Title: Sikandar Ka Muqaddar
Director: Neeraj Pandey
Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Avinash Tiwary, Divya Dutta, Tamannaah Bhatia, Rajeev Mehta, Ridhima Pandit, Zoya Afroz
Where: Streaming on Netflix
Rating: 3.5 Stars
In Sikandar Ka Muqaddar, director Neeraj Pandey delivers a tale that meanders through moral ambiguity, relentless obsession, and a jewel heist gone wrong, all while unapologetically borrowing narrative DNA from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. The result? A complex yet uneven concoction of gravitas and implausibility that manages to keep you hooked—even as you roll your eyes at its more melodramatic flourishes.
The story revolves around Sikandar Sharma (Avinash Tiwary), a hapless computer technician accused of orchestrating a daring heist at a jewellery exhibition. His protestations of innocence—delivered with gut-wrenching conviction in a scene-stealing moment where Tiwary utters the now-iconic line, “Sir, main chor nahin hoon…”—anchor the film’s emotional core. Sikandar’s journey through humiliation, despair, and survival in the face of societal judgment feels both- poignant and familiar, echoing the tragic arc of Jean Valjean of Les Misérables. Yet, the homage occasionally veers into mimicry, and the parallels, while compelling, risk feeling a tad too deliberate.
Opposing him is Jimmy Shergill’s Jaswinder Singh, a star investigator with four President’s medals, an unblemished record, and a penchant for trusting his “basic instinct” over hard evidence. Shergill portrays Singh with his trademark stoicism, a performance that hovers somewhere between intensity and monotony. The officer’s fixation with cracking the case—despite being dismissed from the force—drives the narrative, but his single-mindedness often feels more caricatured than compelling.
The supporting cast ranges from underutilized brilliance to adequate filler. Divya Dutta, as Jaswinder’s wife Kaushalya, sparkles in her fleeting screen time, offering a glimpse of depth in an otherwise underwritten role. Rajeev Mehta, as co-accused Mangesh Desai, walks through his limited screen presence. Tamannaah Bhatia’s Kamini Singh, on the other hand, delivers a serviceable performance, albeit without leaving much of a lasting impression. Ridhima Pandit and Zoya Afroz add little more than window dressing to the proceedings.
Narratively, the film is ambitious, employing a non-linear structure to unravel Sikandar’s descent into misery and Jaswinder’s obsessive pursuit over a span of fifteen years. The timeline adds intrigue but occasionally muddles the pacing, with the flashbacks sometimes disrupting rather than enhancing the momentum. While Pandey’s direction ensures moments of tension and unpredictability, the script occasionally stretches credulity. Certain plot points feel contrived—like a thriller trying too hard to outwit its audience. Yet, for all its flaws, the story’s emotional beats resonate, and keep you invested.
Visually, Sikandar Ka Muqaddar boasts polished production values, though its cinematography and score never quite transcend the serviceable. The heist sequences lack the adrenaline-pumping finesse of genre heavyweights, but the emotional heft of Sikandar’s trials compensates.
Ultimately, the film is a curious mix of high-stakes drama and familiar tropes. It might not scale the heights of its French inspiration, but it delivers enough intrigue, pathos, and a literal and figurative cliffhanger to warrant a watch—and perhaps a sequel.
