Kesari Chapter 2 is unforgettable, important look at hidden history

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Besides the biopics of known heroes, Hindi cinema is now replete with unknown stories of lesser-known patriots. Only a few weeks we had The Diplomat. Akshay Kumar, who has backed and acted in many such movies, had planned this life story of Sir C. Sankaran Nair, a fierce patriot and lawyer for years now. Instead of releasing it under the title originally planned, he and his producers’ team shrewdly decided to add it as the second part of the hit Kesari franchise.

Kesari 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh, does not have a Sikh hero. It has over 2000 Sikh victims in the carnage that was the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Where the human butcher, General Dyer, unleashed a fusillade of bullets on unsuspecting Sikh men, women and children who were not only celebrating Baisakhi (the Punjabi New Year) but also quietly protesting against the Rowlatt Act passed by the British rulers.

Kirpal Singh (Jaipreet Singh) is falsely implicated, his prosecution lawyer is Chettur Sankaran Nair (Akshay Kumar) and he is sent to prison. But his wife and small children, including son Pargat (Krish Rao) are at the Jallianwala ground on that ill-fated day when the genocide happens. Pargat survives and even as his father had praised Sankaran’s skills but told him that he is fighting for the “wrong side”, Pargat, a brilliant artist, makes painting after painting depicting the horrors he has watched and exposing the truth.

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An elaborate cover-up is arranged for Dyer, and one more person who inspires Sankaran to face the truth and revolt is Dilreet Gill (Ananya Panday), a rookie lawyer. By now, Sankaran has been rewarded for his services with a knighthood.

But Sankaran sees the light and is goaded into action by Pargat and Dilreet and a case is filed against General Dyer (Simon Paisley Day) and the Crown. The courts follow the British system, and several Indians are in their payroll as employees. And many side with them.

When Sankaran decides to be the prosecuting attorney, the crown chooses the formidable Neville McKinley (R. Madhavan) for the defense. McKinley, of mixed Indian and British parentage, also believes in the law, but has a personal score to settle with one-time friend Sankaran.

After that, the case moves in twists and turns as the initially calm and stoic Sankaran still manages (with Dilreet) to dig out revealing facts and almost win the case, but the wily British and McKinley manipulate to have the two absent on the final day of hearing and the facts are twisted enough for the jury to acquit Dyer. A heartbroken Sankaran goes back to town, but there is hope in store, and a dramatic turnaround.

The film begins with an approximately 10-minute depiction of the horrors of the tragedy, and the visuals are very visceral. A surge of compassion and anger are sure to be felt by every viewer with a shred of humanity within him, and the movie ends with the shocking truth: that till date, no one from Britain, officially or unofficially, has uttered so much as a word of apology for this barbaric and ruthlessly, inhumanly planned massacre of Indians.

Despite the liberal dramatizations in the movie (the film’s Disclaimer even says it is inspired fiction!!), the film hits home and is based on the book, The Case that shook the Empire: One Man’s Fight for the Truth about the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre” authored by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat, great-grandson of Sankaran, and his wife respectively. The screenplay is gritty, authentic in feel and the dialogues are loaded with brevity and welcome punches at the same time.

Cinematographer Debojeet Ray’s work is uniformly outstanding and toned to perfection along with the DI and VFX by Futureworks. Nitin Baid executes a sharp pair of scissors. The rest of the technical; values are fabulous. The music is as usual fragmented, but Kitthe gaya tu saiyyan and O shera work well with the Punjabi overtones. Most of the songs are composed by Shashwat Sachdev, and his background score here ranks among the best this year.

And if this is the first film of Karan Singh Tyagi as director (and co-writer), we can indeed expect great things from him in future. The court scenes pack a solid wallop, and the sequences between Pargat and Sankaran, the Kirpal Singh-Sankaran faceoff outside the courtroom, the applause-worthy sequences including the F word, and the final long sequence in which Dyer is indicted are all masterful examples of Karan’s cinematic skills.

Needless to add, the beginning of the film is shatteringly moving and there is little that is lacking by way of emotions as well as cinematic esthetics in this story, kept mercifully crisp at 2 hours 12 minutes.

Akshay Kumar looks far from being a Kerala native, but so strong is his conviction in the film and his character that he brings Sankaran magnificently to life. In fact, this is easily one of the actor’s most understated iconic performances and one sincerely hopes that it is not underrated!

Some colleagues told me that Ananya Panday was a revelation, but no doubt they have not watched the actress in Call Me Bae: she was amazing in that meaty role and is on dot as the intense Dilreet in her career’s finest film performance. So much for Nepo-Kids in Hindi cinema! R. Madhavan yet again chooses a great (and gray) character and comes out shining. Methinks that his and Akshay’s roles could have been exchanged in the name of suitable looks but that would have been commercially harmful to the film and what it wants to expose. In any case, these fine actors are the soul of the film along with Ananya.

Simon Paisley Day makes for a believable Dyer, and Amit Sial yet again gives an impeccable performance. Krish Rao is superb as Pargat, and among the rest, Regina Cassandra as Sankaran’s supportive wife, and Rohan Verma as Jaan Nisar Akhtar score.

The film is a must-watch for its important revelations, aided by the emotional strength of the story, which is real enough to gut-wrenchingly shake the foundations of our souls.

Rating: ****1/2

Dharma Productions’, Cape of Good Films’s & Leo Media Collective’s Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh  Produced by: Hiroo Yash Johar, Karan Johar, Aruna Bhatia, Adar Poonawalla, Apoorva Mehta, Amritpal Singh Bindra & Anand Tiwari  Directed by: Karan Singh Tyagi Written by: Raghu Palat, Pushpa Palat, Karan Singh Tyagi, Amritpal Singh Bindra & Sumit Saxena  Music: Shashwat Sachdev, Kavita Seth, Sangtar & Arko Starring: Akshay Kumar, R. Madhavan, Ananya Panday, Regina Cassandra, Amit Sial, Simon Paisley Day, Krish Rao, Rohan Verma, Jaideep Singh, Mark Bennington, Luke Kenny, Atul Kumar, Alexandra Moloney, Michael James Parr, Steven Hartley & others

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