Laal Singh Chaddha the Indian adaptation of Forrest Gump from Aamir Khan Productions and Viacom18 Studios currently streaming on Netflix, takes us into the world of autistic man who weaves a tale of his life from his point of view. .
This 2022 adaptation of Robert Zemeckis’ 1994 film takes an Indian twist of the tale of the main character played by the producer himself, Aamir Khan, as Laal Singh Chadda.
Khan takes us into the autistic mind of Laal Singh similar to the alien PK, where we see the world from a very different perspective. He takes on some of Tom Hanks’ body language and speech patterns into Laal Singh’s character with Punjabi dialogue with the sweet innocence of Gump.
Kareena Kapoor does a compelling job as Laal Singhs’ love interest Rupa. Mona Singhs’ portrayal of Laal Singhs’ mother is very moving. All three hold the audience’s attention.
Like PK, the film also takes a satirical look at the political and religious violence and intolerance among Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs from the 1970s to India’s present which has generated a boycott campaign as the film being anti-hindu. In fact the film is critical of Indian politics as seen from the viewpoint of Laal Singh’s autistic mind. The film is a moving religious and spiritual journey for Laal Singh as he had to cut his hair to hide his Sikh identity. His reclamation of his faith in a dramatic scene of his adorning his turban. A good time to watch this film as we mark the anniversary of the anti-Sikh massacre between October 31 and November 3rd, 1984.
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