I don’t want any theatrics, sir. But these wise words uttered by a character in Kesari Chapter 2 go unheeded.
The film’s stated agenda is to get the present-day British government to formally apologise for the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, which took place during colonial rule in 1919. To this end, Kesari Chapter 2 recruits Akshay Kumar, assembles a bunch of white actors with work permits and puts on a high-decibel show.
Karan Singh Tyagi’s film, written by him and Amritpal Singh Bindra, is adapted from The Case That Shook the Empire by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat. The non-fiction book explores the real-life C Sankaran Nair’s legal battles against the British in the aftermath of Jallianwala Bagh.
Kesari Chapter 2 shoots from over the shoulder of a supporter of the British Empire who becomes its staunch opponent. The lawyer Sankaran (Akshay Kumar) defends the Crown against Indian revolutionaries but is shaken by the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed protestors on the command of Brigadier Reginald Dyer (Simon Paisley Day).
Together with junior lawyer Dilreet (Ananya Panday), Sankaran puts together evidence to suggest a conspiracy behind the atrocity. Dyer engineered events to corral the protestors into a restricted space from which escape was impossible, Sankaran argues.
Applying their Divide and Rule policy to this case too, the British appoint another Indian against Sankaran. The advocate Neville (R Madhavan) proves to be a formidable ally.
The conspiracy angle is also the subject of the recently released web series The Waking of a Nation. Like the show, Kesari Chapter 2 also claims to be based on recorded history.
The handsomely produced movie rapidly loses sight of its most promising idea – the transformation of a collaborator into a rebel. Complex historical processes are reduced to a series of ludicrous exchanges and incredulous plot turns.
There is some hope in the initial scenes involving around the spy Tirath (Amit Sial), who hunts down dissenters for the British. The perks of the job for Sankaran – knighthood, membership of British clubs – shield him from ground realities.
But Sankaran’s late-breaking discovery that the British are racist, or even that he is a subject of an empire rather than an equal, beggar belief, while also doing the character a disservice. The film soon resembles a shouting match between Sankaran and Neville – rather than Gandhi, it’s Jolly LLB with a nod to A Few Good Men.
Sankaran’s membership of the Indian National Congress, any context that might have explained his evolution from supporter to dissenter, or indeed any indication that there was a wider freedom struggle in progress – all of these are shoved aside with the same inelegance with which the supposedly polished lawyer mounts his defence.
The film’s Sankaran hurls F-bombs in court and comments on Dyer’s manhood. Even an unusually restrained Akshay Kumar cannot temper the movie’s WhatsApp University-worthy excesses.
R Madhavan’s Neville is more believable, all things considered. Neville has a personal grouse with Sankaran, which is why he agrees to defend the indefensible. Since everything is personal in this movie’s version of events, Neville is hardly alone.
Amit Sial’s Tirath is one of the better observed characters. Ananya Panday, despite all her efforts, is as ornamental as Regina Cassandra, playing Sankaran’s wife.
The film’s best form of revenge is its portrayal of Reginald Dyer. Simon Paisley Day, who is made up to resemble an ageing and slimmed-down Adolf Hitler, delivers a dire performance, yelling “Bloody Indians” like he is in a Manmohan Desai movie.
