Sohail Khan is the most underestimated Khan in the film industry. But Sohail knows his skill and he uses it with intelligibility in comic roles and in this intense melodrama called "Kisaan".

Sohail had earlier done a reasonably watch able take on the question of Indianness in "I... Proud To Be An Indian" with the same director. In "Kisaan", Sohail champions the cause of rural life with a plot that nudges Manoj Kumar's "Upkar". It's a nudge that doesn't oust the nationalism over.

Set in Punjab, the story of a aged father (Jackie Shroff, sufficiently wise in look and makeup) and his two sons. The elder Aman Singh (Arbaaz) goes to the city and ultimately marries Priya (Dia Mirza) who's blessedly not the urban predator-vamp. The other son is a quiet faithful Jiggar Singh (Sohail) who stays with his father ploughing not just the land but also goons who dare to cross their path.

The real Punjabi locales replete with lush stretches of 'sarson ke khet' (mustard fields), hand pumps and sugarcane juice give the movie a strong and credible climate. However, many of the peripheral characters, specially the corrupt villainous caucus, are purely caricatural. If subtleness is your big cinematic turn-on, then "Kisaan" may not be your cup of tea... or should that be glass of 'lassi'?

"Kisaan" is like a big spiced-up glass of 'lassi', without cream. It's a blatant celebration of old-fashioned melodrama with dollops of bone-crunching action in the last 30 minutes that leaves us questioning if Manoj Kumar ever imagined that the fight to hold on to the land could ever get so violent and bloody.

The principal characters seem to live in rural Punjab with reassuring familiarity. The ambience is conducive to a demonstration of colorful emotions. The direction is often ramrod straight and literal. The film's charm lies in its ability to be an old-fashioned cliché without getting shaky.

However, the Punjabi songs and the hideous remix of Mahendra Kapoor's "Mere Desh ki Dharti" get on the nerves. But Sanjoy Chowdhary's background music is first-rate in its ability to reproduce the characters' emotional graph.

Among the actors Sohail stands high, quite often taller than the material given to him.