A revolting experience

Film: Satyagraha

Director: Prakash Jha

Satyagraha, Prakash Jha's recent endeavour to take up a socially relevant topic and make a film about it, raises the same question as his previous films Chakryavyuh and Aarakshan did. Why? An overburdening series of topical events woven haphazardly into a dramatic narrative, Satyagraha too trivializes a rather deep issue of revolution.

The charges against the film are similar to his previous films. Watering down the intensity for the masses, the film further dilutes its contexts with unnecessary item numbers and romantic scenarios. Set in a town called Ambikapur, somewhere in Central India, the film addresses the rampant corruption that exists in the system and how the people's representatives are detached from the common man himself.

Jha uses his technique of archetypal characters, each of whom stand for a section of society and takes the story forward. Amitabh Bachchan plays Dwarka Anand, an idealist, fondly referred to as Daduji. Ajay Devgan is Manav Raghavendra, an opportunist and the face of modern India. Kareena Kapoor plays Yasmin Ahmed, a tough spirited TV journalist and Arjun Rampal plays Arjun, a youth icon committed to becoming a leader. Manoj Bajpai, who plays Home Minister Balram Singh (the nemesis), is a personification of all the corrupt practices in politics.

After a half-decent build-up in the first half of the film, the film ends up being a victim of some rogue screenwriting. The satyagraha itself, falls on the backdrop of a series of political moves which turns this film into yet another Rajneeti without the obvious parallels to Mahabharat or The Godfather.

The multi-starrer film has some unintentional moments of irony. Amitabh's opening scene in the film sees him curse the officers of 'Alliance Power' a private company that provides electricity. And Ajay Devgan, who in Yuva fought the misgivings of the system by entering it, comes to that very conclusion at the end of this film, after all is lost.

With a loose narrative which doesn't engage you, the film fails on multiple levels. It fails to reflect the gravity of the situation; it fails to put forth the commandments of the philosophy of satyagraha (aside from a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the town's main circle and a fast-unto-death plot point) and it fails to create the atmosphere of urgency, by lingering on the unimportant scenes longer. Let alone the story, the setting of the film lacks cinematic singularity, which we more recently saw in Dibakar Bannerji's Shanghai.

The film has to be discarded primarily for its immature stance and secondly for it being titled Satyagraha. If someone wishes to watch this film to learn about the spirit of non-violent revolution, they'd gain more knowledge by simply looking up the word on Wikipedia. If films could change society instantly, this film would take us one step closer to being naive.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on  August 31, 2013

Naxalism for Dummies

Prakash Jha returns with yet another political thriller, but this time, the product lacks steam. Chakravyuh, based on the naxalite activities in central India is a dilute potion which offers no deep perspective from any vantage point on an issue of large concern in today’s scenario.

The exterior composition of the plot loosely resembles James Cameron’s Avatar, save for the high end 3D graphics and the blue creatures, and ends in a tragedy. Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal) is a police officer who is posted in Nandighat in order to put an end to the armed rebellion that is preventing the Government’s steel project led by a huge business corporation. Nandighat is the proverbial Pandora in Jha’s film and the naxals are the Na’vis. In order to gain access to their plans, Adil plants his close friend, Kabir (Abhay Deol), among the naxals. However, as one can guess, once Kabir gets into the “chakravyuh”, he sees the other side of story – the injustice, oppression and exploitation that the tribals have gone through. He has a change of heart and joins the movement extensively. This is conclusive proof to state that the plot structure has Avatar written all over it.

The film explores the themes of political lobbying, corporate bullying, henpecked police force, oppression of the weak and the poor, naxalism, Salva Judum’s terror, armed rebellion and a lot more. But in an attempt to incorporate all of this, the script fails to significantly establish any of the above. What we get to see is a fleeting glimpse of all of this and are expected to take one-off incidents as the general truth.

The screenplay is unimaginative and in-your-face. After a point, one gets fed up of the deliberate spoon feeding of ideologies and moral side-taking. At several points, one feels as if the scenes are loosely tied together and have abrupt ends. After Gangaajal, Apaharan and Rajneeti, we are used to a certain style of cinema from Prakash Jha where he delves into an issue of socio-political significance and brings the drama on screen radically simplifying it for the masses. Chakravyuh, however, is a step too far in dumbing down a particular issue. The only people who would find this film intriguing are those who have never read a newspaper in the past few years and those who have absolutely no idea about Naxalism and Naxalite activities in the country.

In terms of the artistes’ performances, the film is a mélange of good actors being cast in insignificant roles and bad actors trying hard to make you hate them even more. Abhay Deol and forests don’t go really well together, however, he does quite a convincing job. Om Puri, like Naseeruddin Shah in Rajneeti, appears for a couple of scenes at the start and you begin to fear that was it for him; but he returns in the final third for a couple of important sequences. Arjun Rampal’s Adil Khan keeps you guessing what the prevalent emotion is; for, his face is perpetually angry, or constipated. Esha Gupta (Adil’s wife) cannot act if her life depended on it and her tight little flattering Police uniform resembles that of a stripper more than a real cop. Anjali Patil – who plays Juhi is the only positive talking point of the film. In her role as the secondary chief of the movement, she shows great potential as an actor in an otherwise two dimensional role.

Chakravyuh has all the elements of a Prakash Jha film, except intrigue. An unnecessary item number with Sameera Reddy, a tribal dance number with imprecise costumes and poorly crafted action sequences – this film is a letdown of sorts. With archetypal characters representing various institutions, Chakravyuh is merely a Guide for Dummies. Watch it if you don’t mind an inaccurate beginners’ lesson in Naxalism.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on October 27, 2012