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Movie Name: Sikandar
Directed by: AR Murugadoss
Starring: Salman Khan, Rashmika Mandanna, Kajal Aggarwal, Sathyaraj, Prateik Babbar, Sharman Joshi, Nawab Shah, Anjini Dhawan
Genre: Drama, Action, Thriller
Running Time: 150 Minutes
Release Date: 28 March, 2025
Rating:
Production Companies: Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
Budget: ₹200 crore
Sikandar: Movie Overview
Sikandar is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language action film directed by AR Murugadoss and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The film stars Salman Khan in the titular role, alongside Rashmika Mandanna, Sathyaraj and Prateik Babbar.
The film was officially announced on 10 April 2024, along with the official title Sikandar, coinciding with the occasion of Eid. Principal photography commenced the following June in Mumbai and will reportedly be wrapped by December. The film has music composed by Pritam, background score composed by Santhosh Narayanan, cinematography handled by Tirru and editing by Vivek Harshan.
Sikandar is scheduled to release worldwide on 28 March 2025 in theatres, coinciding with Eid al-Fitr.
Principal photography commenced on 19 June 2024 with some aerial action sequences in Mumbai. The first schedule featured a face-off scene between Khan and Babbar and was wrapped by July 2024. The second schedule began in late August and included brawls, gun fights and hand-to-hand action sequence and was shot for over 40 days across Mumbai. Sets worth ₹15 crore resembling Dharavi and Matunga localities were created. While filming an action sequence on the set, Khan suffered a rib injury. A festive song involving Khan and Mandanna along with 200 background dancers was also shot in the same schedule. However, the shooing was halted in late September due to heavy rains across Mumbai.
The film’s music rights were acquired by Zee Music Company. The film’s songs are composed by Pritam while the background score is composed by Santhosh Narayanan.
Movie Trailer:
#Teaser
#OfficialTrailer
Movie Review:
Salman Khan’s socio-political statement lacks sting
A stiff star and lackluster writing reduce filmmaker AR Murugadoss’s ‘Sikandar’ to a crybaby
Subversion is not something we expect from a Salman Khan film. Kabir Khan channelled the child in him in a political environment in Bajrangi Bhaijaan. In Sikandar, writer-director AR Murugadoss seeks to repurpose the star to out-punch his detractors but fails to find layers in Salman’s what-you-see-is-what-you-get persona on screen. Perhaps taking a cue from Shah Rukh Khan’s recent spectacular success with self-referencing in Pathaanand Jawan, the star has headlined the Eid gift for his fans. However, the present has not been packaged well, as it reads like a PR riposte to the recent events, in and around his personal life.
Salman plays Sanjay Rajkot, a.k.a Sikandar, a Gujarati royal with a heart of gold. A do-gooder, we don’t get to know his business, but his doting wife (Rashmika Mandanna) feels a tad ignored. One day, he beats up a lascivious boy in a moving plane to protect a woman. The boy turns out to be the son of the home minister, resulting in a war of attrition. A personal loss triggers a wave of emotions that pushes Sikandar into violence.
These days, it seems, there are so many dos and don’ts in Salman’s image-building or image-saving exercise that the character he plays becomes colourless. He can’t be seen pursuing the gun or the girl. This overt urge to be flawless makes the experience facile, as he invariably ends up like a Santa without a beard.
The writer bleeds his pen to make us understand the syncretic origin of the character’s multiple names. The story begins with an Eid-type song and ends with a Holi number with ludicrous lyrics where Shambhu rhymes with tambu (pole). Salman is seen in saffron and also guarding an old man in a skull cap. In short, boxes are mechanically ticked off to be politically correct. A home minister (Sathyaraj) with a bald pate protecting an unscrupulous son (Prateik Patil) sends our imagination into overdrive for a while, but the result is pretty ordinary.
Thematic subversion works when the top layer is as fertile as the one beneath. Here, there is hardly anything to skim. The trick is that the audience doesn’t get to know when Salman Khan ends and Sikandar begins. But as it turns out, we find Salman sitting on the shoulders of Sikandar to spell out his good work and grievances. Call it lazy or a case of overwriting, the narrative either works like a surrogate advertisement for his charity work, or sounds like a threat that if Salman is targeted further he will enter the political arena by repeatedly flaunting his fan following. When he roars, “Qayde main rahoge toh fayde main rahoge (If you behave yourself, you will be safe),” it sounds like a reply to the recent attacks on him.
Pritam’s music is just a note above pedestrian. Known for creating a layer of intrigue between the action sequences, Murugadoss’s storytelling is pretty flat here. Filled with bumper sticker messaging, the lessons on organ donation and environmental and moral pollution feel contrived. There is a comment against the alpha male as well, but all of it is delivered in a heavy-handed manner with little cohesion, making it increasingly difficult to engage with the plight of the performers.
Salman’s stiff presence and stilted dialogue delivery add to the woes. The action choreography has little novelty. In the absence of effective camerawork, it seems people queue up to be beaten by a star whose intent is intact but agility waning. Saddled with stock dialogues, Rashmika adds one more film to her filmography where her job is to boost the star’s ego. Sharman Joshi and Kajal Agarwal have little to do to justify their presence. Sathyaraj keeps gritting his teeth as if he knows what could have been done with this material.
With Empuraan, which has its own Bajrangi, running in theatres, Bollywood can draw inspiration from the South to make a political statement in style.
Sikandar Movie Songs:
Song Title: Sikandar Naache
Lyrics: Sameer Anjaan
Music Composer: Pritam
Singers: Amit Mishra, Akasa Singh, Siddhaant Miishhraa
Song Title: Bam Bam Bhole
Lyrics: Sameer Anjaan
Music Composer: Pritam
Singers: Shaan, Dev Negi, Antara Mitra
Song Title: Zohra Jabeen
Lyrics: Sameer Anjaan, Danish Sabri, Mellow D
Music Composer: Pritam
Singers: Nakash Aziz, Dev Negi, Mellow D
