Sarkeet Movie Review : A superb Asif Ali lends emotional strength to this drama

Writer-director Thamar KV made a surprising debut in 2022 with 1001 Nunakal, a chamber drama with no big starcast, but an engaging narrative. He gets a bit more expansive with Sarkeet, keeping the story and scenario still fairly confined, but ambitious with roping in bigger names and the emotional scale.

Set in the UAE, Balu (Deepak Parambol) and Steffi (Divya Prabha) juggle personal and professional challenges, as their son, Jeffron (Orhan), is affected by ADHD and both of them are set for a career change. In a less than ideal arrangement, they have to leave the seven-year-old alone, locked in the house, when they go to work.

In another parallel story, Ameer (Asif Ali) is caught in a difficult situation as he needs to find work before his visa expires in a couple of days. He is in further turmoil when he has to struggle to put together money to pay an unscrupulous, prospective employer who promises him a job on payment of a deposit. When he is at a crossroads, Ameer succumbs to a terrible deed, but it has consequences that he must resolve.

Asif, as usual, plays the character so smoothly, that he almost brings alive the suggestion of a Dostoeviskian dilemma. He is just instinctively good. It’s an emotional story and all the actors, from Deepak to Divya to kindly older man, who takes Ameer in, have done a good job. A special mention to child actor Orhan, who has played a difficult role very well. But having said this, the film is dependent to a large extent on the dynamics between Ameer and Jeffron, but the chemistry between the actors doesn’t really feel special; there is a slight lack there.

The cinematography by Aeyaz captures UAE in a manner that we haven’t really seen much of before. Ameer is first locked in amidst the high-rises and then, he moves to the more open spaces of the hilly areas of the region. Both are captured in a unique, beautiful manner and editor Sangeeth Pratap weaves it all together nicely. Thamar has a good hold on the gently unfolding story, though sometimes the pace slackens. That might not be wise if you want to keep the attention of today’s viewers, many of whom complain about having the problem that the film looks at.

Sarkeet is basically a clean script that has been elevated with super acting.