Ae Watan Mere Watan Movie Review — Sucharita Tyagi
Hollywood mein Second World War era ke time ki BOHOT saari filmein bani hain, bann rahi hain. Jonathan Glazer ki The Zone Of Ineterest pehla mauk milte hi dekho, unki Oscar winning speech ki baat bhi karnege iss hi video mein.
Par 1940s mein, ek aur jung ladi jaa rahi thi, “india’s freedom struggle” jise kahaa gaya hai. Kahaaniyaan kayi suni hain uss samay ki bhi, par aaj unn kahaaniyon ko dohraaya jaaye, toh kya cultural context hoga, yeh hamaare desh mein, bohot kam kahaanikaar, aur nirdeshak soch rahe hain.
Lambi ho gayi intro thodi, but I just wanted to grab your attention, kyunki aaj ek aise Hindi film ki baat kartey hain aao.
Usha Mehta was a swantrata sainani jinhone 21- 22 ki age mein, apney pita ke khilaaf jaakar Indian National Congress join kari, to contribute to India’s freedom struggle. Pitaaji angrez sarkaar mein judge they, and as the movie goes out of its way to establish, was as pro-Churchill as one could be, “we will fight on the beaches ke deewane”, convinced ki German aur Japaniyon se Churchil ne desh ko bachaya hua hai, because status and perks had blinded him to the plight of people. Usha ne lekin ek underground radio station shuru kiya 1942 mein, called Congress Radio, kyunki AIR was run by the government, and only propaganda was reaching the masses. Iss short lived radio station ki kahaani hai Ae Watan Mere Watan.
Watching this film was an emotional experience. Zara bhi critical nazariye se agar aapne desh mein media ke halaat dekheien hain aajkal, toh yeh film bas yehi keh rahi hai ki jitni cheezein badal gayi hai, utni hi they remain the same. Kyun duniya ki harr regime sabse pehle mass communications ke mediums ko control karti hain, chaahe 1930s Germany ko, angrez adheen bharat ho, yaa aaj chaaro taraf phaila propaganda, coming to you from the news, from movies. When Usha tries to talk to her pro-government father about her dissatisfactions, jawaab aata hai “toh phir kaun chalaayega yeh desh?”, a refrain you STILL here anytime an election is around the corner. You hear pro-system people in the movie refer to movements of resistance to as “so called”, you see kaise legally dissenters ko jail kiya jaata hai, matbhed karne ke koi avenues khule nahi chore jaate, aur anonymous hokar ki khulle vichaar present karne ka option bachta hai. 80 saal pehli ki baatein lagti hain current agar, toh shayad film ki mansha wahee hai.
Mansha aur execution mein lekin, unfortunate gap hai kaafi bada, and the film, despite its intensions of perhaps reminding the Indian populace that intellectualism is good and debate is important, gets caught between its over the top staging, and bad performances.
Sara Ali Khan as Usha Mehta is, simply put, inadequate. The actor could very well be looking up to her father, or comrades and saying with a trembling lip and quivering voice, “tum mujhey tang karne lage ho”, given the nuance she’s brought to this role, that she seems tragically under prepared. The actor, in her most dramatic scenes, almost always, makes the moment about looking deep into the eyes of the person she’s delivering her dialogue to, reliant on detached stoicism as a dramatic device. Par hota inadvertently yeh hai ki Sara uss scenery se nikal jaati hain jahaan tak character unka journey karke pohoncha hai, aur bas unn dramatic moments mein scene ke oopar chipki hui lagti hain. ON the scene, instead of IN it, putting under a glaring spotlight, the “acting”. This shortcoming is highlighted further when she’s sharing screen space with a wonderful Sparsh Shrivastav, jinkio abhi dekh kar bohot pasand kiya in Kiran Raao’s Lapata Ladies. Sparsh plays a Muslim man with a disability, whose character, while perhaps not the most fleshed out, still is the most interesting part of any scene. While most of Sara Ali Khan’s bits seem to be designed to highlight HER presence in the film, rather than as any other actor who is simply a conduit for the story.
Let me explain. Ek scene mein, yeh teen young krantikaari ek maidaan phonchte hain jahaan protest hone waali thi. Before they can get to it though, the police arrive and starts beating everyone up, sab titar bitar ho gaya hai. Background mein 3–4 baar Usha is heard repeating the same lines, “arey koi batayega kya hua? Kya chal raha hai, koi kuch kahega?”, as her group gets to the maidaan and sees ki INC ka tiranga poori tarah oopar chada nahi. Overcome with emotion Usha decides to hoist the flag while yelling Karo Ya Maro, joh aakhiri solution jaisa ek nara Gandhi ne diya hai desh ke logon ko. Par instead of this turning into a moment of pride, a moment of goosebumps, a moment frankly of reflection on how hard-fought our freedom is, the staging is so wispy, and dialogue and acting so glib, all dimensions the moment attempted to bring to the character is lost, the scene eventually only working to elongate the movie’s run time.
One can’t help but wonder how much research was eventually done on Usha Mehta, to create this cinematic version of hers. A simple Google search gives you limited information on the woman and her life, and beyond this, there are very few deeper insights to be found in this full-length feature film. It doesn’t help that almost all characters around her are conceived as stereotypes, right from Sachin Khedekar playing the judge’s father with the gusto of on-stage Shakspearean performance, down to Alexx O Neil playing a British officer who says words like “giraft” with all the tallaffuz, but seems to only be following one acting note — “tum saala gulaam log angrezon ke joote ke neechey rahega”.
The importance of the radio station, the mode of resistance used by the freedom fighters in this story, gets as much build-up and myth-making as the radio Dilton Doiley makes at the end of The Archies. There is the intention to explain WHY this station was important to the movement, and became so personal to Ram Manohar Lohia joh role Emran Hashmi ne play kiya hai, but the impact, chahey Chhota ho ya bada, of this effort that only went on for a few months in 1942, is largely unexplored, sort of missing the opportunity to highlight the harsh realities of being young in a country where criticism and dissent through mass communication are punished. There is a sad lack of artistic vision and uneven pacing that prevent the film from truly capturing the essence of the Quit India Movement.
Par, yeh sab kehne ke baad bhi main kahoongi film dekhein aap ghar baithe iss weekend, kyunki ultimately yeh na sirf ek reminder hai of the sacrifices made by those who fought for India’s freedom par the need to hold on to this freedom and to stay vigilant against oppressive regimes uska BHI reminder hai. While it may not be a cinematic masterpiece, this message resonates with the struggles of our past and the challenges we face today. Aur kyunki yeh BASIC tenets humanity ke maano hum bhoolte jaa rahe hain, yeh ek reminder hai uss khoobsurat future ka joh paaya jaa sakta hai agar gender, religion, caste etc ke differences mein na ulajh kar, desh ke liye aur ek doosre ke liye ek saath mil kar planning aur kaam kiya jaaye toh.
So, on a scale of 1 to 10, Ae Watan Mere Watan is…..77 seconds ki Jonathan Glazer ki Oscar speech dekhna where he says The Zone Of Interest ke baare mein ki, “all our choices were made to reflect and confront us in the present — not to say, “Look what they did then,” rather, “Look what we do now.” Dekho speech, aur film ke oopar ke oopar lambi discussion bhi kari hai mainey yahaan, woh bhi dekhna.
