Movie Review: Chakravyuh - Namak Haram meets Maoism



If you have seen the promos of Chakravyuh – a war you cannot escape, then fifteen minutes into the movie you should be able to guess the plot right. For the maoist cadre Kabir (Abhay Deol) in film promos and the white collar engineer introduction (albeit with streak of fighting-for-the-oppressed nature) is a mismatch and you can flashback to the famous Amitabh – Rajesh Khanna starrer Namak Haram.

The plot of Chakravyuh unfolds with telling of a story that plagues large swathes of rural and semi urban India. A maoist ideologue (Om Puri), a Superintendent of Police Adil Khan (Arjun Rampal), his police wife (Esha Gupta), and a friend Kabir (Abhay Deol) begin the movie, where the SP is posted to Nandighat (sounds similar to Nandigram?), where industrialist Mahanta (sounds similar to Vedanta?) wishes to set up a steel industry.

Finding winning trust of villagers difficult, SP Adil Khan’s friend-turned-foe-turned-friend Kabir suggests he infiltrate the Maoist cadre and supply information. However akin to Namak Haram where Rajesh Khanna after infiltrating the workers of Amitabh’s factory understands and identifies with their issues and problems, similar transformation happens to Kabir. With a muted love story with Maoist area commander Juhi (brilliantly played by Anjali Patil), he at one point hands in another area commander Rajan (Manoj Bajpai’s character role surpasses others) but at another kills several policemen who are shown to be atrocious.

Turning against the system makes Kabir a sworn enemy of the state, but his after his true identity revelation, he is under attack from the Maoist too. And that happens to be the climax of the movie, where joining ranks with dissidents proves fatal for him.

First the negatives. The movie lacks finesse in the plot, especially in some transitions which happen very quickly. The distance, time frame, and technical correctness seem compromised in many parts of the movie. Role of Esha Gupta could have been done away with, had the intelligence scenario been replaced with something more concrete and better. The item number featuring the forgotten Samira Reddy is purely for commercial purposes and unnecessary.

The issues of land acquisition, lack of development, police atrocities, administrative neglect, politics, corruption in maoist ranks, maoist ideological gurus, role played by private militias like Salwa Judum, human rights violation, have been brilliantly depicted by Prakash Jha, however in small capsules they be. But the pivotal issue of Maoism and the internal war that hundreds of districts in India face have been dealt with (and thank god) maturely.

Maoist struggle is a very complex issue, with deep ethical concerns. It is very difficult to bring it to the fore in a two and half hour movie. But the way Prakash Jha has delivered it needs to be applauded, especially with his understanding that the urban viewers, the multiplex goers are far away from understanding the nuances of the issue. Though towards the end one might feel that the director has shown Maoist struggle in a brighter light, he has adequately provided for fodder to challenge it too.

All performances have been up to the mark, with Manoj Bajpai, Abhay Deol and Anjali Patil rising above he rest. Despite Jha’s liking for Arjun Rampal, he still remains inarticulate that he ever was and is one of the weak links of the movie. For the amount of reel space, any other better actor would have added credit to the movie.

The director’s challenge to keep the commercial content high along with his desire to showcase a very important issue that the country faces is evident. The class struggle in Namak Haram and the Maoist struggle is not very different at one point. While that was not intertwined with multitude of other issues, this certainly is. For dealing with an issue that should concern every Indian, in a mature fashion, Cahkaravyuh – a war you cannot escape, deserves a healthy 3.5 out of 5 to the movie.

The Durga Puja Recipe

 

The holiday schedule of school would have a ten or twelve days vacation for ‘Dussehera’. Once that particular period of time approached, it used to usher in multitudes of emotions, leading to an extended period of festivity.

It would begin with a planned trip to Cuttack for Shopping. Yes shopping for clothes formed a very important and integral part of Durga Puja. While grownups would have to be satisfied with one or two pairs of new clothes, we as children would demand at least 4 pairs of new clothes for the major four days of Puja.

The day of the trip for shopping would begin in wee hours of the day, continue with fastidious selection of clothes, up to a point of great irritation sometimes, ending with return in the evening the boot of the car packed with packets and packets of new clothes. The excitement would however reach pinnacle when all the newly acquired items would be displayed to those who could not accompany for shopping.

The days leading to Durga Puja would have mandatory trips to the Pandal to view the ‘progress’ that was happening with the idol making or setting up the gate and other temporary shops. It was indeed a great feeling to have witnessed something being built and finally having all the festivity centred on it. School holidays would mean catching up with cricket both in the mornings and evenings.

There would be a day earmarked to visit Puja Pandals of other nearby collieries (read towns). That would eventually lead to having the above mentioned items on those places and draw quick comparisons and arrive at a top 5 or top 10 lists. This activity used to happen long back with rented cars even when no one in the family possessed four wheelers. And all these in the newly acquired clothes, which most of the time happened to be ‘differently good’ thanks to the meticulous choosing.

Durga Puja would also primarily mean coming of family together. Relatives would pour in, and thus would begin fun at home, with demands of various dishes to be cooked, with continuous gossips, trips to Pandal, buying new toys, balloons, having food stuff dished out be temporary shops, ice creams, so on and so forth. A big family getting ready to venture out in the evening can be a very arduous and later-to-be-smiled-at activity.

It is very hard to precisely describe the feeling. Something in the air changes. The coming of goddess Durga, cooler environs of October, the sound in the air, the clear blue skies, the family coming together, the food, the going out with friends, the new clothes, all of it combined in varied proportions and a perfect recipe emerged. A recipe for what can be called as good-times-in-life.

And when you do not have those ingredients together, you can just have reminiscences and be nostalgic about that recipe.

Sun-in-Law

Yes, you have guessed it right. If there is any iota of doubt concerning ‘sun’ and Karunanidhi, dispel it. For the sun-in-law is everywhere in the news, he is hogging the limelight and some suggest he is turning out to be the ‘collective embarrassment’ of the grand old party and the government.

Robert Vadra’s fortune has risen like bright light of the sun. After darkness when first light of the sun emerges, it grows very quick and grows richer in a short span. 50 lakhs in assets becoming 350 crores in a short span is a similar story of the son-in-law of the first political family of the country. The revelation of Arvind Kejriwal might not have hit the collective imagination of a nation hard; given the fact that scams have been a routine affair. But what is startling and almost to a level funny is the way top ministers have come out in defense of the sun-in-law.

Veerappa Moily announcing that he has checked the record books and no wrongdoing is being observed. Kapil Sibal outrightly making Kejriwal a person-non-grate by telling that he makes allegations as a daily affair. Renuka Choudhary cutting a hilarious figure in TV debates. Rashid Alvi who probably does not understand what he speaks. These have probably been instructed by you-know-who to defend Mr. Vadra, who in the meantime is elusive barring a Facebook comment on ‘mango man in banana republic’ , post which he deleted the account.

Mr. Vadra was last in limelight during UP elections when he harbored desires to enter politics. He was put on silent mode after that, thanks to the Congress debacle in the state. But his mercurial rise in wealth cannot be put under wraps. In recessionary times when such meteoric rise can only be in books of history, it is a wrong reason for which he is in the limelight. It will continue doing bad to the already tattered image of Manmohan Singh’s government.

The issue at one level is pervasive of his nexus with DLF, technicality of Haryana government giving away hospital land, and the nature of loan he has received. As an ordinary citizen of the country he has all rights to be in any business, make profits, grow in stature, participate in politics, etc. But despite the fact that one is a public figure and whose conducts and dealings are most likely to be put under scanner, is it prudent, necessary, apt, for a son-in-law to indulge in what appears prima-facie shady, corrupt deals and become sun-in law?

The article featured on manipalblog.com on 10th Oct, 2012.

No Easy Day : Book Review

No Easy Day, by Mark Owen, member of SEAL team 6 that killed Osama Bin Laden, is not for those who expect to know the details of what happened to the corpse of UBL (as Osama Bin Laden was called by American military). It is also not for those who would want details of how ‘The Pacer’ (a nickname assigned to Bin Laden for walking for long duration in his Abbottabad house) was found. No Easy Day is not for those seeking gory details of the end of worlds most wanted terrorist.

The book is written in average grade English, with lot of military terminologies, some photographs thrown in and what can be best described, in a non sensational manner. The book begins with the author declaring that none of the information shared has been away from public knowledge and which has been is non threatening to their army.
A major part of the book has been spent in describing missions by the author in Iraq and Afghanistan. For enthusiasts it is a good read on how these missions are carried out and one can compare them to the action movies that are made. Extreme details regarding finding Bin Laden in Pakistan is not shared, however CIA’s immaculate intelligence has been given lots of space.

The helicopter crash incidence, the bombed Black Hawk, has been described well and is good to know since it was veiled. The author has delved little bit into the politics of the mission, which is a welcome addition. There is no graphic detail of who fired the shot into the head of Osama, but details of how the body was carried to Bagram air base (one of the SEAL sat on the chest of Osama Bin Laden, for the lack of space), makes for the interesting parts of the book.

Overall it is an average book. It might dispel some theories, scandalizing ones, about the killing of Osama Bin Laden, but it does not have much that has not been in public domain. However the appreciable part is exactly that. It is a mission viewed through the goggles (and the 65,000 dollars night vision goggles) of a member of the US Navy SEAL.


Read more http://manipalblog.com/2012/10/no-easy-day-book-review/