Strong Son Review: Interesting, But Slow, Picture of Former Body-Builder's Mental Struggles
I wanted to catch this at the Vancouver International Film Festival but was unable to due to my schedule, so thanks to the VIFF team for sending me this early screener! Enjoy the review!
Director Ian Bawa crafts his first full-length feature film with Strong Son, a former short film now adapted for the long format.
Synopsis:
"A former South Asian bodybuilder moves back in with his aging father to become his primary caregiver, forcing him to balance the physical strength that once defined him with the mental and emotional challenges of caring for the man who raised him."
Cast:
Mandeep Sodhi, Amirit Parbhakar, Yuvraj Dhesi, Micaela Kurimsky
Release Date:
To Be Announced
Deep Look At Masculinity and Mental Health
The best thing that Strong Son does is take a deeper look at the idea of masculinity both in our society and in relationships. Our main character, Harvinder, is a former bodybuilder who is now struggling to find himself without that outlet. He's now working as a security guard, but is regularly reminded of his past life at the gym and other spots within his life. These aspects of his life have led him to become largely reserved and you can see in real time when that emotion comes out because of where his life has ended up. This film paints a really realistic picture of social anxiety within Harvinder and it feels creative due to the aspect of our main character being somebody who used to publicly show off his body for his career. You'd have to think these people are showmen and outgoing people, but when that's lost - where does that leave him? We explore this throughout the runtime here and it feels like a very realistic depiction. There are times when he breaks out of his shell, which just feels devastating because you have a feeling it'll be short lived.
Another big part of this story is Harvinder's relationship with his father. The movie opens with him learning that his father will no longer live in assisted care and he is going to have to move back in to take care of him. This is very emotional for Harvinder and we learn this very early on by his reaction to learning the news. There's both very sweet and awful parts of this relationship, with their dynamic being incredibly complicated. Harvinder's father seems to believe that as long as his son works on getting stronger that his life will be fixed and also scolds his emotions at every turn. He basically diminishes his son every chance he gets and that makes our idea of Harvinder even more devastating. This story becomes partly about acceptance on his father's part, and how the two of them can find themselves in a massive difference of ideals. I really appreciated the honest storytelling there and the hope that love can prevail even in the darkest of situations.
Sodhi Puts In Great Lead Performance
With this being an indie film, it allows us to be introduced to many new faces in the industry. The first would be Mandeep Sodhi in the lead role, who really stole the show for me. As I said it's a very complicated role, as our main character has to be really subdued and quiet for the majority of the film. This leads to a lot of really subtle moments for Sodhi, mostly in the face acting. He has to portray a lot of deeper emotions that can't really be sold through dialogue, and he achieves that in a really big way. I also really loved his dynamic with Micaela Kurimsky who plays his love interest/friend. This could have very easily played into the "save me" relationship that we see far too often in film and real life, but the two have a really natural chemistry that allows it to be one of the main sweet parts of the story. This also came with a bit of honest storytelling, as it feels grounded and realistic due to the performances. Real life wrestler Yuvraj Dhesi also holds his own to the point where I just assumed he was a full time actor. I think sometimes a problem in these lower budget films can be feeling the budget in certain areas, especially in the acting, but this one was full of cast members that I could see making the jump to larger heights at some point.
Slow Paced and Lack of Dialogue
As I said previously, this story has a very big level of subtle storytelling and acting. This made it so I could see exactly what they were trying to do, but at points it came off a little boring and uninteresting. The story is very slow paced and is truly meant to be rooted into these characters' lives. This also comes with a severe lack of dialogue, especially from our main character. This just made it so it was hard to ever fully get invested into the story, as a look into people's lives is only as interesting as their lives actually are. The slower pacing makes it so the more intimate and impactful scenes are really felt, but the inverse becomes true also. There's some painfully unfunny and directionless scenes around the middle, leaving you just waiting until we can move on to the next part of the story. There's never really a natural arc in this story, until maybe the end, which worked for me sometimes but not always. I worry that it'll be less accessible to non-film buffs, if and when this gets a wide release, which may make my thoughts on this a little harder to get across. The storytelling and themes are really on point here, but the style held it back from breaking through to be an overly interesting project.
Repetitive Storytelling
Another negative prospect of the more grounded style would be that the story tends to get repetitive at times. This comes in many different ways, but specifically with the scenes where Harvinder breaks down into tears or emotion. The first time we see this is very impactful, as for the majority of the time he's depicted as this emotionless shell who can't always let out what they are feeling. However, by the 30-40 minute mark, we've already reached 3 or 4 of these breakdowns. This makes the storytelling feel incredibly repetitive, as we've already gone through this emotional beat many times. I'm not saying it's unrealistic or anything, it's one of the main plotlines of his character, but as an audience member I started to get a little exhausted over how constant it was happening with no real growth for Harvinder. We don't see any real arc for him start until the second half of the film and I think that could have been resolved for a better final product.
Final Thoughts
Strong Son is a very solid debut feature film and tackles a lot of really important themes in an emotional way. I think there are certain things holding it back from being one of the better low-budget films I've seen this year, but it's certainly a good start and features actors I'll be keeping an eye on for years to come.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Strong Son is ranked 65th out of the 88 new releases I've seen this year.
Editor's Note: I've only included the top 20 from my 2026 new releases list, for editing purposes.
2026 Ranked:
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