The name was great, the posters were well designed and the subject was well chosen. In fact, the plot was very much in news in the last few weeks only. So the time of its release was also simply perfect. But unfortunately the film fails to materialize on any of these merits and just remains an average kind of first time effort by the writer-actor- director Parvin Dabas. Besides, I was really taken aback by its very poor and sub-standard T.V. promos using the archival footage of our independence without any purpose, which was really not expected from a team having a reasonably good film-experience.
So as it began, I already had my doubts about its script and execution. Written around a burning issue of Government taking away the farmer's land in the name of development, the film takes off with reference to four local gang leaders and their don. The first half keeps revolving around these gangsters and their funny kind of gang wars but it doesn't touch the real issue strongly. The director tries to keep this particular part of the film closer to an off-beat kind of venture talking about the life of farmers living in a village situated in the outskirts of Delhi. The writer mixes the gangster plot well with the land taking over issue, plus the script gets its full support from the original locations and some smartly written dialogues for its key sequences.
But the film loses both its direction and grip as the gang leader undergoes a heart transformation and decides to take the side of villagers. From here onwards it all becomes too predictable and filmy which fails to generate any kind of interest for the viewers. As a matter of fact, I strongly felt that in order to put too many elements into its narration, Parvin actually ruined the basic thought of the plot and came out with a 'mixed vegetable' kind of film not worth applauding.
SDGB tries to bring in the feel of many past HITS forcefully and fails miserably in the process. At times it also looks quite funny & amateur kind of attempt with people shooting, exchanging cars and killing each other without any Police in the scene. The four gangsters remind you of many past RGV films or the youth oriented ones where the boys commit crime along with having fun in the group. It also tries to bring in the Comedy touch as seen in KHOSLA KA GHOSLA earlier which was too based on a similar illegal land acquiring issue. But sadly nothing is up to the mark in the film. Here I also doubt that Parvin Dabas may have thought of making this project while working in KHOSLA KA GHOSLA only and might have roped in Kiran Juneja Sippy and Anupam Kher too having the same in mind.
On the performance front, I found Parvin deliberately trying hard to give a polished act in the film which was quite visible. And that may be the reason that he was not able to come up that impressive as the silent explosive man. His other three friends along with the rest of the supporting cast are all fine but nothing great with Anupam Kher simply wasted. Musically also it remains just an average fare though the songs are used smartly in its first half. However the Camera-work capturing the local ambiance works great as required by the theme of the film.
Overall, SAHI DHANDHE GALAT BANDE can only be called a well intentioned average first attempt by its actor-writer-director, which remains far away from its exact destination.
