Sanak Review: Mindless Action & Senseless Storytelling!

Vidyut Jammwal is undoubtedly the most celebrated action star in India, and his stunt work is the reason why film studios approach him for action dramas. So, generally, his movies are strictly made for the fans of the genre and not for content lovers. Last year’s Khuda Haafiz is a great example. With surprise hits like Commando, he managed to establish his image and carried it since then.

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Sanak: Hope Under Siege on Disney+ Hotstar is an action-thriller that summarizes the emotion and journey of a lone hero, who fights overwhelming odds in a restricted environment, to save his wife and other unfortunates, helpless hostages, from the perils of evil. The first half of Sanak is promising as it offers a few thrilling action scenes. But sadly, the movie loses its momentum in the second half. The screenplay isn’t illogical like we see in most of the massy action films of Bollywood (inspired by south action) so, yes, it’s commendable in that sense.

Sanak is heavily dependent on Vidyut Jammwal’s image, and he doesn’t disappoint much while carrying the entire film on his shoulder. His action stunts are watchable, or should I say, they’re the only watchable thing in the movie. Chandan Roy Sanyal makes a scary villain unexpectedly, but that’s more because of the characteristics he follows, not that he had done some outstanding job or something like that.

Rukmini Maitra looks beautiful, and that’s the only requirement her character had I guess. The second female lead, Neha Dhupia, plays a cop, but her character lacks action and impactful presence. The supporting cast is okay, and the cinematography is fantastic during action scenes, and the technical aspects are decent.

What Sanak lacks mainly is unique writing. There is nothing new in the script, nor it tries any new techniques. It just follows those old methods so, after a while we start feeling lazy about the whole thing. Director Kanishk Varma didn’t take it to the ‘B Grade’ level, and that’s his biggest achievement.

Who knows, how bad it would have looked with mindless action and senseless storytelling as we see in mass-oriented films. Overall, there’s nothing on ‘Sanak’ level even from the hero’s angered nature but there is nothing that can cause you a headache either. So watch it once, and there’s no harm in it.

‘Sanak’ Rating – 2/5

Written by @samthebestest_