Peace Has a Price: Kabir

Film: Kabir (2018)

Starring: Dev, Rukmini Maitra, Shataf Figar

Directed by: Aniket Chattopadhyay 

Rating: 6/10

Though the film has its flaws, one can surely say that the making of this film is a symbolic of the gradual evolution of the bengali film industry towards betterment.

It is probably the first time such a sensitive theme like terrorism is adapted on screen in bengali, and consequently a lot of expectations were up for this big Poila Baisakh release. Moreover, the buzz created over social media regarding the various shades of the characters even made the hypocritics believe that Dev would strike 'gold' with this project. Whether it's gold or silver will be decided by the box office reports; but surely the film has, atleast to some extent, has touched the audience and all cine-lovers with quite a few realistic ideas and views regarding this global crisis. 

The story opens with a Muslim woman, Yasmin (Rukmini) riding a cab, sseking to reach the CST station, Mumbai, at a time when the city was amidst terror caused by serial blasts at various places, simultaneously showing a panel discussion regarding terrorism and religion. The cab is stopped by the police and Yasmin is left stranded when a car stops and a young, handsome guy offer her lift to the station, introducing himself as Abir Chatterjee (a.k.a Dev). They again meet at the waiting room and then, co-incidentally find their seats in the same compartment of the Duronto Express, opposite to one another. After the train had started its 24-hour journey to Howrah station, Abir shows Yasmin a live video over Skype, where she finds two men holding her paralysed father at gunpoint. It is then Abir reveals that he is a terrorist named Altaf Kabir, who is in search for a fellow called Imtiaz, who had betrayed his companions and got them killed in an encounter, while they had planned a blast in kolkata. He further gives Yasmin detailes of her life, how she had lost her aunt during a communal riot at Bhopal and had to come to kolkata with her paralysed father. What follows is a high-nerved thriller- a thriller of minds and identities, with the highlighting of certain issues that plague our society based on communal lines, ending with a shocking revelation- a twist which was simple not anticipated at all.

The first half of the film is primarily made of conversations between Altaf and Yasmin, where the former repeatedly threatens her to reveal the whereabouts of Imtiaz. It hardly puts any development or progress in the plot; but at the same time, doesn't bore the audience as well. The major reason of this is the brilliant editting work by Rabiranjan Maitra and the eye-catching cinematography of Harendra Singh. Shots of the train journey put in between patches of conversations are images of the turmoil in the mind of a fearful and vulnerable Yasmin, whose father is held at gunpoint. Whereas, the second half is where the psychological game of revelations begin, narrating various incidents and also putting up an image of how terrorism is propagated among people in society which attempt to say that the film is "well made; "attempt" being the catchword here. This is because of the fact that although the director has tried to portray a realistic picture, he has been carried away by the "Bolly" ideas of showing how one's past experiences as a child causes one to become a 'jihadi' and cause terror. Likewise we have here a young girl who saw her family being brutalised,her old aunt being gangraped and her uncle being inhumanely stabbed by extremists of other communities during a riot, and grows up to become a part of terror-propagating groups, as if to avenge her family's death. But she never thinks that people belonging to another religion had also helped them fight the extremists on that fateful day, implying that an entire community cannot be blamed for some heinous acts commited by only a select few belonging to that group of people. Rioting and terrorism is a crime in iteslf, and can never be justified by religious grounds. We tend to forget that terrorists do not belong to any religion of this world, where the actual religion is "Humanity". We forget that people who actively take part in riots are actually people without religious colour at all- they are merely hired, and then we put blames on the other communities. Credit goes to Aniket chattopadhyay for putting forth the realistic features of terrorism. However, the way these groups operate, the international business behind propagating terrorism and functioning of sleeper cells of various organisations haven't been shown in the film, which would have opened up dynamism in the film and would have made it better. 

Besides few ignorable flwas in the narrative here and there, one major lowpoint of this film is the acting. Kudos to Rukmini Maitra for the stellar performance in #KABIR. A lot of expectations were in stake after her superb show in Cockpit, and she has again proved her might. Playing Yasmin was indeed a tough job, but she has played out the character with ease, brilliantly portraying her emotions and vulnerability, though she was a bit unimpressive towards the end. However, it is Dev who has disappointed us,yet again, after the blank expressionless Shankar in "Amazon Obhijaan". From the beginning, his flirty nature was acceptable, but his negative portrayal was just not convincing. Yes,some credits can be given to him for trying to break himself up and remodulate himself again as a fine actor, its a very weak and meek attempt. He still has to go a long way to establish himself as a fine actor. Shataf Figar, Barun Chanda and Priyanka Sarkar were fine in their cameo roles, the former two being quite impressive despite the very short stay on screen.

However, the biggest jolt of the film is the climax revelation- which I am not revealing here. But tbh, it was simply unacceptable and unanticipated. I mean, how can one have such a rapid transformation of characters and their shades ?? This revelation and the final ending was such a shocking and a tag immature one, as if someone had forced the director to conclude the movie abruptly. The song "Tere Darga Pe" composed by Indradip Dasgupta was an excellent rendition, and the camera work used to depict the city of kolkata was captivating. 

In short, the film, though being an average one, manages to arouse questions regarding today's scenario of society in the minds of the audience. It is an honest attempt on the director's part to come up with such an origianl and interesting story based on true accounts, though the treatment could have been a lot better. Overall, it is an "okayish"-tagged film.

Written by: Soumitri Chattopadhyay