{"id":2951,"date":"2016-05-29T18:45:01","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T13:15:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2951"},"modified":"2016-05-29T18:45:01","modified_gmt":"2016-05-29T13:15:01","slug":"soorma-sandeep-singh-diiljit-dosanjh-tapsee-pannu-hockey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2951","title":{"rendered":"How Soorma Almost Makes a Villain Out of Sandeep Singh\u2019s Wife"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S<\/span><\/p><\/div>

haad Ali\u2019s <\/span><\/a>Soorma<\/span><\/i>, a <\/span>biopic<\/span><\/a> on former hockey player Sandeep Singh, starts off with a female voiceover: Harpreet Kaur (Tapsee Pannu) tells us that she is a <\/span>hockey player<\/span><\/a>, but the story she is about to narrate isn\u2019t hers. <\/span>\n\nFor a few minutes, I ended up believing that Ali was a misunderstood genius. And, that he was ironically using Kaur to scoff at <\/span>Bollywood\u2019s<\/span><\/a> tradition of exploiting women as mere props until I remembered that he\u2019s the same dude who made <\/span>OK Jaanu<\/span><\/i>. (Yes, also <\/span>Bunty Aur Babli<\/span><\/i> and the wonderful <\/span>Saathiya<\/span><\/i>, but, um, <\/span>Jhoom Barabar Jhoom<\/span><\/i><\/a>?) <\/span>\n\nI immediately lowered my expectations and went back to hearing Kaur recount a story that undermined her existence. Ali has gone out of his way during the film\u2019s 130-minute-long run-time to guarantee that he shortchanges his <\/span>female<\/span><\/a> lead. And, effectively makes his male lead look even more heroic.<\/span>\n\nThe story Kaur narrates is the extraordinary life of international hockey player Sandeep Singh (<\/span>Diljit Dosanjh<\/span><\/a>) who was reputed for playing the world\u2019s most dangerous drag-flicks. Two years after he started playing for India \u2014 just as he was about to leave for the <\/span>World Cup<\/span><\/a> \u2014 Singh was left <\/span>paralysed after an accidental gunshot<\/span><\/a> injured his rib, spine, kidney, and liver. Bound to a wheelchair for a year at the peak of his career, Singh charted a miraculous recovery to get back on his feet and lead the national team again.<\/span>\n\nNaturally, Singh\u2019s unbelievable grassroots story of courage, resilience, and determination \u2013 that mimics a Bollywood plot more than real life \u2013 makes for perfect fodder for a sports biopic. Picking up the sport from his brother, Singh routinely held the record for scoring the most <\/span>goals<\/span><\/a>, captained the Indian hockey team besides helping them qualify for the 2012 London Olympics. Basically, his life has already been so cinematic that it doesn\u2019t require any additional garnish to be any more arresting.<\/span>\n\nAnd, yet in <\/span>Soorma<\/span><\/i>, Ali dramatises Singh\u2019s life to an extent that it veers on fictionalising a real person: his <\/span>wife<\/span><\/a>, Harjinder Kaur. <\/span>\n\nIn the film, she is Harpreet, a hockey player training to for a national team selection who falls in love with Singh. But midway through the film, she suddenly deserts him after his paralysis. As a result, a wheelchair-bound Singh is left calling her landline umpteen times, tears rolling down his cheeks, unaware that she has moved to <\/span>London<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>Soorma<\/span><\/i> just about stops itself from painting her as a cold-hearted witch by giving us some half-baked justification for her absence. Apparently, if she didn\u2019t leave him, he would get complacent and never want to walk again. Dosanjh might be the only Indian man on whom tough love actually works.<\/span>\n\nIf that isn\u2019t ridiculous enough, Kaur\u2019s contribution in the film\u2019s second half amounts to just wandering around gloomy London mourning; her face awash with equal parts <\/span>grief<\/span><\/a> and regret. Naturally, she also gives up her hockey career because the film wants her to take up the full-time job of looking sad, leaving her hair open, and acting coy while wearing Patiala suits. In its free time, <\/span>Soorma<\/span><\/i> also paints her as a distraction for Singh\u2019s goal-scoring abilities. <\/span>\n\nIn real life though, Harjinder has stuck by <\/span>Singh\u2019s side through thick and thin<\/span><\/a>: After falling in love with him, she gave up playing hockey because he wanted her to be a homemaker and <\/span>mother<\/span><\/a>. In <\/span>Soorma,<\/span><\/i> however, he is shown telling her mother that she can play hockey after<\/span> marriage<\/span><\/a>. In real life, Harjinder religiously tended to him for a year when he was paralysed until he recovered. Unlike what the film suggests, she never left his side. In the film, a big-hearted Singh decides to forgive her and tells her that he is thankful that she left him, right before a match. I\u2019ll let you guess what happens in real life. Hint: None of it.<\/span>\n\nI could be wrong, but isn\u2019t the whole point of a biopic to stick to the plot of the subject\u2019s life instead of making up one of your own? <\/span>\n\nMore importantly, <\/span>Soorma\u2019s <\/span><\/i>single-minded erasure of Singh\u2019s wife marks a dangerous trend of neglecting the sacrifices and emotional labour undertaken by <\/span>women<\/span><\/a> only to safeguard the reputation of male leads. The film for instance, completely disregards the 12 months Harjinder devoted to nursing her husband back to life just because it\u2019s not progressive enough. And instead, paints him as the hero who overcame his injury all on his own despite being heartbroken. <\/span>\n\nJust two weeks ago, Rajkumar Hirani\u2019s <\/span>Sanju<\/span><\/i> <\/a>pretended to be unaware about the contributions of Sanjay Dutt\u2019s first two wives or his two sisters \u2014 the fact that they dedicated <\/span>years<\/span> of their lives to Dutt hardly seemed to matter. It makes you wonder if real women have no chance at getting their deserved story arc, what hope do fictional leads have?<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Soorma, Sandeep Singh\u2019s wife \u2013 Harpreet Kaur in the film \u2013 abandons her husband soon after he is paralysed. She is also painted as a distraction for Singh\u2019s goal-scoring abilities. I\u2019ll let you guess what happened in real life. Hint: None of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":2952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3114],"tags":[1532,5852,1535,5853,5854,5855],"class_list":["post-2951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bollywood","tag-diljit-dosanjh","tag-indian-hockey","tag-sandeep-singh","tag-soorma","tag-sports-biopic","tag-tapsee-pannu"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Soorma Almost Makes a Villain Out of Sandeep Singh\u2019s Wife<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Soorma, Sandeep Singh\u2019s wife \u2013 Harpreet Kaur in the film \u2013 abandons her husband soon after he is paralysed. She is also painted as a distraction for Singh\u2019s goal-scoring abilities. I\u2019ll let you guess what happened in real life. 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