Son of Sardaar

About the film

Son of Sardaar is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Ashwni Dhir. The film stars Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha and Juhi Chawla. A remake of the 2010 Telugu film Maryada Ramanna, it was released on 13 November 2012.

Although competing with the Yash Raj film Jab Tak Hai Jaan, Son of Sardaar managed to do good business at the box office worldwide. It received a divided response, with praise for its humour, the performance of the entire cast, stylised action sequences, and familiar tone, but criticism for the screenplay. Box Office India declared it a superhit in India and in the overseas markets. It went on to gross ₹161.48 crore (US$17 million) worldwide.

Plot

A massive rivalry exists between the Sandhus and the Randhawas. During an intense fight between the two families, Jaswinder "Jassi" Singh Randhawa's father and Balwinder "Billu" Singh Sandhu's uncle kill each other on the night of Billu's wedding with Parmeet "Pammi" Kaur. Billu ultimately vows to remain unmarried until he kills Randhawa's son. Meanwhile, Jassi's mother flees the village with Jassi, later settling in London.

Twenty-five years later, Jassi is a struggling immigrant in London. He is best friends with Pathan, who runs a club. Jassi decides to go to India because his father left him some land in Phagwara, Punjab. Although made aware of the rivalry by Pathan, he does not worry about it as he thinks that the rivalry is now forgotten. Back in Phagwara, Billu still searches for Randhawa's son with the help of his two younger brothers, Tito and Tony. Pammi yearns for marriage with Billu to be completed. Jassi arrives in India and meets Sukhmeet "Sukh" Kaur Sandhu on a train ride from New Delhi to Phagwara. Unbeknownst to Jassi, who flirts with her, Sukh is Billu's younger sister, who is returning to Phagwara after having completed her studies in Delhi. During the train ride, Jassi falls in love with her. Once he parts ways with Sukh upon landing in Phagwara, Jassi is offered a ride by Tony to a Gurudwara, as the land behind the Gurudwara is Jassi's. Tony finds out that Jassi is Randhawa's son and tries to kill him in vain.

Jassi soon bumps into Billu at a temple as the villagers tell him that Billu would guide him to the land better. Billu is accompanied by his family and Sukh, who recognises Jassi, prompting Billu to invite Jassi to his house. Tony then reveals to Billu that Jassi is the person they were searching for these 25 years. Billu vows that he will kill Jassi as soon as he gets out of the Sandhu household. Jassi finds out that he is in the Sandhu household.

Production

Son of Sardaar is a remake of the 2010 Telugu comedy film Maryada Ramanna. In an interview, director Ashwni Dhir replied that it was only the plot that was remade; the rest was changed.

₹30 crore (US$3.1 million) was spent on making Son of Sardaar. However, an all-inclusive price tag of ₹85 crore (US$8.9 million) was also announced in the media.

The Punjabi Cultural Heritage Board raised disagreements due to some objection regarding certain scenes and dialogues. The producer and lead actor Ajay Devgn understood the objections and edited the scenes. "The creativity of the film has not been affected in any way. Every film is rectified, sometimes it's made even better," said Devgn during a press conference. "The objectionable things were very small. The writer and director of the film is Punjabi and we took care of things. Even the guy who tied my turban was from Punjab", he added.

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by Himesh Reshammiya while the lyrics were penned by Sameer, Shabbir Ahmed, Irshad Kamil & Manoj Yadav. Only one song, "Yeh Jo Halki Halki Khumariya", composed by Sajid–Wajid was also included in the album.

The album received mixed to positive reviews. Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated that "Son of Sardaar lives up to its promise of a high-on-energy soundtrack with not many dull moments in its 50-odd minutes duration. " IBNLive gave it 3 out of 5 stars and said, "The album is woven around the theme of the film and manages to justify it well, although the sound gets a bit monotonous at times."

Release

Son of Sardaar released in 2,000 screens in India and 350 screens overseas. Son of Sardaar got 300 more screens in its second week.

Two weeks before Diwali, Ajay Devgn FFilms 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 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 27 June 2011 Jab Tak Hai Jaan would come out on Diwali 2012. Ajay announced the date of Son of Sardaar on 29 May 2012 and finalised distribution deals on 4 October 2012. He had a year to avoid a simultaneous release. Lastly, Yash Raj Films stated it was unfair to say they were in a dominant position. The studio only released a handful of films in 2012 while the makers of Son of Sardaar, Viacom 18 and Eros International, released dozens the same year.

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