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Release
date:
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March 21, 2019
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Director:
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Anurag Singh
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Cast:
Language:
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Akshay Kumar,
Suvinder Vicky, Vansh Bharadwaj, Parineeti Chopra
Hindi with
some Punjabi
|
WARNING FOR PARENTS: This is an
extremely violent film filled with Game of
Thrones-grade bloodshed, beheadings and impalements. It is curious that the
Central Board of Film Certification, which has issued A (Adults-only) ratings for far less gore and the use of swear words in recent years, found Kesari fit for a relatively mild UA. In
the Indian system, UA stands for “unrestricted public exhibition subject to
parental guidance for children below the age of 12”. For some perspective,
please note that Udta Punjab was
rated A for its abundance of expletives, the Rani Mukerji-starrer Mardaani was rated A for colourful
language and violence that is tame compared to what we see in Kesari which has got a UA despite heads
being chopped off, an eye being mutilated in close up and, among a zillion
instances of bloodletting,
a clear, lingering shot of a dead Sikh soldier’s
body pierced by multiple swords that have been driven into the ground to hold
him up almost horizontally. (Warning
ends)
Imagine a real-life
battle in which a band of 21 soldiers defended a fort against about 10,000 opponents
and managed to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy. This, according to
records, is what happened at the Battle of Saragarhi in 1897 in which men of
the British Indian Army’s 36th Sikh Regiment warded off Pathan troops for
several hours till their last breath at a small British outpost that falls in
modern-day Pakistan.
There is enough
drama in the truth to merit a nail-biting, breath-stopping film. The truth is
not enough for too many filmmakers though.
So, in the hands of
writer-director Anurag Singh – creator of Punjabi blockbusters making his
Bollywood debut here – Saragarhi gets embellished and twisted to please the
communities it means to pander to and play along with the current dominant
national discourse.
There can be no
doubt about the bravery and skills of the 36th Sikh Regiment, but co-writers
Girish Kohli and Singh seem to consider it an inconvenience that these men
were, after all, fighting for the British Empire. In their bid to turn the 36th
Sikhs into a cause that viewers of Independent India could root for, Kohli and
Singh divert attention from Her Majesty and write conversations into the
screenplay that position Saragarhi as a campaign by brave Sikhs for their qaum and for India’s azaadi.
Then, to cash in on
the prevailing nationalist frenzy steeped in Islamophobia, they present the
Pathans with an absolute lack of nuance as hordes of bloodthirsty, regressive,
cowardly, unethical barbarians fighting a jihad in Allah’s name against a
civilised, liberal, gutsy, noble force.
When Havildar Ishar
Singh (Akshay Kumar), head of the 36th Sikh Regiment at Saragarhi, opens his
mouth and roars, the Pathans, though armed to the teeth, cower before him as
the Pakistan Army did nearly two decades back when Sunny Deol hollered at them
and threatened them with a handpump he had uprooted with his bare hands. Like
old-style Hindi film villains, the Pathans are often stupid to boot and in at
least one scene are shown assaulting a solitary Sikh one by one instead of in
unison. If this film’s version of events is to be believed,
the Pathans’ only strength lay in their numbers and their utter amorality.
Kesari takes its time to get to the battle, spending its somewhat slow-paced first half establishing Ishar’s unwillingness to accept
orders from British seniors that go against his principles, acquainting us with
his wife (Parineeti Chopra) through a long flashback and fantasy sequences in
which he holds imaginary conversations with her, and building up the bond
between him and the men newly under his command at Saragarhi. This segment
is equal parts funny, mushy to cringe-worthy levels and trite.
The momentum picks
up post-interval as does the tension, despite a Sikh soldier breaking into song
at a crucial moment in the battle. But as much as the combat is executed
skilfully and is designed to set pulses racing, the clichéd, populist portrayal
of the Pathans, the Sikhs and vintage Bollywood heroism robs Kesari of all finesse and intelligence.
Far from being a
war drama based on actual events, it then becomes just another Die Hard in which the ever-invincible Bruce Willis is replaced by the ever-invincible
Akshay Kumar. When an
explosion occurs in the midst of tents, sending
them up in flames and consuming everyone within touching distance, only Akshay
a.k.a. Ishar emerges unscathed. The Pathans are so intimidated by him that even
when he is completely surrounded, it takes them time to attack him all at one
go. As it happens, Ishar is also a saint.
The manner in which
Kesari stereotypes the Muslim Pathans
– the marauding mob, the evil mullah, the wily and campish sniper – fits the
narrative being pushed by the present Indian establishment. (And for the
benefit of discerning viewers who might object, two ‘good’ Muslims are thrown
into the mix for good measure.) While this aspect of the film merits a
discussion considering the wave of Islamophobia sweeping across today’s world,
it is equally important to focus on the positive othering of Sikhs.
Bollywood
categorises Sikhs into two clear-cut groups: the undiluted boisterous buffoon and the undiluted braveheart. Kesari deals in the latter. The positive stereotyping of
marginalised and minority communities tends to lull liberals and members of
those communities into complacence, but needs to be viewed with concern for
what it is: a sugar-coated form of othering, a manifestation of the filmmaker’s
inability to see that community as “one of us” or, at worst, a mask for
prejudice. If you find your heart warming up to the routine pedestalising of Sikhs in Hindi films, remember that pre-2000 Hindi
cinema was marked by a positive stereotyping of Muslims, with the
golden-hearted, all-sacrificing Muslim being a regular in stories back then.
What did that trope seek to hide?
Blanket statements
and blanket characterisations of communities in films should always give us
pause.
To say none of this
matters if a film is entertaining amounts to denying the power of cinema. Yes,
Akshay’s natural charisma does come through in Kesari when he is not over-acting. Yes, the men under his command
are well cast, with Suvinder Vicky and Vansh Bharadwaj
particularly making a mark as the supportive Lal Singh and the rebellious
Chanda Singh respectively. Yes, the cinematography by Anshul Chobey is impressive and the battle scenes are more technically
polished than the recent Manikarnika.
And yes, the passing reference to caste discrimination among Sikhs is a greater
acknowledgement of caste than we are used to from Bollywood. But none of this
should distract us from the sad reality that Kesari’s makers do not have faith in the very story they claim to
tell.
Early in Kesari, a British officer taunts Ishar
Singh – the soil of Hindustan births only cowards, he says. His contempt sparks
off a rage in Ishar and a desire to demonstrate that Indians are valiant. He
spouts a line around this time about how he is tired of the enslavement of his
people, first by Mughals and now by the British. This entire portion is written
to indicate that the 36th Sikh Regiment fought at Saragarhi for their own
self-respect and, in
the long run, India’s freedom, not because they were paid to do so nor
out of loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen of England. What a perfect example of
mindless cinematic patriotism – it seems not to have occurred to the writers,
that at the end of the day, what their film is saying is that Ishar’s goal was
to prove himself to his white master.
Irrespective of
what the 36th Sikhs’ actual motivations were, obviously theirs was a historic
last stand worthy of a film. When an honest army procedural could have had an
impact, the team of Kesari chose
instead to be a barely disguised propaganda vehicle and to chronicle this
remarkable episode with self-defeating twists. A spot of exaggeration here and
there could of course be explained away as cinematic licence, even the loudness
and
initial tempo could have been excused, but this
goes way beyond that. It is as if Team Kesari
were dissatisfied with the truth about the 36th Sikh Regiment who, ironically,
they seek here to lionise.
Rating (out
of five stars): **
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CBFC Rating (India):
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UA
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Running time:
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150 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
Poster
courtesy:
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