{"id":7552,"date":"2016-06-22T09:54:49","date_gmt":"2016-06-22T04:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=7552"},"modified":"2016-06-22T09:54:49","modified_gmt":"2016-06-22T04:24:49","slug":"shamshera-review-a-politically-intuitive-film-that-is-worth-a-watch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=7552","title":{"rendered":"Shamshera Review: A Politically Intuitive Film that is Worth A Watch"},"content":{"rendered":"\nT<\/span>he \u2018dacait\u2019 has been missing in popular Hindi cinema for a while now. The appeal in their screen heyday \u2013 the 1960s and \u201870s \u2013 is obvious when studied as history. In a land that\u2019s no stranger to oppression, white or otherwise, some deprived folk are bound to take up arms and break the boundaries of societal morality. In the movies, we weren\u2019t afraid to paint them black, if required. The sometimes-dashing, often-vile horse-riding rebel was a natural fit for the larger-than-large boots occupied by Hindi cinema\u2019s epic yin and yang \u2013 the hero\/villain duality. Told in a screen language that\u2019s a lot more contemporary, Karan Malhotra\u2019s Shamshera<\/em> is a throwback to the days when \u2018dacaiti\u2019 was also an F-U to the \u2018system\u2019, a stand against the oppression of the privileged.\n\nThere\u2019s a reason why the film is set in 1871. It was the year the British imperialists instituted the Criminal Tribes Act<\/em> in India \u2013 a legislation that deemed entire communities and castes as habitual sinners. From these \u2018sinners\u2019, emerges someone who fights back against both \u2013 brown, upper-caste social oppressors as well as white, foreign capitalist soul-suckers. Shamshera tells the story of a daring man who roamed free, and who sought to liberate his people as well. Along with Ranbir Kapoor, whose hiatus has felt almost as long as that of movie dacaits, the film has a compelling premise; but it doesn\u2019t always make for gripping cinema. Portions feel fresh, others feel like formula.\n\n

I don\u2019t remember the dacait films of yore being as tuned to the fundamental injustice of \u2018jaati\u2019 as this one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThe tribe in question and the place it is set in are both fictional. The understanding of how oppressive the caste system could be, is less so. I don\u2019t remember the dacait films of yore being as tuned to the fundamental injustice of \u2018jaati\u2019 as this one. The vilest form of oppression in the film is performed by a Brahmin man named Shuddh Singh. His name is like salt on a wound \u2013 this kind of man is \u2018pure\u2019 because of the luck in his birth, his actions account for nothing. The anti-hero Shamshera\u2019s tribe is of a \u2018neech jaati\u2019, worthy of the gutters, if anything at all. Shuddh Singh\u2019s terrorising appearance is often accompanied by the sound of Sanskrit verses being recited in the voice of a creepy child.\n\nThis is a brave film to make in the present time, I\u2019ll give Yash Raj Films at least that. Truth and reconciliation are a distant dream, when we don\u2019t even acknowledge that as far back as we can trace this land\u2019s former glory, there are tell-tale signs of subjugation and suppression. The \u2018invaders\u2019 and the white folk didn\u2019t bring them to our shores and frontiers. It is a fault in humankind, that we can\u2019t seem to create prosperity without exploitation. Which is why, the British are barely villains of the piece. It\u2019s primarily the insider. His caste privilege is visible and brutal. For a film whose primary allegiance lies with its escapist, grunge-glam aesthetic, the graphic villainy on display is unexpected. Then again, I told you about its primary allegiance.\n\n

The sometimes-dashing, often-vile horse-riding rebel was a natural fit for the larger-than-large boots occupied by Hindi cinema\u2019s epic yin and yang \u2013 the hero\/villain duality.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nSo, the film has \u2018genre\u2019 songs where it shouldn\u2019t have them (\u2018love\u2019 song, \u2018struggle\u2019 song and so on); a romance that adds little to the story apart from the opportunity to add gloss to the grime; and wobbly VFX in scenes that could have been avoided altogether. A murder of crows features prominently as symbolism, but if you\u2019re going to do CGI animals, you need to do them at least as good as SS Rajamouli . There\u2019s a wasted train heist sequence in there that\u2019s a little worse than a broadly similar YRF sequence from one of the Dhooms<\/em>, and is woefully underutilised as a narrative hook.\n\nIt should, ideally, have been one of main high points of the second half. Instead, it almost appears as an afterthought. Unexpectedly, the second half issues are strong in this film, and you almost see it coming, considering how predictable the beats of the film are. The other wasted idea is that of Shamshera\u2019s glorious, mighty axe. The few moments it gets to shine in, it feels as campy cool a combo as Thor and\/or Mjolnir and\/or Storm Breaker.\n\n

It is a fault in humankind, that we can\u2019t seem to create prosperity without exploitation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nMercifully, despite its 159-minute runtime, the film is never a crashing bore. Malhotra\u2019s assurance in creating his world shows. The grimy setting will seem familiar to even those who don\u2019t remember his Agneepath<\/em> remake \u2013 KGF had a similar vibe. Malhotra is clearly a masala-movie man at heart, but there\u2019s a thoughtfulness to his craft that was missing in, say, the last YRF release Samrat Prithviraj<\/em>. It helps that Ranbir blazes through the screen, in a way that he always does. He wears the tagline well \u2013 karam se dacait, dharam se azad.<\/em> Nothing can shackle his blazing screen presence, though I did feel that even he was a tad underutilised.\n\nI won\u2019t lie, there was much in Shamshera I rather enjoyed, particularly with its setup. The people the protagonist represents are easy to root for, the glossy artifice with which even the grit is designed isn\u2019t random. It falls short only because the big screen spectacle has undergone a transformation in recent years. This film needed to actively be clever with its narrative, keep the audience guessing. Seems like the easy way out, to compare it with the latest or last Southern blockbuster, but honestly, it feels like Hindi filmmakers are struggling to even pander to the audience. Even with Shamshera, it shows.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shamshera doesn\u2019t quite deliver on the anticipation of a touted pan-India film, but its politics and front-foot stance is refreshing, even if unevenly portrayed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":459,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[1096,141,4126,2023,2027,1158,1788,11774,1148],"class_list":["post-7552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-alia-bhatt","tag-bollywood","tag-film","tag-movie","tag-movie-review","tag-ranbir-kapoor","tag-review","tag-shamshera","tag-vaani-kapoor"],"yoast_head":"\nShamshera Review: A Politically Intuitive Film that is Worth A Watch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Shamshera doesn\u2019t quite deliver on the anticipation of a touted pan-India film, but its politics and front-foot stance is refreshing, even if unevenly portrayed.\" \/>\n<meta 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