Film: “Raagdesh”; Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia; Cast: Kunal Kapoor, Mohit Marwah, Amit Sadh, Kanwaljit Singh, Kenneth Desai, Mrudula Murali and Kenny Basumatary.

Rating: ***

A historic period film by director Tigmanshu Dhulia, one goes expecting a lot out of “Raagdesh”, but unfortunately, this film — steeped in facts and robust performances — fails to make an impact owing to its slow pace and tedious narrative.

It is a tale about three Indian National Army (INA) soldiers — Captain Shah Nawaz Khan (Kunal Kapoor), Captain Gurbaksh Dhillon (Amit Sadh) and Captain P.K. Sahgal (Mohit Marwah) — who are court martialled and their subsequent trial at the Red Fort. The film is set in 1945, when they join Netaji Subhas Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj to liberate India from the British and fight the war in Burma.

True to its genre and in his inimitable style, Dhulia recreates the war era with utmost accuracy.

The film is packed with facts and well-researched. Be it the war scenes or the court room drama, the sepia tones, languages spoken, get-up of the characters, are all precise and honestly portrayed, but somewhere, the film suffers from information overload causing fatigue to set in for the viewer. It is interesting, but not engrossing. Completely devoid of entertainment, it has a limited appeal for lovers of history only. In parts, it also appears to be an underlying propaganda film.

The screenplay, which recourses to flashback while in the courtroom, apprising viewers with what happened at the war front in Burma, is a tad lengthy and confusing as one loses the thread.

On the performance front, all the three lead actors render realistic performances — right from their body language to their diction, conveying their patriotism and emotional struggle with conviction. Amit Sadh, however, shines as the feisty and dauntless, Gurbaksh Dhillon.

Mohit Marwah too makes an impact with his strong portrayal of a brave soldier and a gentle lover. Mrudula Murali, a southern actor, in her debut Hindi film as Captain Lakshmi is effervescent and has a striking screen presence. She essays her character with realism and takes it a few notches above the script.

Kenneth Desai as lawyer Bhulabhai Desai, who defends the trio, is eloquent and powerful in the courtroom scenes. Kanwaljit Singh as P.K. Sahgal’s distraught father is his usual self but charismatic. Kenny Basumatary is every inch Bose in his physical demeanour and oratory, making the character come alive on screen.

The film expectedly boasts of good production values and takes you into that period effortlessly. Cinematographer Rishi Punjabi captures the war scenes through his lens with exactness and succeeds in repulsing the viewer with the raw bloodshed and gore.

The music helps in creating the mood and “Hawaaon mein woh aag hai” is soulful, and of course “Kadam kadam badhaye ja” is skilfully used to stir patriotism.

Overall, this film although well-made, fails to evoke patriotism and obviously does not even attempt to entertain.

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By Troy Ribeiro

The week-long celebration of film, entertainment and culture came to an end here as the Jio MAMI 18th Mumbai Film Festival wrapped up with a prize distribution ceremony.

Graced by Amrita Fadnavis, wife of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, the audience experienced a beautiful evening on Thursday that not only awarded deserving filmmakers but also the authors of film literature.

It was a star studded evening with many personalities from the film fraternity present including Vinod Chopra, Raju Hirani, Richa Chadda, Ayan Mukherjee, Kunal Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Kabir Khan, Vishal Bhardwaj, Sonam Kapoor, Zoya Akhtar among others.

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As lyricist Kausar Munir mentioned that film writing is a genre of literature that has not been considered as a part of mainstream literature, this time the festival opened the door for books in English, Hindi and other language to encourage more authors.

While “Naya Dur Ka Naya Cinema” by Priyadarshan got the best book award in Hindi, Mekhala Sengupta’s book “Kanan Devi, The First Superstar of Indian Cinema” won the best book in English category.

Keeping the importance of film history and literature in mind, the festival awarded film writer Anil Bhargav (Hindi) and Jay Arjun Singh (English) as Excellence in Best Writing category for their book “Bhartiya Cinemas Ki Itihaas” and “The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee: The Filmmaker Everyone Loves”, respectively.

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Actress Sonam Kapoor said, “Being a voracious reader, I believe that a good story is a key element of many things. Our Bollywood films are changing and now we celebrate content more. Even my film Aisha was based on a book.”

“Most of my favourite films like ‘The Godfather’, ‘Gone with The Wind’ is based on books. So I support and really appreciate the initiative by Jio MAMI,” she added.

This year the festival turned out to be very special for Konkona Sen Sharma. As she made her debut this year as a filmmaker with “The Death Of Gunj”, she won the best Indian Female Director Award.

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On the other hand, “Lipstick Under My Burkha” won the Best Film on Gender Equality Award and Konkona received the award on the behalf of the team.

The much anticipated independent film /short films category turned out to be very promising this year with some brilliant pieces of cinematic work.

While “Mumbai’s Mahuva” by Santosh Amble won the Golden Gateway on Dimensions Mumbai category, “The Saleman” won the Audience Choice Award.

“Lady Of The Lake” by Haobam Paban Kumar won the Golden Gateway from India Gold category, whereas in international competition section young French filmmaker Davy Chou won the Golden Gateway for his film “Diamond Island”.

Kiran Rao, the chairperson of Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival closed the ceremony with a vote of thanks to all the sponsors and teammates declaring the date of next year’s festival to be between November 12 to 19, 2017.

IANS