If Vicky donor was the entre’ course, then Madras
Cafe is a fitting main served by the master-chef Shoojit Sircar. His is the Cafe I shall like to visit again and again.
Hindi Cinema has the sole distinction of being largely
just an entertaining medium, very rarely does it takes one down the thinking road
with serious cinema and finally revisiting a chapter in history or the recent past has
never been its forte ever.
It has been attempted earlier but consistently has degenerated into
flamboyant fiction, jingoism or a plain twisting the facts exercise to suit the
market. I won’t take names here as this is the crime one cannot accuse this
director of. He has walked across one of the darkest chapters in the history of
India and Sri Lanka ( one that unfolded for India in 1987 and climaxed on May
21, 1991 at Sri Perumbudur ) boldly and faithfully; without making
any comment of his own, a judgement call or taking sides. It is masterfully done.
The story is the star of the show. Somnath Dey and Shubhendu Bhattacharya can
take a bow. This is the kind of cinema where it does not truly matter who plays
the characters because the script is that powerful and written that way.
It begins
with the Sri Lankan Tamils seeking their freedom under the aegis of Anna
Bhaskaran (Ajay Rathnam, perfectly cast and on the ball) and his army of
revolutionaries called the LTF. The India – Sri Lanka peace accord signed
between the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the wily Sri Lankan President
Junius Jayewardene makes the backdrop for the Indian Peace Keeping Force to enter the
scene and spoil the pudding further. Overt war fails and in steps the Indian
RAW ( Research & Analysis Wing ) who have their men in place and to
understand and exploit the situation better begin a covert operation under Major Vikram
Singh ( John Abraham, understated and credible ). He lands in Jaffna the
epicentre of the war and encounters a London based Indian journalist covering
the war (Nargis Fakri, doing a Jennifer Connelly from Blood Diamond. and does a
much better job than her previous film with Ranbir Kapoor). Siddarth Basu is
the head of RAW and is a pleasure to watch, he deftly underplays his role to
maximum impact. The movie moves at a brisk pace with plots within plots and
hurtling towards an eventual end congruently. The actors depicting the men on
the field, the Jaffna based RAW men or the Sri Lankan Tamils are all first rate
and look completely believable in their roles. This movie enables one to see totally different realities that have credible frames of references when
viewed from either side. John’s character mouths a terrible truth “One man’s
revolutionary is another man’s terrorist”.This movie has to be recognized for the path it charts and kudos to John Abraham the producer for the just use of star power. The whole behind the scenes team should feel proud for a job superbly executed be it Shantanu Moitra and the entire Sound Design team headed by Bishwadeep Chatterjee, or Kamaljeet Negi whose lens creates the depth in a frame that draws a viewer into the plot and location. Any cinema that blends the cerebral and the aesthetic becomes a thoroughly engrossing experience. The Indian audience may not yet be ready to handle history in a manner where the names don’t have to be changed and till that day dawns an over-laid “story over reality” format is the best employable golden mean to walk this route.
