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Kesari 2: High voltage courtroom drama and performances

Cast: Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, Ananya Panday, Regina Cassandra, Simon Paisley Day Director Karan Singh Tyagi adapts the film from the...







Cast: Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, Ananya Panday, Regina Cassandra, Simon Paisley Day


Director Karan Singh Tyagi adapts the film from the book titled "The Case That Shook The Empire- One Man's Fight For The Truth About The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre" by Raghu and Pushpa Palat. He makes the film keeping the narrative simple. Tyagi goes into flashback and flash forward mode in the beginning but that does not become a hindrance at all to the viewers. Despite having no heroes and villains, the film is actually about a hero C Sankaran Nair who fights against an immoral and unfair British system.

 

13th April 1919, a peaceful group of protestors gathered peacefully at Amritsar's Jallianwala Bagh to protest against the Rowlatt Act. General Dyer along with armed troops fires at the people without any warning leading to the loss of hundreds of lives. The press is silent spectator and hence an official censored (Britishers) version comes out in the press that the protestors were armed terrorists plotting against the system due to which General Dyer had to open fire. To douse the fire and pacify the criticism, an enquiry commission is set up by the British Government which has Sir C.Sankaran Nair as the only Indian in the commission, who despite being an Indian, believes fully in the British justice system. The Crown rewards him and inducts him to the Viceroy's Council. However during enquiry and a chance meeting with a young revolutionary boy, Pargat Singh, he realises that the British are trying to suppress the actual facts. His changes when he meets a young law student Dilreet Gill and together they go to court to sue General Dyer. But in a surprise and unlikely move, the Crown appoints Neville McKinley as the defence lawyer. Sankaran and McKinley have a score to settle.

 

Akshay Kumar as C Sankaran Nair gives an impactful performance. This is his best in the recent past. He mouths lengthy and powerful dialogues with aplomb. As Neville McKinley, the defense lawyer, R.Madhavan gives an impressive performance despite a very late entry into the film. He stands tall in the second half. Ananya Panday (Dilreet Kaur) gives an honest performance especially in the cross examining scene of Martha Stevens. But it is Simon Paisley Day as the butcher and villainous General Dyer, an Indian hater to the 'T' especially the Sikhs ( backstory), steals the show. He would love to be hated. Brilliant! Regina Cassandra as Parvathy Nair, Sankaran's wife, has nothing to offer. Waste of a role after impressing in the Sunny starrer JATT. Wish Amit Sial as Tirath Singh had also got a meatier role. Masaba Gupta sizzles in a song.

 

The action sequences (Sunil Rodriques) are disturbing in keeping with the demand of the film. There are hardly any songs with 'Teri Mitti' from Kesari (2019) repeated here.

 

This courtroom drama keeps you hooked and unleashes the shocking truth about the massacre in Jallianwala Bagh. A film to be seen because of Indian history. It's still not clear why an 'A' certificate as this is a film which everyone should see. Yes the film is not typically massy but it has its moments through the dialogues.

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