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Release
date:
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May 31, 2019
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Director:
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Zaigham Imam
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Cast:
Language:
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Inaamulhaq, Kumud
Kumar Mishra, Sharib Hashmi, Rajesh Sharma, Pawan Tiwari, Harminder Singh
Alag, Gulki Joshi
Hindi
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When routine tales
of human decency and human interactions make headlines, you know a society is
in trouble. News ought to be that which is uncommon, unusual, unexpected, and
out of the ordinary. Yet Allah Rakha Siddiqui a.k.a. Allah Miyan (clever, huh?)
finds himself becoming a subject of media curiosity even as he is ostracised by
fellow Muslims and viewed with suspicion by Hindus in the present day for his
commitment to a craft that his family has practised for generations.
Allah Miyan is the
protagonist of Nakkash (Engraver/Carver/Sculptor),
which draws its title from the nakkashi
work he does in Varanasi temples. It is a skill he acquired in his childhood
from his father. He knows no other trade, and now relies on it to take care of
his son Mohammad. As it happens, he is that rare single dad in Hindi cinema who
does not make a song and dance about being “baap
bhi aur maa bhi” (both a father and a mother) to his child, an
unconventional hero whose parenting challenges, love and commitment are no
different from the conventionally portrayed mother.
The world as Allah
Miyan once knew it is changing though, with Hindutva politics shaping the
majority community’s increasing antagonism towards him while minority community
fanatics deride him. Through his troubles, his faith in humanity is
kept intact by two factors: first, the secular values of the temple priest
Bhagwan Das Vedanti who has complete faith in him and fights off Hindu bigots
opposed to a Muslim presence in a Hindu holy place, and second, the unstinting
support of his lively best friend Samad who keeps his spirits up and advocates
for him within their own community.
It goes without
saying that the theme of Nakkash is
relevant to the times we live in, where right-wing establishments worldwide
have been overtly promoting animosity between communities. Relevance does not
necessarily make for great cinema though, and Nakkash starts off looking like it might possibly go down a clichéd
sermonising route. Fortunately, it does not – it simply tells a relatable
story. When, for instance, Vedanti asks an embarrassed policeman, “While eating
food, do you check to find out whether the grain came from a Hindu or a Muslim
farmer?” he is not preaching, he is confronting an ideological fence-sitter
with fundamentalist leanings in a conversation that echoes animated debates
taking place in drawing rooms across the country these days.
Nakkash examines the politics of hate through Allah Miyan whose innocence makes him a misfit in contemporary
India. The sources of its inspiration are
easy to spot. Such as with the politician Munna Bhaiyya who says in a speech, “Saathiyon, iss desh pe sabse pehla haq
hamara hai. Yahaan pe koi baahar se nahin aa sakta.” (Friends, we have the
foremost claim over this country. No outsider can come in here.) He does not
name the “we” or the “outsider” nor is any real-life political party mentioned,
but the references are unmistakable.
Writer-director-producer
Zaigham Imam’s last film, Alif (2017),
also revolved around Hindu-Muslim politics. It was a well-intentioned but
shoddy affair. Imam has evolved dramatically with Nakkash, which not only tells its story well, but is also
technically stronger. From the quality of the visuals it appears that he had a
larger budget available this time round, especially for cinematography (Asit
Biswas) and art design (Sumit Mishra). This is not a perfect production – for one,
the grandeur of Allah Miyan’s metal carvings in the sanctum sanctorum of
Vedanti’s temple is not adequately captured – but it is still overall a nice-looking
film and miles ahead of Alif in every
department.
In terms of
narrative style, Imam swings between naturalism and an occasionally operatic
tone, which suits Nakkash well. The
plot is not designed as a thriller meant to dazzle us with its twists and
turns. It is instead a believable slice-of-life saga in a toxic setting.
Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk last year is one of the few Hindi
films in this hyper-Hindutva decade that has had the courage to discuss in
black-and-white the troubled relationship between India’s Hindus and Muslims or
the persecution of Muslims by the Indian establishment. It was frank about
Islamophobia without looking at Muslims through rose-tinted glasses in the way
a certain kind of Bollywood cinema once did. Nakkash goes deeper into the minuses of both communities, holding
nothing back while highlighting the great, the good, the bad and the ugly among
both.
Considering the
film’s progressiveness on one front, the absence of a significant female
perspective on the issues at hand is glaring. The only couple of women in
the picture are marginal to the action. This is inexcusable because in most
scenarios of communal persecution women end up being the greatest sufferers.
Nakkash’s other creases feel minor in comparison. The closing
montage, for instance, is stretched and given a maudlin air. The supporting
cast’s performances could have done with some finessing here and there, particularly
the female actor lamenting an assault on Allah Miyan who sounds tacky. Though
Harminder Singh Alag as Mohammad is cute and shares a sweet chemistry with
Inaamulhaq, he needed to loosen up a bit.
The lead cast
though is superb. Sharib Hashmi as Allah Miyan’s endearingly mischievous and
enigmatic buddy Samad outdoes himself, his character offering an illustrative
example of the burdens that patriarchy places on men and also the dangers in a
mindless, literal interpretation of religious scriptures and edicts. If you,
like me, loved him in Filmistaan, his
performance alone makes Nakkash worth
watching.
Kumud Mishra
(credited here as Kumud Kumar Mishra) lives up to his track record as one of
Bollywood’s finest artistes with the dignity and stoicism he lends to Vedanti.
Rajesh Sharma,
another of Bollywood’s best, has a much smaller but possibly tougher role. As a
Varanasi Police Inspector who mouths some of Nakkash’s uglier lines, he makes a transition that perhaps only
Sharma could have conveyed as he does, leaving us guessing about which end of
the political spectrum this man will ultimately choose.
Pawan Tiwari, who
is also one of Nakkash’s producers,
makes the despicable Munna both repulsive and terrifying, yet stops short of
caricaturing him.
On the shoulders of
Inaamulhaq falls the role of the socially awkward, reticent Allah Miyan. The
actor is so far known most for brilliantly playing a Bollywood-obsessed
Pakistani smuggler of pirated CDs alongside Hashmi in Filmistaan. He is an intriguing casting choice because he is not a
conventional charmer who could invite empathy by his mere presence on screen –
his likeability is derived entirely from the strength of his performances, and
here he makes the interesting choice of putting no effort into giving Allah
Miyan any overtly attractive touches. In fact when he meets a prospective
bride, the actor goes in the opposite direction and makes the character
decidedly odd. It is this scene though that, with blinding sharpness, throws
light on the kind of person this apparently non-descript chap truly is – not a
born liberal revolutionary, but a regular conservative Indian male whose social
conditioning does give him pause when he is faced with unconventional choices
yet a man who, despite his shuffling demeanour, somehow finds the strength and
courage to walk the road less travelled. In an India rife with negativity and
backward mindsets, his story is both heartening and heart-breaking.
Because of Allah
Miyan, Vedantisaab and the Inspector, as much as Nakkash is a cause for despair, it is also a wellspring of hope.
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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104 minutes
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This review has also been published on Firstpost:
Poster
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