Movie Review- Raag Desh by Suhel Johar

 

Noble Intention and A Convincing Story Is Marred By Poor Implementation

A patriotic film Raag Desh is Tigmanshu Dhulia’s most celebrated period drama, which is an adaptation of a real life event. It is a non- commercial film produced by Rajya Sabha TV. The poster of Raag Desh suggests it to be a war film, however, it is actually a court martial drama based on the famous Red Fort Trials running simultaneously with politics of Indian National Congress and the inception of religious differences between civilians.

Set in the pre independence era between 1942-1945, the three soldiers from INA named Gurubaksh Singh Dhillon, Prem Sahgal and Shah Nawaaz Khan were accused of waging a war against King in that era and were charged with the allegation of murder.

The story of Raag Desh is about these three soldiers Maj. Gen. Shah Nawaz Khan (Kunal Kapoor), Lt. Col. Gurbaksh (Amit Sadhu) and Col. Prem Kumar Sahgal (Mohit Marwah) of the Indian Army, who were accused of treason and their help, comes forward in the form of a sick lawyer Bhulabai Desai (Kenneth Desai).  The actual film begins when the famous Red Fort trials start and the British regime decides to handle it with an iron fist. It’s an interesting premise. The three Indian soldiers were said to be detained and locked up at the Red Fort whose trials were gripped by the British government. Although the three soldiers had lost their case against the British Government they had to let them go due to the INA members struggle.

Raag Desh is a detailed break-down of this famous case which revealed how vulnerable the British regime had become. It was also important because Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi were taking interest in the case. Probably they knew that the trial of three officers will have a favourable impact on Congress’ demand for complete sovereignty.

The film claims that close to 25 lakh Indians fought for the British Army in the World War Two. Out of these, 40,000 Indians surrendered to Japan after its win over Britain in Burma and nearby areas. The Japanese government later made the Indian troops collaborators in their war against the allied forces. An Indian officer, Mohan Singh, was appointed the incharge of this troop, but later Subhash Chandra Bose ( Kenny Basumatary) took control and gave birth to the INA.

The film begins with a noble ambition but dwindles through stretched narratives, unneeded emphasis on shadowed topics, weakly fabricated war scenes and confusingly accommodated pieces from the past and current times. Obviously, the script is loosely-knit and had a lot of scope for improvement. It could have been tighter. If the duration is the cause for the cruel chopping here and there, then there were a lot of unnecessary scenes worth deleting. The transitions in between scenes are not smooth and hence leave the viewer puzzled. Excellent research, good intention and a convincing story is ruined solely by poor implementation. The film sustains its plot by being contained within the boundaries of disciplined and being free of twisted and fake drama.

The film is written and directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia who has previously given some of the critically acclaimed films like Haasil,  Saheb Biwi aur Gangster and Paan Singh Tomar. His directorial skills are not at their best in this film. Maybe he had a lot more to say but got overwhelmed by the magnanimity of the subject and thus fails to raise it to the brilliance of films like Paan Singh Tomar and Haasil. He has collaborated with Pramod Singh in writing the film, they seem to have done well with the research part but fail in putting up a cohesive script. Cinematography by Rishi Punjabi is just about okay while editing by Geeta Singh is atrocious and out of sync. In fact, the film seems more like a documentary rather than a feature film. Music by Rana Mazumder  and Siddharth Pandit is okay. The march past song Kadam Kadam Badhaye Ja is impressive. Background score by Dharma Vish is average. Production values is poor. The sets appear artificial.

Performancewise, Kunal Kapoor (with a more concerted effort he could have been brilliant), Amit Sadh (he seems conscious with his Punjabi dialect more than once during the film)and Mohit Marwah (Anil Kapoor’s nephew (his sister’s son) Mohit Marwah who earlier acted in films like Fugly and Deewane Huye Paagal plays one of the principle character in the film and is the best amongst the trio) do justice to their respective roles. Tamil and Malayalam films actress Mrudula Murali perhaps due to language barrier fails to emote diligently but is not a disappointment in her Hindi debut film. She has played Mohit’s love interest in the film.

Kenny Desai is a scene stealer. Assamese actor Kenny Basumatary has done well. Kanwaljit Singh, Vijay Verma, Rajesh Khera, Anil Rastogi and Zakir Hussain are convining.

On the whole, if you’re a history lover Raag Desh may be worth your time but definitely not worth the chapter it tries to retell.