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Release date:
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February 17, 2017
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Director:
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Aparnaa Singh
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Cast:
Language:
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Arshad Warsi,
Naseeruddin Shah, Divya Dutta, Sharad Kelkar, Rajesh Sharma, Sagarika
Ghatge
Hindi
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It is called the “Cancer
Train”, christened thus by locals because it transports scores of cancer
patients from Bathinda in Punjab to the city of Bikaner, Rajasthan, for
treatment. Available media reports suggest that the surge in cancer cases in Bathinda
is a result of the uncontrolled use of pesticides by the region’s farmers. This
week’s Hindi film release Irada points
us in another direction: groundwater pollution caused by local industry.
For red-flagging an
unnerving issue alone, Irada deserves
kudos. Director Aparnaa Singh’s film is about an explosion in a plant owned by
an influential businessman called Paddy Sharma (Sharad Kelkar) who derives his
power from the funds he supplies to the state’s ruling party. Chief Minister Ramandeep
Braitch (Divya Dutta) is in his pocket and agrees to hush up the motive behind
the blast, since it might have something to do with the waste disposal methods
practised at the factory. She calls in NIA officer Arjun Mishra (Arshad Warsi)
to do the job for her. Also in the picture are the writer Parbjeet Walia
(Naseeruddin Shah) and journalist Maya Singh (Sagarika Ghatge of Chak De fame) whose activist boyfriend
disappears under mysterious circumstances.
The basic theme is
laudable no doubt, but Irada fails to
expand the premise into a relatable flesh-and-blood story peopled by flesh-and-blood
sufferers. If we view it purely for its worth as a documentary, the information
it provides is sketchy. As a fiction feature, it has limited value because it
deals in broad brush strokes and a macro view of the situation instead of
drawing us into a micro view of individuals reeling under this calamity.
There is a woman in
a hospital whose child looks on as she tells a cop about a sacrifice her
husband made to pay for her treatment. Perhaps we could have been better
acquainted with her? Or that mother who describes the train’s passengers to a
stranger as matter-of-factly as if she were speaking of a regular tourist
vehicle?
But no, the writers
– Singh herself with Anushka Ranjan – give these characters mere seconds in Irada, dwelling instead on the
authorities’ efforts to cover up their crimes. Fair enough. The story of evil
is worth telling too. Sadly, here again the scanty screenplay reduces the
persons involved to summaries rather than full-blown people.
Instead of being a
human-interest saga, Irada tries to
be a thriller. There were possibilities there too. Who engineered the blast?
Why? More important, how did the culprit manage to execute the plan? On this
front too, the film does not take off because its bare-bones account of the
investigation is just so silly.
Mishra, for
instance, stares at walls, wrings his hands and snatches deductions out of thin
air. Walia recites poetry that is supposedly filled with clues – it is meant to
sound clever but is not. Singh has almost nothing to do, thus ensuring that
next time too we will be compelled to describe Ghatge as
“Sagarika Ghatge of Chak De fame”.
And the big reveal in the end is a damp squib not because it is not a surprise,
but because I no longer gave a damn.
Imagine a film
boasting of names like Warsi, Shah, Dutta and Rajesh Sharma in its credits, yet
not extracting a single memorable moment from them in its 110 minutes. It is
not that they are bad here, but that they are ordinary – which is what talented
actors often are when confronted with uninspiring writing and lax direction.
It is heartbreaking
for any film buff to see Warsi wander passionlessly through this project just
seven days after the release of Jolly LLB 2, a brand that owes much of its recall value to his performance as the
protagonist in its wonderful precursor, Jolly LLB. Is this marvellous actor doing something wrong or does Bollywood have
skewed priorities, that he has been replaced in Part 2 by Akshay Kumar – a
superstar no doubt, but not in the same league as an artiste – while Warsi
himself is relegated to being the lead in a half-baked, low-profile venture
like Irada?
That question is
just a small part of the tragedy that is this new film. Punjab’s “Cancer Train” should be the subject of multiple Indian films and media reports. Little
purpose is served though if you zero in on a crucial theme but do not breathe life into it. Irada (meaning: intent)
is an opportunity lost to draw mass attention to a pressing concern. What a
waste!
Rating
(out of five stars): 1/2
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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110 minutes 7 seconds
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This
article was also published on Firstpost:
Poster
courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irada_(2017_film)
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