SWARGARATH (2024)

Siddhartha Sharma in a still

• Release Date: 07/05/2024
• Cast: Siddhartha Sharma, Kamal Lochan, Bonny Deori, Udvawan Saikia, Rintu Bora, Kenny Basumatary  
• Director: Rajesh Bhuyan

Solid performances cannot compensate for the recycled storytelling, lack of humour, and poor direction

— Ambar Chatterjee

I watched Swargarath at a packed 5 pm show at PVR City Centre. As I browsed through BookmyShow to finalize where I would watch the film, I was elated to note that the film was listed as fast-selling for most of the shows, and by late evening, it was almost sold out. Many of its shows on Saturday and Sunday are listed as fast-filling even today when I am writing this review.

Judging by the audience who watched the film with me and gauging their expectations, it wasn’t difficult to ascertain that they had all come to enjoy a mindless entertainer with enough humour and intrigue to justify the runtime. These people had learned about the film from the aggressive marketing campaign characterized by extensive postering and a trailer that was smartly edited, sufficiently elevated and revealed precious little about the plot but showcased some of its best gags. This was enough to attract the attention of the people to watch the film, especially since the box office has been experiencing an unlikely drought during the summer blockbuster season, the likes of which I haven’t seen in recent times.

The story of the film revolves around three friends, played by Kamal Lochan, Bonny Deori, and Udvawan Saikia, who need money to fulfil their respective dreams. They find themselves out of options to earn a decent and honest living and hastily decide to fake the kidnapping of Udvawan Saikia, demanding a hefty ransom from his millionaire businessman father.

Siddhartha Sharma, a man who drives a mortuary van (Swargarath), dreams of educating his daughter and admitting her to one of the best colleges. He unwittingly gets entangled with the trio of Kamal, Bonny, and Udvawan when he gives them a lift in his van while they are on the run from law enforcement.

Kenny Basumatary and Rintu Bora are a duo of corrupt cops always on the lookout for opportunities to make a quick buck. Rintu learns of the trio’s plan to fake a kidnapping and earn quick money and brings in Kenny to aid him in pursuing the trio as they attempt to execute their plan. The rest of the film is about how the actions and plans of the different players impact each other and culminate in one explosive climax.

Kenny Basumatary in a still

Swargarath is 94 minutes long, but to me, it felt like 2 hours. The film has comedy, and some of the writing is genuinely funny, but those moments are so few and far apart that you cannot help but get restless while waiting for something oddly funny or entertaining to happen. The chemistry and camaraderie between Kamal, Bonny, and Udvawan were the only things that worked perfectly throughout the film. Every time they are on screen, the proceedings either get funny, engaging, or both. Their portions are also the ones that I was able to relate to the most. The language used between the three, their problems, and the creative solutions they ponder on to these problems, as well as the constant conflicts they share and fight about, were enough to ensure that the portions involving them were the most entertaining in the entire film.

The fact that the three actors are able to hit the right note when it comes to how friends interact with each other in today’s day and age made it a little more entertaining. Bonny, Kamal, and Udvawan have great comic timing in their performances, which works in favour of the film. Even though the writing fails them by not providing enough ammunition to keep the audience in splits, they make the portions involving them enjoyable just by how they portray their respective characters.

Siddhartha Sharma is an immensely likeable actor, but the character he is given here is so one-dimensional and boring that no matter how hard he tries, he is unable to breathe life into it. The portions involving him emphasise more on dramatic payoffs and less on the comedy, which further renders these portions boring. The fact that these portions get a lot of screentime, wherein the character is built up and we are given information about how badly he needs money to set up his daughter’s career that ultimately amounts to nothing, tested my patience. This is not the kind of film where you can pull the dramatic portions to such length. If you plan to do so, there needed to be more incentives for the audience to sit through these portions that were neither entertaining nor engaging. Sadly, that is not the case. While Siddhartha Sharma does his best to keep the proceedings from turning overtly boring, he is not entirely successful. There are some one-liners given to his character that work from time to time and extract a laugh or two, but again they are so few and far apart that “in the end, it doesn’t even matter”.

The parts involving Kenny and Rintu have at least two decent twists in the end, but this portion also suffers from an overemphasis on dialogue between the two characters that is neither funny nor engaging. I was at a loss to understand why a fantastic comedic actor like Kenny was not used to the limits of his abilities. Why couldn’t the writing be such that he could truly bring his histrionics to the screen and have the audience in splits? This would have also diverted the audience’s attention from all that was missing from the film in terms of storytelling and novelty.

Bonny Deori and Kamal Lochan in a still

A film critic friend of mine, after watching the film, commented on the poor overall production quality and compared it to an episode from any of the long-running Axomia daily TV series (not the good ones). While it breaks my heart, I have to agree with him. This diminished quality of the production, coupled with absolutely no reason for the film to exist, made it one of the most underwhelming Axomia films that I have seen in recent times. The fact that I was excited about it further made the situation worse. The Axomia film industry has been on the rise since 2020, with some of the best films from the industry coming out in quick succession and across all genres. The film’s tonal shifts throughout and the impact that it had on the narrative also made it feel extremely uneven and never allowed me to find a voice in the emotions that were being depicted through the characters. Swargarath is the most generic film that one could have made, and it is so uninspiring, recycled, and poorly envisioned that it begs the question of why it was made in the first place. The film might end up being a big hit, but it will always be an underwhelming cinematic experience.

⭐⭐

Rating: 2 out of 5.