The lack of punctuation marks in the tale of the coming of age and rage of the protagonist Surya (Siddharth) is a major detriment. The madness of slum-life, its crime modalities as seen through the eyes of Surya, is brought out in the film. It is quite evident that director Chandan Arora has bitten more than the editor can chew.

Characters such as the Muslim girl next door (newcomer Nicolette Bard) vanish from Surya’s life. But not before Surya does his own Mere Mehboob with the girl, even throwing a letter into her balcony. This is the Mumbai slum in the 1980s, in case you’ve forgotten. 


Many questions that crop up in the course of the narrative remain unanswered till the brutal end. All we know is that Surya wants a better life.

Striker opens and closes with the tension around the slums during the 1992 riots. The on-location shooting brings to the proceedings a kind of cutting edge and an intimate immediacy to the proceedings. You feel you are there in the slums with Arora’s characters. But you aren’t sure you want to be there. We never stay long enough with the characters to get to know them well.

The performances, however, keep us moving, kicking and drags with the seamless unpunctuated narrative. Siddharth’s layered performance is balanced and even. He hits the high notes without getting shrill. Aditya Panscholi as his chief adversary on the carrom board and off it, is menacing yet restrained managing the age-leap with startling ease. Ankur Vikal the hero’s hyper-ventilating best friend who comes to a sticky end, plays his part with relish. There’re some other fine actors who prop up in the narrative including Anupam Kher, Seema Biswas and Anoop Soni. There’s no room for them to make an impact. The same goes for the two leading ladies. The quiet Nicolette comes before the interval, the verbose and aggressive Padma Priya comes after.

Striker uses the metaphor of the strike on the carrom board with a fair amount of inner conviction that unfortunately gets substantially lost in a welter of crowds and noises signifying the fury of nulled lives. You can’t fall in love with Arora’s carefully-crafted world of slum-dogged obduracy where swords still rule and guns are a distant boom.

See the film for its frenetic characters who seem to have distant links with the people we saw in Vikram Bhatt’s Ghulam and Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire.

Film Review

Move: Striker

Cast: Siddharth, Padma Priya, Nicolette Bird, Ankur Vikal, Aditya Panscholi, Seema Biswas, Rajendra Gupta and Vidya Malvade

Director: Chandan Arora

Rating: ***