“Get the f*** out of my country”, a dialogue by Akshay Kumar will go down as one of the proudest and most encaptivitating dialogues in Bharatiya cinema. The resounding applause and a realisation about the resilience exhibited by our ancestors captured the mood as one exited the theatre after watching Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh. To summarise, this cinema is a masterpiece. The cinema not only brings to light the grit and tenacity of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair but also presents how Jallianwala Bagh was a well orchestrated genocide committed by the imperialist British. The cinema is very hard hitting and makes one traverse an entire spectrum of emotion from extreme joy to extreme sorrow, from being the proudest to the most despair, it is a roller coaster that grips the audience. The cinema takes us through history to make us understand the value of our freedom and the amount of sacrifice made by our ancestors to free us from the clutches of the British. Let’s understand the cinema in detail.
Kesari Chapter 2 captures the fight of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair against the British as he took the crown to court for the Jallianwala Bagh genocide. The cinema is a courtroom drama that takes creative liberties to depict the fight of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair. In contrast to the real-life case of defamation filed by Michael O’Dwyer in London High Court against Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair for his book Gandhi and Anarchy, in which he held Michael O’Dwyer responsible for Jallianwala Bagh genocide, the cinema shifts the entire landscape to Bharat and portrays General Dyer as the main antagonist instead of Michael O’Dwyer. Some are criticising the use of this creative liberty and trying to label patriotism showcased as jingoism. Such naysayers should be discredited and discarded as the cinema never shows Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair winning the case, but only brings the atrocity to public knowledge, as was the case in real life. Thus, irrespective of these creative liberties, the cinema captures the essence of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair’s fight against the crown and the atrocities of the British against their colonised people. The cinema starts with how Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair served the British and how he received knighthood for his services, and eventually, post the Jallianwala Bagh incident, how he fought the British Empire in court for their atrocities and genocide in Jallianwala Bagh. The cinema is very well made. The scenes are very well shot and take us back to the 1920s. Owing to the impeccable Production Design & costumes, the British era comes to life on the big screen. The direction by Karan Singh Tyagi is above par excellence. The director weaves the main plot with multiple subplots to put forward an edge of the seat cinema that leaves one satiated. The writing by Amritpal Singh Bindra again deserves a mention. Though the cinema is based on the book ‘The Case That Shook The Empire’ by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat, the adaptation in the form of a cinema is simply perfect. The dialogues by Sumit Saxena and Akshat Ghildial are a show stealer. There are multiple dialogues that one remembers long after the cinema concludes. The background score and the music by Shashwat Sachdev, Kavita Seth, and Kanishk Seth is one to savour. The songs, especially ‘O Shera’ and ‘Kithe Gaya Tu Saaiyaan’, touch the heart. Also, the revisit of ‘Teri Mitti’ in one of the most powerful scenes gives goosebumps. The soul of the cinema lies in towering performances by the lead actors. Akshay Kumar’s portrayal of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair will be remembered for decades. The multiple layers of his personality, from being a jurist to a British loyalist to a freedom fighter, are very well portrayed on screen. His performance in one of the last monologues of the cinema makes the audience feel every bit of the emotions. Very powerful, very impactful. The performance of R Madhavan as a courtroom genius touches the right nerves. He comes across as a very assured opposition to Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair. His performance is smooth, and we end up admiring him even more by the end. Ananya Pandey comes as a surprise package, she has matured as an actress. This is especially so in her courtroom monologue, where her performance scales. The performance of all foreign actors, Simon Paisley Day (General Dyer), Michael James Parr (Major Briggs), Mark Bennington (Michael O’Dwyer), and Steven Hartley (Judge McCardie) is praiseworthy. In all of this, Simon Paisley Day is the show stealer with his portrayal of General Dyer. He puts across a performance that is worth hating. His poised expressions of hate towards Bharatiya make one grind his/her teeth. Tirath Singh, played by Amir Sial, doesn’t fail to impress either. The character of Parvathy Nair, Sankaran Nair’s wife, played by Regina Cassandra, could have been better. An alternate good actress from the Malayalam industry could have been more apt to bring more authenticity. However, one small character played by Krish Rao of Pargat is the strongest small character I have seen in a cinema in a long time. He is the literal push in the cinema. The child actor has done a tremendous job. The portrayal of sorrow and courage of Pargat is one of the most powerful things that one takes home after the cinema.
The beauty of this cinema lies in the coalescence of well crafted scenes and powerful dialogues. The depiction of a crumbling British empire through a scene where a newspaper is shown crumbled and the crumbled part has a written depiction of the Empire is magical stuff. Similarly, the top view scenic depiction of Ananya Pandey going to the court in a white dress as a female lawyer while the rest of the men advocates are dressed in black, is shown beautifully. This depiction, in conjunction with a later dialogue by her when Akshay Kumar is asked by reporters whether he is assisted by a female lawyer, she replies, “Doesn’t your England have Queens?” is a wonderful portrayal of a strong woman character. Similarly, the power of wearing a Kada by Akshay Kumar before starting a legal battle against the British gives goosebumps. Another powerful scene where General Dyer is shown standing in the middle of the British flag after being removed from the field service brings the widest of smiles. The real depth of emotions in the cinema is reached when Akshay Kumar reads a letter from the father of Pargat, played by Krish Rao, on how his son was killed by the British, and even in his final moments, how he kept the krantikari in him going. The scene is very powerful, and it makes one teary-eyed. Also, the significance of Ram Navami in olden times, even during the British era, is nicely depicted in the cinema. The cinematography is just brilliant. The director of photography has done a great job. The use of voice over and real life pictures at the start and the end to narrate and build context about history and the aftermath of the incident gives a sense of completion to the cinema. The dialogues of the cinema supplement the overall tonality. Subtle one-liners like “The empire is shrinking” and “Kanoon ki yahi toh Khubsurati hai ki har waqt koi na koi, koi kanoon tod raha hota hai” raise the entire essence of the cinema. Similarly, power packed dialogues like “ Aap mujhe goli maar dijiye and faasi pe latka dijiye, lekin ek baat dhyan se sun lijiye, get the f*** out of my country” signal peak cinema. The amalgamation of great cinematography with power-packed dialogues provides a spectacular viewing.
The theme that the cinema captures needs to be explored as well. The cinema is a story of victory, a story of unification, a story of two parallel Bharats, a story of Dharmic Jagriti, and a story that shows how Jallianwala Bagh was a genocide. There have been many stories of Balidan in our quest for freedom, but the story of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair is the story of victory, where one man’s fight brought the atrocities of the British in front of the world. The story is also a story of unification, where a person from the southern part of Bharat went to Punjab to fight for the cause of the people from the northern part of Bharat. An analogy can be drawn where one Shankara, in the early itihaas, born in Kalady, travelled the length and breadth of the country to unite everyone, and one Sankaran, born in Palakkad district, again travelled the length of Bharat to unite Bharatiyas against the British. The cinema tells a tale of unity. Today when some indulge in petty politics and are hell bent to divide Bharat into South & North, this cinema comes as a tight slap to those morons. The cinema also wonderfully captures the two Bharats that existed during the British era. In a single scene, the director gut-wrenchingly portrays the knighthood of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, while on the other hand, a small boy is seen carrying his little sister, who was shot in Jallianwala Bagh. The juxtaposing gives chills & forces you to think about the dichotomy that existed at that time in full view. The one conversation between Shankaran Nair & Pargat when they meet for the first time defines the complete character of that young boy who refuses to accept the offer of Nair to study & have a career, instead he politely but yet affirmatively tells that I can never go to your school of thought. This envices two Bharats that existed, one which served the British & the other which fought them so that we could live in a free nation today. It was such supreme sacrifices that we now take freedom, freedom of speech and freedom of everything for granted. This is so much so that some even have a huge problem to stand up in the theatre halls for the National Anthem. Can we say that the two Bharats still exist? The dharmic jagriti of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair is also portrayed well. We see that when he is fighting the British, there is no Tilak on his forehead, but when he becomes part of the freedom struggle, there is Tilak on his forehead, signifying a Dharmic Jagriti. Him being more aligned to his roots and Samskriti serves as a guiding path for him to pick up the fight against the British. Moreover, the cinema goes all out to prove that Jallianwala Bagh was a genocide. The filmmakers deserve all the applause for it. Through a systematic point-by-point depiction of how General Dyer planned the killings of Bharatiyas and then how the Britishers went on to downplay the incident, the filmmakers put forth a tale of how oppressed we were that even to tell our story of genocide, we had to fight. With every scene we feel grateful to the filmmakers and just can’t thank them enough.
No matter how ironic it is to see that the Hindi cinema industry took almost a 100 years to celebrate the life of Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair, the cinema packs a punch. There are still naysayers and ambience polluters who are nitpicking to downplay the cinema. Like the unnecessary raising of controversy around the placement of a song performed by Masaba Gupta in the cinema. Those who have seen the cinema, recognise the need for fillers in such intense cinema. Also, the development of the character of R Madhavan revolves around the scene in the film. Anyhow, for those who don’t understand cinema and want to raise unnecessary controversy around subjects, they should not be taken seriously. The cinema deserves all our love and should be seen with family members. Promoting such cinema will help in pushing content on similar subjects. Kesari can be a franchise to bring stories of valour, bravery, resilience & success of Bharat to the celluloid. I hope the makers think seriously in this direction. We should thank Karan Johar for supporting a cinema that celebrates the life of a true hero and explicitly portrays the Jallianwala Bagh incident for what it was, and that is a genocide. Also, such a well-crafted cinema has brought to public debate the lack of remorse shown by the British for a case such as the Jallianwala Bagh genocide. Though the Britishers have committed multiple genocides across the globe but when such powerful cinema reignites the public attention towards an important incident such as the Jallianwala Bagh, one wonders at the extent of shamelessness of the British not to apologise for such a horrific crime. In the present world we hope that this veil of shamelessness will be lifted and the British Parliament to practice their preached and lectured values of human rights come out and say ‘Sorry’!
The writer is the Executive Chief Communication Officer, Vishwa Samvad Kendra, Mumbai. Views expressed are the writer’s personal.
