Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar (transl. Sandeep and Pinky have absconded) is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language black comedy drama film directed and produced by Dibakar Banerjee with distribution by Yash Raj Films.^[1] Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor play lead roles.^[2] The filming began on 7 November 2017 in Mahipalpur.^[3] Initially scheduled for theatrical release on 20 March 2020, the film was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic in India.^[4] After being delayed for a year, it was finally released theatrically on 19 March 2021 and later on Amazon Prime.^[5]

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Dibakar Banerjee
Written by	Dibakar Banerjee Varun Grover
Produced by	Dibakar Banerjee
Starring	Parineeti Chopra Arjun Kapoor
Cinematography	Anil Mehta
Edited by	Bakul Baljeet Matiyani Paramita Ghosh
Music by	Score: Dibakar Banerjee Songs: Anu Malik Dibakar Banerjee Narendra Chandra Kamlesh Haripuri
Production company	DBP
Distributed by	Yash Raj Films
Release date	19 March 2021 (2021-03-19)[5]
Running time	126 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi

The film received widespread critical acclaim for the story, direction, and performance of the lead actors. Critics hailed Parineeti's performance calling it among her best performance.

Plot[]

The film opens with a group of friends joking in their SUV while returning home from a party when suddenly, they are killed in a rain of bullets. Several hours earlier, Sandeep Kaur Walia (Parineeti Chopra) a.k.a. Sandy, a top executive at Parivartan Bank, is waiting for her boss, Parichay, for a dinner date at an upscale restaurant. She meets a journalist, Purva, (Suruchi Aulakh) who invites her to a party later in the evening. Outside, Sandy meets Satinder Dahiya (Arjun Kapoor) alias "Pinky", who informs her that he is a cop with Haryana police and Parichay has sent a car to take her to a different location. Sandy is annoyed by Pinky's driving, especially since he is continuously on the phone with his boss (informing him of their location) and reveals that she is three months pregnant. Pinky encounters hooting from an SUV of young men and when his boss asks for his car plate number, he gives the number of the SUV.

The SUV is halted by a police checkpost and they start firing indiscriminately at it, as shown in the first scene. Pinky, who is behind the SUV, witnesses the massacre and drives to an isolated place. He concludes that Sandy was the real target and the police wanted to kill him as well to show Sandy as a casualty in a ruined operation on a suspended police officer. Pinky calls up his boss Tyagi (Jaideep Ahlawat), the head of a private security firm, who tries to calm him down and demands answers from Sandy but she remains evasive.

Sandy takes Pinky to the party Purva invited her to in order to relax and get a sense of the situation, where she finds that her SM accounts are blocked. The police track her and they flee from the party. Pinky briefly considers killing Sandy to protect himself but cannot go through with it. He plans to go to Nepal and Sandy asks Pinky to take her with him, promising a million rupees in exchange. They travel by train and then bus to Pithoragarh, a border town to Nepal. Upset by the unhygienic conditions around her, Sandy requests a friendly couple, Aunty (Neena Gupta) and Uncle (Raghubir Yadav), in the market to take them as paying guests. Pinky finds an agent who will create fake documents for them to cross over.

Uncle reveals that he has invested four lakhs in the 'Swabhiman' scheme of Parivartan Bank. Sandy is alarmed and helps him to withdraw his money from the scheme. Sandy reveals to Pinky that the Swabhiman scheme was her brainchild: a fraudulent scheme designed to get a vast number of depositors in a small-time to save her sinking bank. During this time, she had an affair with her boss and became pregnant. Sandy wanted to resign after taking her share of 32 crores for the sake of her child, which Parichay refused and is the reason he wants to kill her. She gets Uncle a refund from the scheme at the bank by offering the manager a chance to embezzle a few million rupees using her intimate knowledge of its operations.

Later that night, when the funds are transferred, Parichay's team in Delhi is alerted to Sandy's location. The bank manager recognizes Sandy and tries to rape her but she fights him off and consequently suffers a miscarriage. Pinky tends to Sandy's wounds and cremates her fetus. Sandy cannot bear this loss and goes into shock. Pinky tries to help her recover and they grow closer.

Tyagi traces the two to a wedding procession which they were supposed to use as a guide to cross the border. Pinky comes to know about this and calls Tyagi, asking him to let Sandy pass in return for the 1 million he had earlier received from her and his surrender but his boss refuses. Sandy decides to settle some scores and convinces Pinky to leave without her. She returns to the city while Pinky cross-dresses and escapes the police checkpost.

Sandy understands that if Tyagi's team gets hold of her, she would be killed. She instead surrenders herself to the local police and exposes the scam of Parivartan Bank. Purva visits Sandy in jail and tells her about Parichay's arrest, with 6 cases of fraud filed against him. Purva points out that Sandy could've received a lighter sentence and more sympathy if she disclosed her miscarriage but Sandy refuses. Purva then gives Sandy a package from P. Thapa, which has been posted from Nepal, addressed to her. It contains only a few photos of kids dancing in a Bollywood dance school in Nepal. Sandy understands it's from Pinky and smiles.

Cast[]

• Parineeti Chopra as Sandeep "Sandy" Kaur Walia
• Arjun Kapoor as Satinder "Pinky" Dahiya
• Jaideep Ahlawat as Tyagi
• Raghubir Yadav as Uncle
• Neena Gupta as Aunty
• Daljeet Singh as Bose
• Jaipreet Singh as Garry Ji
• Rahul Kumar as Munna
• Dev Chauhan as Nihal
• Abhishek Yadav as Harshad
• Suruchi Aulakh as Purva

Production[]

Yash Raj Films announced the film on 3 July 2017.^[6][7] It marks the third collaboration between Kapoor and Chopra after they starred together in Ishaqzaade (2012), which was followed by the two pairing up again in Namaste England (2018).^[8]

On 30 October 2017, Arjun Kapoor shared an image of his character which is shown to be a cop.^[9][10] On 27 March 2018, the second look of both actors came out giving a glimpse of their different worlds.^[11]

Filming took place at the nearby places (Pithoragarh) of Indo-Nepal border of Uttarakhand.^[8] To get into their characters, Banerjee insisted the two not to communicate with each other prior to filming and even off-screen.^[12] Filming of Arjun's portion wrapped up on 17 January 2018.^[13]

Release[]

Initially scheduled for release on 20 March 2020, the film release was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4] The producers announced in May 2020 that the film's release had been postponed until theatres reopen.^[14] The film was released in theatres on 19 March 2021.^[5]

Home Media[]

On 20 May 2021, the movie began streaming on Amazon Prime Video.^[15][16][17]

Reception[]

The film received mostly positive reviews from critics who appreciated the performances of the cast. Writing for Film Companion, Anupama Chopra called the film “masterful takedown of Indian masculinity, greed and corruption”.^[18] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, writing that the film “is of a unique timbre - and spirit”. Tanul Thakur of The Wire called the film “a joyless, drab watch”.^[19]

Soundtrack[]

The film's soundtrack is composed by Anu Malik, Dibakar Banerjee, Narendra Chandra and Kamlesh Haripuri, with lyrics written by Anu Malik, Dibakar Banerjee, Pardhaan, Narendra Chandra, Sangeeta Chandra and Kamlesh Haripuri. The film's background score is composed by Dibakar Banerjee.

References[]

External links[]

• Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar at IMDb
• Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar at Bollywood Hungama