Kesari Chapter 2 Is Not  Just  Another  Historical, It Is  A Masterpiece

Kesari  Chapter 2 Is Not  Just  Another  Historical, It Is  A Masterpiece

Rating: ****

All I remember of Kesari in 2019 is  Akshay Kumar’s fake flowing white beard.

 There is  nothing fake  about  Kesari Chapter 2:  The Untold  Story  Of Jallianwala Bagh,  although  there  are lots of white people in  the cast(genuine ones ,  not fake goras  except for Luke Kenny who does a  hilarious take off on a Caucasian  solicitor) and yes, plenty of beards too, none  false. You  could  tug Madhavan’s facial  hair  to verify.

Madhavan plays Neville McKinley, a  wily compromised  boozy  lawyer  who defends the  indefensible  General  Dyer(Simon Paisley Day, excellent) who  massacred  hundreds if not  thousands in  Jallianwala Bagh  on 13 April, 1919.

Now  106 years  later  debutant  director Karan Singh Tyagi revisits the  carnage with  so much compassion that it feels like yesterday once more. In the way he  handles  the characters,even the  smaller ones  and in  the  way he  fictionalizes the original tragedy without  tampering with its essential gravity, Tyagi proves himself a  master storyteller.

And this  is only his first  film!  What a spectacular start!! Kesari  Chapter  2 walks  talks  and feels like an  epic. Like all true epics it doesn’t strive to be one. Tyagi focusses on telling the  often told story of  Dyer’s demonical  deed  with minimum fuss and optimum impunity. There is  a certain sassiness, audacity  if you will, in a brown-skinned lawyer taking on the British empire.

  The writer-director saves the claps for the martyrs  , the victims  of  an unspeakable unforgivable outrage that occurred when we were not looking.  Bringing it back with  such a forceful impact couldn’t be easy. Akshay  Kumar as the  intrepid  Sankaran Nair sadly looks nothing like  a Keralite(the belated  effort to get into  a  mundu notwithstanding).Whatever  he lacks in external prep he  makes up for with his sincerity.

Regina Cassandra  as his wife is well clothed for her role  but seems to  succumb to the  sins of sketchiness. She is listless.Ananya  Pandey as Shankaran’s assistant  in court is surprisingly  credible. Her role too is underwritten. But she succeeds in  making an  impact  in her limited space.

  In one media interactive  sequence  when  a cocky journalist wonders how  a woman can be in  the  courtroom(this is Colonial India)  Ananya’s  Dilreet Gill retorts, “Don’t you have  queens in England?
Coincidentally  another  favourite lighthearted moment in the  taut narration features Ms Pandey when  her prospective husband wonders  how his mother would deal with a  lawyer bahu.

 For once Akshay  is  not  in every frame . In fact there is one lengthy courtroom  interrogation of an eyewitness where  his female  assistant   takes over while  Akshay, for once, just watches.

 This is  not  a film about celebrating a hero. Kesari 2  celebrates the lives of those hundreds  of martyrs who  perished  in Jallianwala Bagh. When  their names start scrolling in the end titles I had tears  in my eyes. Every country-loving Indian  would feel the same way.

Without  aggressive  jingoism and  unnecessary flag-waving  this film hits where  it hurts the  most. Amidst  the noisy violence of the   senseless Jaats  and Sikandars, Kesari  Chapter 2 reminds us of  the renewable relevance of the powerful  dominating the weak. Even as we applaud the vision of the racy interpretation  of  history’s  mysteries in Kesari Chapter 2, Chapter 3  unfolds in Ukraine.