Superb tale of human courage

At a time when division and vitriol is the theme of the season and the philosophy is to sell it loudly and a non-excusatory posture, it is redeeming to see someone revisit one of the most hate-filled moments of our history. Thanks to Dadasaheb Phalke winner Gulzar who presents this film, you are treated to some wonderful cinematic moments. The grammar of the film is far better suited for the stage and could make a great play, but the theme defies the medium beyond a point. In these times, it almost mockingly echoes the popular jingle: ha mein crazy hoon. Do not miss it. It helps to detoxify the environ we are in. It may sound child-like to suggest that an eraser is sufficient for the lines to disappear, even misleading like the promos of the cosmetics that promise removal of scars. Albeit for a while the dream, the hope, the illusion and the escape is worth it. If only we can defy the power of politics or the politics of power, if only we could resign to the size of the cake and understand the need to share!

Two soldiers, two nations systemically hypnotized, grained with historic untruths and geographical pride, meet across the borders. Their baggage includes civilizational structures over cultural nuances and the burden of partition. Fortunately for all their warts they are human and their lies the twist or the truth as one may perceive. Rehmat Ali (Vijay Raaz), one dark night is forced by his Captain from the other side of the border to infiltrate into India and pick a document that has the details of a tunnel from Delhi to Lahore. He works his way to an unarmed checkpost with a lone survivor who is a cook Samrat (Manu Rishi). The paradox is that Samrat has his roots in Lahore and Rehmat in Old Delhi. But then geography has its ugly way of superimposing its will on history! Caught on two different sides of the political hue of the sub-continent, two human beings are constantly required to be patriotic (read inimical to each other). Amidst gun shots and profanities, they begin to converse about themselves, their inherited political positions. The futility of the great divide and the accusation of the politics of the partition are echoed. Both reach the precipice and the abyss, both reflect a bottled hatred for the enemy across, both survive but for a while to tell a story that all is not lost till all is. Isolated and abandoned, they are quarrelling neighbours willing to shoot one another, and then conflated in a solitariness they join to protect each other. Be it the visible shadow of Gulzar or the makings of Vijay Raaz as the director, the film is filled with poignant moments and tells a superb tale of human weakness and human courage. The one step towards peace and two step glide towards hatred is portrayed with deft understanding of the spirit of the times (then and now!). In fact the film starts with a mockery of the Indo-Pak divide with a superb rendition by Gulzar where he says: Lakireen hain to rehne do, kissine yoohi gusse mein kench di, aoo kabadi khele. Vijay Raaz handles the script beautifully and lives up to the declaration: Dimak mein ek dil chahiye! Superb debut. The cast – Manu Rishi and Vijay Raaz keep you occupied for the entire 95 minutes of the movie.

The film echoes what Jeremy Poolman (The Road of Bones) said: experience will act a reminder to all those who think that the past, when past, is really gone. It lives as long as the land upon which we live endures and it will, unless we are careful, bury us all or the flames of our brutal weapons engulf us. To me ‘Kya Dilli Kya Lahore’ is humanity wailing in wilderness.