films that will be released during Diwali. Here are few words about these two films.

Son of Sardaar

Son of Sardaar, also known by the abbreviated form SOS, is an upcoming Bollywood romance drama film directed by Ashwni Dhir. The film is a remake of Telugu movie Maryada Ramanna directed by S. S. Rajamouli, which in itself is a remake of the 1923 American silent movie Our Hospitality starring Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge. The film features Ajay Devgn, Juhi Chawla, Sanjay Dutt and Sonakshi Sinha in lead roles. Cinematographer Aseem Bajaj is handling the camera once again for Dhir. The film is scheduled to release on the six-day Diwali weekend which begins on November 13, 2012. Himesh Reshammiya was roped in to compose the music along with lyricist Sameer Anjaan.

The film has Ajay Devgn as Rajveer Singh, Sanjay Dutt as Ranvijay Singh, Juhi Chawla as Parmeet Kaur, Sonakshi Sinha as Jiya, Puneet Issar as Sardar, Mukul Dev, Vindu Dara Singh, Arjan Bajwa, Tanuja, Rajesh Vivek and Salman Khan (Special Appearance).

Son of Sardaar is a remake of Telugu film Maryada Ramanna. It is only the plot that is borrowed, the rest is changed. The zone is completely different in both the films. Only plots are same, otherwise both the films are completely different. Son Of Sardaar is a complete entertainment package. It is a Diwali film completely. It has a combination of everything from comedy to romance to action.

Ajay Devgn spent a total of 80 crore on Son of Sardaar. This is one of the highest total amounts ever spent on a Bollywood film.

The Punjabi Cultural Heritage Board raised some disagreements due to some objection regarding certain scenes and dialogues of the film. The producer and lead actor Ajay Devgn understood the objections and edited the scenes of the film. The creativity of the film has not been affected in any way. The objectionable things were very small. The writer and director of the film is Punjabi. Even the guy who tied Ajay’s turban was from Punjab.

Two weeks before Diwali, Ajay Devgn sent an intimation notice to Yash Raj Films through their lawyer at the Competition Commission of India. The notice accused Yash Raj Films of monopolistic business practices and stated that they used "their dominant position in the Bollywood film market" to secure many high quality single-screens for their release Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Yash Raj Films responded by saying that they were shocked and questioned Devgn's motives. The studio also dismissed Devgn's claim that high quality single-screens were unavailable by pointing out that they had only booked 1,500 single-screens for Jab Tak Hai Jaan out of the 10,500 available in India. The studio added that Ajay could have changed the release of his film as Yash Chopra announced on June 27, 2011 Jab Tak Hai Jaan would come out on Diwali 2012. They also accused Devgn of wanting a clash and sending a notice to publicize his film due to his "long-standing enmity with Shahrukh Khan", the lead actor of Jab Tak Hai Jaan. Lastly, Yash Raj Films stated it was unfair to say they were in a dominant position.

After the statement made by Yash Raj Films, Ajay Devgn responded by saying he only managed to book 600 single-screens for Son of Sardaar and would take legal action if not allotted more. He also denied having anything against Shahrukh Khan.

Music of the film is composed by Himesh Reshammiya and the lyrics are penned by Sameer Anjaan, Shabbir Ahmed and Irshad Kamil.

Thus Son of Sardar is a good film. Do watch it.