Siddharth Anand’s Pathaan looks at global terrorism with a winking flourish. It is cool and clever and gives the terrorist antagonist a chance to have a say.
There are other recent Hindi films which also opened the doors to a sensible debate on terrorism and counter-terrorism. Neeraj Pandey’s Baby (2015) is an enormously engaging take on international terrorism. It takes guts to make a film which calls a spade a spade…Or Pakistan the hub of terrorism in the Asian subcontinent. Pandey who has already proved himself to be a riveting raconteur with A Wednesday and Special 26 goes for the kill with supreme skill. This is his bravest and most epic effort yet.
Although Pandey made disappointing films after Baby, he would still be remembered forever by posterity for giving Indian cinema one of its most solidly-constructed cat-and-mouse thrillers in living memory. Outwardly, Baby with its theme of a bunch of Braveheart apprehending international terrorists at the risk of their own lives and their family’s wellbeing, has nothing to offer that we haven’t seen in several films in the counter-terror genre before. What places Baby far above the routine thrillers is its refreshing lack of circumvention in the storytelling.
Straightaway Pandey’s film takes us into the life of the counter-terrorist Ajay (Akshay Kumar) as he grapples to locate a colleague who has been betrayed by one of their own and taken hostage by terrorists. We have seen such agile dramatic situations in any number of Ajay Devgn, Sunny Deol and Akshay Kumar starrers. Immediately, we sense the difference. In Baby there is a palpable predilection for building unbearably suspenseful action sequences without losing the essential authenticity of the situation. All through the riveting drama, Ajay and his team (Tapsee Pannu, Rana Daggubati and other splendidly in-character actors who show up with him in different sections of the narrative) push the envelope of counter-terrorism without toppling into the abyss of self-congratulation.
No one has to tell us. We sense we are in the midst of a very important docu-drama on the violence of our times. A part of the film’s edifying mood of bridled energy comes from Akshay Kumar’s screen presence. He is in control, powerful and effective without throwing his muscles around the screen to prove his heroic stature.
One of the film’s most interesting subtext is its attitude to heroism and machismo. When we see the hero in Baby conquer the plunderers, we don’t see the routine posturing that screen heroism is always accompanied by. Ajay and his team are doing a job. They want to do it as well as any professional. The difference lies in the mortality level: this hero and his team could get killed at any time. And you know what? They don’t care!I wish Akshay’s home life had been given a little more prominence. The film seems to eschew emotional bonding as a sign of weakness. Men like Ajay who have a country to save are best spared from the responsibilities of householders.
Anubhav Sinha’s Mulk (2018) serves as a jolting reminder of how far into the darkest recesses of distrust and animosity, terrorism has taken the blame game. First of all, it is very hard to believe that Sinha, whose earlier credits included fluff stuff like Tum Bin and Ra.One, actually created this modern political masterpiece which attempts very successfully to humanize a community that has been demonized by some negative elements.
And yet, Mulk doesn’t take sides, doesn’t make the Indian Muslim community a portrait of injured innocence. What it does do—and full-marks to Anubhav Sinha for writing a script that doesn’t bend backwards to humanize the community under siege—is to lay bare the layers of deception that mars a truly fruitful dialogue between sane rational elements in both the Hindu and Muslim community.
When the son (Prateik Babbar) from a Muslim family in the dense bylanes of Varanasi decides to became a so-called jihadi, the ramifications on his family are deep and wounding. It is in portraying the family’s anguish that Anubhav emerges with cinema that’s masterly and timely. There comes a time in the taut narrative when the patriarch of the family is asked to choose between home and safety. Rishi Kapoor making that resolute choice reminded me of Balraj Sahni in Garm Hawa.
Kapoor had shaped up into that rare actor who can do anything effortlessly. His portrayal of Murad Ali Mohammad is clenched and compelling. He brings to the character an empathy that never serenades selfpity. But my favourite performances in the film are by Manoj Pahwa as Rishi Kapoor’s hounded brother and Rajat Kapoor as a Muslim anti-terror police officer who has turned against his own community to cleanse its reputation.
Manoj Pahwa as the terror-accused father of a jihadi, makes your heart melt with compassion. In the best-written sequence of the film he tells his brother why he always tried to be a good sibling, and never failed to fall short. Also brilliant is the ever-capable Kumud Mishra as the judge presiding over a case that in may ways, changes the way we look at terror-accused families, not to mention court proceedings in our films. Ashutosh Rana and Tapsee Pannu are absolutely brilliant as the prosecutor and defense lawyer. And when Taapsee Pannu takes over the climactic courtroom finale questioning why our society has polarized into “them” and “us”, she proves herself one of the strongest contemporary female actors today.
Some moments in this thought-process reforming drama made me break into goosebumps. When the terrorist-son’s body is brought home, we hear sounds of mothered anguish and panic, as the camera moves through the family home prowling in pursuit of answers to questions that lie too deep for tears. I am not surprised that Evan Mulligan’s camera has captured the splintered cultural conundrum of Varanasi like never before. Mulk is a work that won’t settle for the status quo. It forces us to think and reconsider our value system at a time when cows are valued more than human lives.
And finally Kamal Haasan’’s Vishwaroop (2013) and its sequel (2018). First things first. Kamal Haasan’s enormously controversial film doesn’t hurt Muslim sentiments. In fact it doesn’t hurt the sentiments of any section of the people except those party-poopers who think having a ball at the movies went out of style with Sholay and Chachi 420. Leave aside its sobering take on global warfare, Vishwaroop is one helluva entertainer. If you’ve forgotten what edge-of-the-seat entertainment mean, then it’s time to rediscover that pleasure. Stylish and substantial the narrative weaves and winds its way into coherent and compulsive threads that bring together the theme of international espionage with the more sensitive issue of the Islamic and the personal identity of a man whose heroic stature grows out of a sense of commitment to the country and to world peace .
Personal interests, we are told, are easy to put aside if you can define heroism from a context far greater than your own good. The deeper thrusts of Kamal Haasan and Atul Tiwari’s devious screenplay leap out of this compact epic drama which takes off into the Taliban terror outfit in Afghanistan and thence to the New York suburbia where domestic normalcy is replaced by a kind of ceaselessly renewable violence that has gripped working-class lives ever since the 26/11 attack on the US made it clear that international terrorism is here to stay. Deal with it.
Just about the only desirable thing that emerges from the horrific folds of global militancy are some great adventure sagas. And Vishwaroop is as gripping as it gets. The narrative moves steadily and sharply to an inevitable nemesis. Maverick director Kamal Haasan (and this is his best directorial attempt since the grossly underrated Hey Ram in 2000) is in no hurry to tell his tale. Not that he wastes time. The mood for adventure is built quickly. The payoff is enormously satisfying.
With some remarkably austere and sharp editing by Mahesh Narayan and camerawork by Sanu John Verghese that captures scenes of violence with as much rugged candour as the sharply-drawn scenes from the hero’s personal life, Kamal Haasan’s tale of terror during the times of love, witticism, philosophizing and, yes, dancing comes alive in a huge adrenaline rush of adventure, action, drama and other related artistic tools which never come in the way of the actor-director’s primary concern.
Kamal Haasan means business. He is here to narrate an edge-of-the-seat story of international terrorism. The rigorous research that has gone into the plot never weighs down the narration. Whether infiltrating the Al Qaeda (scarily real in the detailing and eerily cinematic in its visual sweep) or focusing on the hijinks of our hero, the creative crossovers in the narrative are achieved with the fluency of chapters in a deftly-written novel where Time is not squandered on superfluous detailing.
And yet, Kamal Haasan avoids getting overly breathless in his narration. Shall we just say, Vishwaroop moves at the pace that it is meant to? Neither measured nor hurried the director negotiates the socio-political and cultural spaces in the plot with an elegant erudition. Gone is the heavily cerebral over-studied atmosphere of Kamal Haasan’s earlier directorial epic Dasavatharam. Also gone is the over-indulgent footage-occupancy of this amazing actor’s recent screen outings. In Vishwaroop, we see as much of Kamal Haasan as much as we want.
Yes, Kamal Haasan dominates the show with three different avatars whose destinies intertwine in ways that one can’t reveal without giving away the plot. But that’s the way the plot unfolds. That is the way it is meant to be. The narrative in this case just can’t get enough of Kamal Haasan. Who but this actor can pull off heart-in-the-mouth never-seen stunts(action director Lee Whittaker and his associates have done a remarkable job) in the same range of vision as an elegantly performed Kathak number?
If anyone leaves a lasting impression after Mr Haasan, it’s Rahul Bose who as an Al Qaeda chap swathes his persona in menace and terror without getting into the gritting-teeth mould. Bose had last played a villain in Govind Nihalani’s Thakshak in 1999. It’s no coincidence that he returns to the colour black in a film that in many ways owes allegiance to the dark sinister angry anti-establishment tales of Nihalani. But Kamal Haasan adds a dash of warmth and humour to the intrinsically ominous saga. He is in terror-land with his tongue firmly in cheek.
The hallmark of this great adventure story is an intricate plot which wears its complexities lightly on its canvas, and a directorial dexterity that negotiates a journey from Afghanistan to the US in search of answers to the conundrum of terrorism, without becoming over-involved in the polemics and politics of the theme. The sharply-drawn characters, the terrifying insight into the psyche of terrorism and the sumptuous mounting and packaging add up to a movie that is quite easily one of the finest adventure sagas in recent times. The action sequences are at last, on a par with Hollywood. Insult to any community? Hah! It would be an insult to the filmmaking community to miss Vishwaroop. Miss this big-screen adventure your own risk.
As for the sequel to Vishwaroop, which came in 2018, this was not a dumbed-down militancy movie. Yes, this is a learned view of terrorism filled with sly references to Obama and 9/11. The uninitiated may find the narrative hard to keep up with. As Kamal Haasan if he cares. But those who enjoy watching a good wack on the back of militancy, Vishwaroop 2 is an engaging if somewhat choppy ride through the terror terrain. At times one doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the coiling-recoiling plot. At one point a RAW senior colleague tells Kamal Haasan that he would like to stare his killer in the eye whenever it happens.
What gives this sequel its spin and spell are the bouts of action shot with the dizzying urgency one witnesses in the war zone. There are two lengthy fights in public restrooms, a la Mission Impossible Fallout. But let’s not even go there. As long as we don’t compare the action sequences with their firangi counterparts things appear pretty engaging in Vishwaroop.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out.
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