The third installment in the Ardaas film series, Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di (2024) brings to light the travails of the human condition and our relative inability to deal with them with fortitude. Directed and written by Gippy Grewal, the Punjabi-language film stars Grewal, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Jasmine Bhasin and Prince Kanwaljit Singh.
Devotional films have been the mainstay of Punjabi cinema since its inception, and Gippy Grewal’s Ardaas series renewed interest in the genre in 2016, with the release of the first Ardaas. Directed by Grewal, all three Ardaas films stress on the teachings from the Gurbani (the hymns in the Guru Granth Sahib), while highlighting common social issues.
Ardaas (2016) highlighted the power of one’s faith and prayer in navigating hardships, while the second installment, Ardaas Karaan (2019), took a more philosophical turn. The latest film, Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di, is a loose adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic, The Canterbury Tales, wherein a group of pilgrims travel together to visit a shrine and on the way, we learn about their life stories. During the course of the journey, the characters reflect on their actions and each of them is transformed in some way at the end.
Gurdyal Singh (Malkeet Rauni) comes from Canada to embark on a long intended pilgrimage to Hazur Sahib. In an unfortunate incident, he gets partial paralysis, prompting his workaholic son Sahej (Gippy Grewal) to finally pay attention to his father. Sahej has a strained relationship with his father as he blames him for his mother’s death. As they embark on the pilgrimage, they meet other pilgrims, each of whom is jostling with their own problems.
We learn about Bani’s (Jasmin Bajwa) transformation from a lively young woman to a gloomy one and the unfortunate circumstances that have left her without hope. Sadhu Singh’s (Prince KJ Singh) heart-wrenching predicament as the father to a paralysed daughter and her fate, is another emotional tale that has no easy answers. Every pilgrim has an emotional story to tell and the tales reflect societal norms and prejudices in some way.
Much like the previous two films, the person tying them all together is the narrator-sutradhar figure of Gurmukh Singh (Gurpreet Ghuggi), a good samaritan who appears at the right place at the right time, and prompts the pilgrims to reflect on their own actions before pointing at other people’s faults. But despite all his wisdom, he has skeletons in his closet as well.
As a devotional film, there is an expectation of God’s message and teachings to be woven through the narrative. However, Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di falters in its messaging that becomes too preachy and tries to tackle too many issues all at once. Ranging from the care of ageing parents, son preference, to gender disparity, alcoholism and others, there is so much going on in the film, and although the screenplay tries to do justice to all the characters, some story arcs get wrapped up in a hurry and others are quite predictable.
Also Read | The Buckingham Murders movie review: No-nonsense Kareena Kapoor Khan revels in her Kate Winslet era, but Hansal Mehta’s film succumbs to obviousness
The first half becomes tiresome as too much time is spent in creating the right environment for Sahej to join his father on the pilgrimage, and the second half only starts gaining momentum towards the end. The pilgrimage also seems to forget its purpose as it becomes a sight-seeing tour along the way, with the group stopping in Rajasthan, seemingly for the purpose of songs to be shot in scenic locales! Such moments appear random and unnecessarily add to the running time of the film.
With veteran actors like Gurpreet Ghuggi, Nirmal Rishi, Seema Kaushal, Gurpreet Bhangu, Rana Jung Bahadur, Rupinder Rupi, Malkeet Rauni, and others, Gippy Grewal has insured that even the smallest of roles get the attention that they deserve.
Despite its pitfalls, Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di is an emotional film that leaves us with plenty to reflect on. The larger message of communal harmony woven in through the figure of the driver Salim Khan, is perhaps the most poignant one.
Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di movie cast: Gippy Grewal, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Jasmine Bhasin, Nirmal Rishi, Prince Kanwaljit Singh
Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di movie director: Gippy Grewal
Ardaas Sarbat De Bhale Di movie rating: 3 stars
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
