Prannay Pathak

Sam Bahadur

2023 · Hindustan Times · Dec 2023

At the end of it all, the point of Sam Bahadur eludes you completely. The film chooses to tell the story of its celebrated protagonist without much narrative pyrotechnics, divergence or problematising Manekshaw's recent appropriation as the ultimate sigma male, ending up delivering a hagiography. Sam Bahadur can be seen as sweet and engaging in individual segments, but the strands that tie them together feel disjointed and in desperate need to be cut some slack.