Bollywood movies are full of twins who have been separated at birth
or raised by estranged parents who each think the other is dead or who
just got lost at the funfair, as well as identical cousins and strangers
who have the same face and haircut for no apparent reason. The
interesting thing about Sandwich (2006), though, is that it
inverts the usual mistaken identity formula, presenting us with a
protagonist who is desperate to prove that yes, he is a bigamist who’s been lying to both his families for the last seven years.
Our hapless bigamist to be is Sher Singh (Govinda), a regular guy from rural Punjab who has moved to Mumbai in the hopes of becoming Shekhar Singh, professional screenwriter. Currently, he’s working in a garage, but he’s managed to find both an interested director (Satish Shah) and an insanely needy, possessive, and wealthy girlfriend, Nisha (Raveena Tandon).
Everything changes when Sher’s mother (Reema Lagoo) summons him back to the village, where he learns that his disabled sister is to marry the son of the local Collector, provided that Sher marries the Collector’s plucky and film-obsessed daughter Sweety (Mahima Chaudry). Sher agrees, both to ensure his sister’s happiness and to avoid disappointing his mother. And while he’s initially reluctant, on the wedding night Sweety convinces him to commit fully, if you know what I mean.
Sher returns to Mumbai and his life as Shekhar, hoping to explain things to Nisha, only to walk in on her wedding; her father is forcing her to marry Vicky (Rajendranath Zutshi), a childhood friend. Nisha holds a gun to her own head and demands to be married to Shekhar on the spot. Her father agrees, and Shekhar is quickly convinced. He makes a point of explaining the situation to Nisha’s father, but by the end of the night Vicky has tried to kidnap Nisha, murdered her father, and then blown himself up, leaving Shekhar with a grief stricken, unstable wife and a business to run.
In the space of a dance number, seven years pass. Sher has a son named Tony with Sweety, and a son with the improbable name of Tuk-Tuk with Nisha. The double life seems to be going as well as can be expected, until Sweety and Sher’s mother get fed up with waiting for Sher’s occasional visits, and show up in Mumbai unannounced. After some quick scrambling, Sher gets them installed in a separate household, and is able to divide the day between his wives.
Unfortunately, the boys are enrolled in the same school, and the fact that they look identical is quickly noticed. Tony and Tuk-Tuk quickly become best friends, as do Sweety and Nisha. After a dazzling display of wacky hijinks, Sher manages to convince his wives that Sher and Shekhar are two different people, but his sons are having none of it, and they keep pressing the issue until Nisha and Sweety insist that Sher wait until Nisha’s husband Shekhar, due home any minute from a business trip to Singapore, arrives. Sher is trapped, so he waits . . . and a man calling himself Shekhar (Govinda) walks through the front door and takes over one half of his double life. Sher promptly confesses everything, but all that accomplishes is to alienate Sweety and get himself thrown out of the house.
Sandwich tries very hard to make its bigamist hero sympathetic, and it partially succeeds. Sher has good, if incredibly contrived, reasons for marrying both his wives. On the other hand, when the main plot picks up, it’s been seven years, and Sher seems committed to living the lie. Indeed, for a good chunk of the movie, Sher comes off as the villain, with his brave and clever sons scheming to expose the truth.
While Sandwich is fairly low key for a Govinda comedy, the tone shifts wildly, even for Bollywood. In addition to Sher moving from apparent hero to apparent villain and back again, the climactic fight scene features both adorable children dressed in superhero outfits outwitting the bad guys with Home Alone-style antics, and Sweety hacking thugs to death with a scimitar. The whole movie feels odd, perhaps bigger than intended, as if the producers simply wanted to make a simple comedy and broader issues kept creeping in.
Our hapless bigamist to be is Sher Singh (Govinda), a regular guy from rural Punjab who has moved to Mumbai in the hopes of becoming Shekhar Singh, professional screenwriter. Currently, he’s working in a garage, but he’s managed to find both an interested director (Satish Shah) and an insanely needy, possessive, and wealthy girlfriend, Nisha (Raveena Tandon).
Everything changes when Sher’s mother (Reema Lagoo) summons him back to the village, where he learns that his disabled sister is to marry the son of the local Collector, provided that Sher marries the Collector’s plucky and film-obsessed daughter Sweety (Mahima Chaudry). Sher agrees, both to ensure his sister’s happiness and to avoid disappointing his mother. And while he’s initially reluctant, on the wedding night Sweety convinces him to commit fully, if you know what I mean.
Sher returns to Mumbai and his life as Shekhar, hoping to explain things to Nisha, only to walk in on her wedding; her father is forcing her to marry Vicky (Rajendranath Zutshi), a childhood friend. Nisha holds a gun to her own head and demands to be married to Shekhar on the spot. Her father agrees, and Shekhar is quickly convinced. He makes a point of explaining the situation to Nisha’s father, but by the end of the night Vicky has tried to kidnap Nisha, murdered her father, and then blown himself up, leaving Shekhar with a grief stricken, unstable wife and a business to run.
In the space of a dance number, seven years pass. Sher has a son named Tony with Sweety, and a son with the improbable name of Tuk-Tuk with Nisha. The double life seems to be going as well as can be expected, until Sweety and Sher’s mother get fed up with waiting for Sher’s occasional visits, and show up in Mumbai unannounced. After some quick scrambling, Sher gets them installed in a separate household, and is able to divide the day between his wives.
Unfortunately, the boys are enrolled in the same school, and the fact that they look identical is quickly noticed. Tony and Tuk-Tuk quickly become best friends, as do Sweety and Nisha. After a dazzling display of wacky hijinks, Sher manages to convince his wives that Sher and Shekhar are two different people, but his sons are having none of it, and they keep pressing the issue until Nisha and Sweety insist that Sher wait until Nisha’s husband Shekhar, due home any minute from a business trip to Singapore, arrives. Sher is trapped, so he waits . . . and a man calling himself Shekhar (Govinda) walks through the front door and takes over one half of his double life. Sher promptly confesses everything, but all that accomplishes is to alienate Sweety and get himself thrown out of the house.
Sandwich tries very hard to make its bigamist hero sympathetic, and it partially succeeds. Sher has good, if incredibly contrived, reasons for marrying both his wives. On the other hand, when the main plot picks up, it’s been seven years, and Sher seems committed to living the lie. Indeed, for a good chunk of the movie, Sher comes off as the villain, with his brave and clever sons scheming to expose the truth.
While Sandwich is fairly low key for a Govinda comedy, the tone shifts wildly, even for Bollywood. In addition to Sher moving from apparent hero to apparent villain and back again, the climactic fight scene features both adorable children dressed in superhero outfits outwitting the bad guys with Home Alone-style antics, and Sweety hacking thugs to death with a scimitar. The whole movie feels odd, perhaps bigger than intended, as if the producers simply wanted to make a simple comedy and broader issues kept creeping in.
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