It was a surprise when I came to know about another movie on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) helmed by Sanjay Dutt, who had not only acted but also co-produced the movie Aakhri Sawal. Naturally, I had very low hopes from Sanjay Dutt, once notoriously incorrigible star son of noble parents Shri Sunil Dutt and Smt Nargis Dutt. Generally, he is known for his big heart. But having lived through the horrible terror attacks of 1993, one could not forget what he had done at that time, knowingly or unknowingly. He did complete his prison term and restarted his life afresh to his credit. He has had so many falls, and he has risen so many times that one loses count.
Is Aakhri Sawal another venture or adventure for Sanju Baba, I wondered? This made me go to see the movie in an early morning working day show. I must confess, it was so sparsely populated that I felt royal. However, I was in for a pleasant surprise. I will come to that later.
Another reason why I had some faith in the movie was its writer Utkarsh Naithani, whom I know distantly for some years, and also due to his work in superhit serial like Devon ke Dev Mahadev and others. So, first I will talk about his work. A movie on RSS is not easy. It is a very boring subject for today’s short attention span generation. Having written so many books and done so many podcasts, I can vouch for it. I don’t get kind of eyeballs that many exciting Social Media personalities get because of their on the edge kind of views which is not possible for me.
There have been many attempts at presenting RSS in its centenary year and frankly, most of them are below par, some of the movies and series made so far are poorly thought out and made. Thus, for me it was a matter of great interest – how Utkarsh would have thought of a story line and screenplay. I found the innovative storyline, well written screenplay and excellent dialogues pleasantly surprising. To add a filmy touch, it has a twist in the tale too. The best one liner in the movie is “Main aapke baare mein sochta hi nahin”. I will not be a spoiler and tell you where it comes; it is out of the blue. The writer has controlled his urge to use pompous or over the top language.
Sanjay Dutt with his larger than life macho image and a typically ‘secular’ network around him, must have had a tough job living down that image and also risk losing the affection of the typical Bandra network and ‘progressive’ writers’ sympathy. In this film, he is not the usual Sanju Baba with a swagger, but a sober professor who has hot lava of self-sacrifice flowing through his veins, but he controls it due to his RSS upbringing. He has been able to present the personality of Prof Nadkarni with gravitas and reflects the character’s commitment to his cause. Even his dialogue delivery is different and effective.
Namish Chakraborty has a character with grey shades. He is a villain for the Sanghis and a hero for the Leftists. He has to stand up to a veteran like Sanjay Dutt, who himself is trying to etch a totally different character; and he has been able to stand his ground. Mithun Da will be happy with his son. All other actors from Amit Sadh, Sameera Reddy, Mrinal Kulkarni, Archana Iyer and Neetu Chandra et al have done a good job. Though, I wish the Leftist and Woke characters had taken a few lessons in being a little subtle from Amit and look more natural.
Production values are high. Music, especially the background score, helps enhance the movie without being loud. Some shots have too much soap opera serials type feel with camera panning onto characters one after the other to catch their expressions. I wish the director had learnt his lessons from some leftist film maker in subtlety in this aspect.
I think, every person who has heard accusations about RSS and has tried to make sense of it on short TV debates, but too lazy to read or study more, should see this movie. It is for the critics as well as new age well-wishers and new swayamsevaks of RSS who have not grown through RSS over years. There was scope for more questions; I think writer director duo decided to make a crisp movie, just shy of two hours. It is a good call.
A writer of a film has freedom to have his/her own interpretations. However, being a writer for more than 15 years myself, specialising on RSS and having done lot of research, I can surely say that if some answers to ‘sawals’ (questions) raised by the young student of the Professor were answered more pithily they could have had more impact. For example, rather than showing Gandhi ji’s visit to RSS camp as the reason why RSS could not have killed Gandhi, a line about CID report on Gandhi ji’s killing, submitted to the government within one month of this heinous crime would have been enough. CID report had exonerated RSS completely, but it was suppressed and charade of ban, killing of swayamsevaks was justified or suppressed, and persecution of RSS continued. One line is all it required. Similarly, lifting of ban on RSS was not unconditional. However, condition was very flimsy; to present its constitution in writing. Ironically Congress did not have a written constitution for 14 years.
The accusation of two letters written by RSS chief during Emergency is answered well. However, a couple of lines about how RSS saved democracy as the spine and the muscle of the underground movement, and mention that nearly 90% of the prisoners during the period were from RSS ecosystem would have added the required punch to the answer.
Some people could have reservations about Ayodhya justification too. But, let me not get into each comma and full stop. However, a mention of direct firings that killed hundreds of karsevaks and sadhus could have added gravity to the argument and disturbed the young audience.
My Aakhri Sawal is to many people. Except for this movie, why other movies made on RSS have such poor production values? Why is writing generally very average? Zee OTT series Kesariya@100 and AI generated movie Shatak had their own strengths but did not do justice to the grand movement called RSS. Less said the better about a movie on Dr Hedgewar.
What could be the reasons? Is it lack of funds. Is it a constraint? All these insinuations about BJP funding or supporting them is pure myth. I think RSS is such an old and humungous organisation with tons of stories and layered narrative that no writer can do justice without getting some enlightening inputs from the ‘karyakartas’ and intellectuals within RSS.
Most of the RSS related or Hindutva related movies, including Aakhri Sawal suffer from very poor marketing back up. Why did producers not invest a little more after risking bigger investment on this movie?
Despite my questions, I must say, that Aakhri Sawal is an excellent attempt worthy of three cheers and worth watching. As an objective watcher, I will give it 7/10.
