Talented Actor Gets Wasted Once Again

Nawazuddin Siddiqui has been acting for 22 years and has given stellar performances in movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Manjhi, Raman Raghav 2.0, Manto, Sacred Games, Kick, and The Lunchbox.

So when he was cast as villain in Sailesh Kolanu’s Saindhav starring Venkatesh there was a lot of excitement. The audience expected fireworks when Venkatesh and Nawazuddin clashed on the big screen.

In Saindhav, Nawazuddin plays a tricky and crazy character named Vikas. At first, he seems to be not the usual bad guy because he’s funny, trying to speak Telugu, and not holding back on using abusive language in Dakhni lingo. It’s kind of amusing when he throws a fit like a child or fails at trying to impress Andrea Jeremiah.

But soon the novelty wears off and his character loses its spark. The cat-and-mouse game between Venkatesh and Nawazuddin becomes repetitive and feels like we’ve seen it all before. By the end of the movie, no one really cares about Nawazuddin’s role because the writer/director doesn’t know what to do with his character. The story doesn’t let him shine enough.

Sadly, like Irfan Khan in Sainikudu, Nawazuddin Siddiqui ends up as another gifted Bollywood actor making no impact and serving no purpose because of a poorly written and executed role by Tollywood makers.