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| Image Courtesy: www.indianexpress.com |
Rarely does a film merge the political and the personal so
effortlessly that history becomes an animated drama of lived experiences. The scars
left by either natural calamities or communal riots bleed profusely, emotionally
engaging even those for whom these were little more than televised images of
violence and loss suffered by unknown people in unknown places. Abhishek Kapoor’s
Kai Po Che revisits the deep wounds
left by a devastating earthquake, soon to be followed by one of the deadliest
communal riots that tore Gujarat into shreds in 2002. The film seamlessly
interweaves human lives with larger issues of industrialization of cricket,
economic liberalization and the meteoric rise of Hindu fundamentalism. Interestingly,
it doesn’t romanticize about a pristine past where the religious communities lived
in absolute harmony; rather, it constantly addresses the tension innate in the
everyday life of the people, which finally erupts with the volcanic violence of
a bloody communal pogrom.
The film opens with what I would call an iconography of
Hinduism: a towering temple, a predominance of saffron, the huge temple bell, the
little Swastika symbol on the fan’s
regulator or the little Om drawn on
top of the blackboard. Initially, what
appears to be a harmless assortment of signs and symbols acquires a devastating
dimension, after the Savarmati Express carrying Hindu karsevaks is set on fire. The communal riot, clearly engineered by
the State, breaks out, in which Muslims are brutally butchered. The mastermind
remains invisible all through, but the orders percolate down to the lower ranks
of party leaders who execute those orders with a certain degree of
aggrandizement it seems. Another man who is neither named nor shown, but who is
difficult to miss is Mahatma Gandhi who looms large in every frame of the film,
for the cricket coaching centre (that doubles up as sports merchandise shop) is
ironically named Savarmati.
Before the film plunges into the reality of the riot and its
attendant losses, it is a happy kite-flying experience on a large open field of
friendship, dreams and romance. Ishaan (Sushant Singh Rajput), Govind (Raj Kumar
Yadav) and Omi’s (Amit Sadh) invincible trio imbues every scene with the unharnessed
energy of youth, innocence and unalloyed affection. A happy-go-lucky and
slightly clueless trio of friends planning a future might remind of several
coming-of-age stories we have seen in recent times; though Kai Po Che unrolls the flying line in a manner familiar to us, the
kite soon takes an untrodden locus before plunging deep into bottomless pits of
unspeakable tragedy.
Ishaan’s untiring effort of making a promising cricketer of
little Ali, his never-say-die attitude, his unconditional dedication to his
friends, and his dadagiri with a
little sister (Amrita Puri) endear him from the very first frame. He often
frustrates the more the disciplined Govind who is no less endearing in his own
little efforts to rub shoulders with his uninhibitedly mad friends, despite his
innate fear of unpredictability. Omi’s graduation from an innocent brat to a
brainwashed political worker is achieved through terrible heartbreaks and
losses which show in his eyes and the movement of each of his facial muscles.
Yet it’s Ishaan, the stereotype 'do-gooder', the brat with a golden heart, who
wins over the other two, and this is in tune with our expectation from the narrative
and the closure it anticipates.
Sushant Singh Rajput has arrived on the big screen to kai po che his way to stardom. Amit Sadh
would definitely invite industry attention in no small way. Raj Kumar Yadav too
has lived up to his role with remarkable credibility, although the other two
would take away the audience’s sympathy. Amrita Puri impersonates Vidya’s
vivacity with a breezy charm, which is, however, reminiscent of her naivety in Aisha.
