Kesari: Chapter 2 movie review - Truly, zubaan kesari

Kesari Chapter 2A Historical dramaDir Karan Singh TyagiCast Akshay Kumar R Madhavan Ananya PandayRating 355The same dastardly event ie the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of April 13 1919 has been dramatised in different ways in films from Richard Attenboroughrsquos Gandhi 1982 to Shoojit Sircarrsquos Sardar Udham 2021While the latter recreates the genocide in a bloodily detailed longdrawn sort of way Ram Madhvanirsquos series The Waking of a Nation 2025 deliberately avoids the explicit visuals altogetherAnd that tells you all about the tone of a filmseries right away As with Kesari Chapter 2 similarly centred on the said episodeWherein upon the firingorders of General Reginald Dyer Simon Paisley Day the first bullet almost sized like a torpedo goes off in slow motion hitting its target in the packed Amritsar parkMerciless mayhem follows while you find a lirsquol boy yoursquove just made onscreen acquaintance with screaming under a heap of dead bodies that his hand struggles through to wave out in the airKesari Chapter 2 is a mainstream emotional historical drama Which is inevitably the most effective way for a filmstory to travel to widest audiencesThat said therersquos nothing seemingly hysterical about it Not a moment that yoursquoll cringe Itrsquos more likely to draw critical acclaim This is rareSuch is the powerpacked uncluttered uncomplicated storytellingmdashbuilding scene over scene twists over turns and performances to top the otherAlready therersquos something ironic about this film titled as an official sequel to Anurag Singhrsquos Kesari 2019 which was on the 1897 Battle of Saragarhi with unbelievably outnumbered Sikh soldiers fighting against Afghan tribesmenWho were the Sikhs fighting for there Besides their own honour the British Who are the Sikhs fighting against in this filmThe same Britishmdashonly about two decades later seeking freedom from the tyranny of the Empire thatrsquos gunned down over a thousand peaceful protestorsPlus that colonial state refuses to even acknowledge the incident let alone punish its perpetrators namely the Punjab Lt Governor Michael OrsquoDwyer Mark Bennington or their military general DyerIMO Akshay Kumar as Havaldar Ishar Singh in Kesari had delivered perhaps his finest performance till date This is a more wellrounded role But hersquos not even a sardar in Kesari 2He plays a Malayali Nair Literally on the face of it this might be an odd casting choice You could simply interchange the Punjabi Tirath Singh OrsquoDwyerrsquos legal adviser ie actor Amit Sial with Akshay for their respective parts and it would make more senseAnd yet this is visibly not an issue Akshay plays it supremely straight hardly bothering with Malayali mannerismsaccents or hitting unnecessary notesmdashhe simply adds to the drama as against getting in the way of itThe cinema swag is important As you would expect from this protagonist whorsquos a hotshot lawyer knighted for his services to the Empire where he was supposedly the only Indian on the Viceroyrsquos CouncilHersquos meant to toe the British line on Jallianwala Bagh He doesnrsquot Thatrsquos the conflict The resolution of which is that the worldmdashas a result of the legal battle against the Crownmdashgot to learn details on what arguably remains the biggest terror attack in historyDid such a gentleman Sir Sankaran Nair actually exist As it turns out he did We know this from husbandwife Raghu and Pushpa Palatrsquos book The Case That Shook the Empire that this picture evidently draws fromRaghu if Irsquom not mistaken happens to be Sankaranrsquos great grandson The nonfiction book as I can see online was sufficiently peerreviewedDoes it match the movie For one we know that the said legal battle took place in the Court of the Kingrsquos Bench in London the Empirersquos highest court As opposed to a trial court in Amritsarlocally hereWhat else In the sensemdashdid the other lead in the film R Madhavanrsquos drunk AngloIndian character Advocate Neville McKinley that the Brits have plucked out of ignominy to take on Sankaran also exist in historyI donrsquot know The picture has surely got me intrigued to pick up the book The reverse would have served no entertainment purpose personallyFor while the film is on your eyes are really glued to the turns in the case and the sparring matches in the courtroom dramaThe plot is tight as a threepiece suitmdasheven if yoursquoll excuse the characters in this film wearing them in Bombayrsquos Colaba while Masaba Gupta does a sweet lirsquol jazzcabaret number nice touch thereCredit for the fact that this talkheavy picture holds your attention through and through must foremost go to the debutant writerdirector Karan Singh TyagiI donrsquot what it ismdashperhaps the film industryrsquos stuck between coteries and CVsmdashyou barely come across untested filmmakers killing it on the big screen of late This onersquos a notable exceptionI understand Jallianwala Bagh has featured already in a Hindi series and film lately But you can also see why it continues to inspireLook at the issues involvedmdashunlawful detentions by the state government hiding death tolls upholders of law openly running amok against dissentersprotestorshellipBesides the unimaginable tragedy Jallianwala remains relevant foreveratOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params

Kesari: Chapter 2 movie review - Truly, zubaan kesari

Kesari: Chapter 2
A: Historical drama
Dir: Karan Singh Tyagi
Cast: Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, Ananya Panday
Rating: 3.5/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / Kesari: Chapter 2 movie review - Truly, zubaan kesari

Kesari: Chapter 2 movie review - Truly, zubaan kesari

Kesari: Chapter 2A: Historical dramaDir: Karan Singh TyagiCast: Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, Ananya PandayRating: 3.5/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Kesari: Chapter 2
A: Historical drama
Dir: Karan Singh Tyagi
Cast: Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, Ananya Panday
Rating: 3.5/5