Ashdoc's movie review---What about Savarkar ??

by ashdoc Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:41 pm

Vinayak Damodar Savarkar---Leader of the Hindu mahasabha , who coined the word 'hindutva' and is considered one of the fathers of right wing nationalism....
But naturally , the parties which depend heavily upon the votes of minorities have always looked upon him as their pet hate....
So during the rule of the Congress government , petroleum minister Mani Shankar Aiyyar not only denounced Savarkar , but also had the plaque inscribing his name removed from the cellular jail in the Andamans where the British government had imprisoned him .

This movie is a nationalist's wishful dreaming---that of a marathi youth taking revenge for this insult to Savarkar by publicly humiliating the (pseudo)secular politician .
Actually no such revenge has occurred , but the movie is about what right wing nationalists would like to happen to Ayyengar ( that is the name given to the politician in the movie , though it is obvious as to who he really is ) if they managed to lay their hands upon him .

And the luminaries of the right wing nationalist movement of marathi cinema have assembled in the movie to give their powerful voice in support of this opinion....yes , Sharad Ponkshe and Avinash Narkar are both in the movie . To those who don't know , they have alternately essayed the role of mahatma Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse in the marathi play 'Mee Nathuram Godse boltoy' ( I am Nathuram Godse speaking ) ; and they have essayed the role with such passion that they have managed to convince those who saw the play that assassinating the mahatma was the correct thing to do....

But the young man to whom the task of humiliating Ayyengar has been given is a young new actor named Shrikant Bhide ; it he who vows to garland Ayyengar with a garland of chappals at a meeting he is to address in Mumbai---so much so that Ayyengar gets shit scared of this threat and shifts his meeting to Delhi....
Yes , the young man played by Shrikant Bhide has this kind of conviction ever since his childhood ; he does not shirk from beating up a man who spits on the soil of his beloved Bharatmata , and gifts his girlfriend a bunch of Indian flags instead of roses when he goes down on his knees in front of her !! And such is his belief in Savarkar's ideal of a Akhand Bharat that his girlfriend whom he intends to marry is from what someone who forgot the Indonesian island of Bali ( Bali is hindu ) has called 'the easternmost outpost of hinduism'---the state of Manipur .

His Manipuri girlfriend is played by Sara Shravan , and Sharad Ponkshe plays his grandfather who encourages him on his mission . The moment he declares his mission on Facebook , he becomes a hunted man....his friends who verbally support him are not ready to bell the cat even though his Facebook post gets 28000 likes . On the other hand , the police declare him in rebellion against the state and TV channels merely publicize the matter for TRPs . Dubious politicians want to use his aim to further their political agenda by joining him with not the nation's flag in hand but their own party's flag....

But his girlfriend sticks loyally to him , and on the way he meets two people of castes that are different from his own Brahmin caste , but who are embibed by similar fire of nationalism---the role played by Atul Todankar is that of a maratha and Avinash Narkar plays a dalit....and both are ready to defy those from their own castes who call this an upper caste crusade....

So does our man on a mission actually complete it ?? Watch the movie for that....

This movie is like a cool breeze of fresh air after the torrent of anti national propaganda by the media and above all by Bollywood....obviously the marathi film industry is not controlled by the D-gang of Dawood Ibrahim that calls the shots of Bollywood from Karachi . The sweet words 'Vande mataram' ring on several occasions in the film ; indeed the lead actors all greet each other with them....and the tricolour is shown fluttering high and mighty in the sky numerous times . The great deeds of Chhatrapati Shivaji are remembered , and those who acceded to the partition of the country are openly denounced !!

The strong point is the music of the film . Savarkar's poems are beautifully sung with music given by guitar and the film's rendering of 'Vande mataram' is easily the best ever I have heard in my life , outclassing A R Rahman's shrill rendering of it by miles....
Photography is sublime , of Konkan's tranquil seas and virgin beaches and coconut trees gently swaying in the wind and also of Manipur's misty mountains and dense green forests . Inspirational are the shots of Amritsar's golden temple and Jallianwala baug . Superb Urdu couplets by Avinash Narkar add their own lustre to the movie .

If there is any weak point , it is climax which comes too abruptly . There should have been more drama created at the end in my opinion . The weak ending reduced my verdict from 'Good' to 'very decent' . But there is no doubt that this is the movie that nationalists have been dreaming about for a long time....and for them , it's a must see....

Verdict---Very decent .
Three stars .