Kesari Movie Review: What you seek is simply what you get

KesariUA Drama HistoryDirector Anurag SinghCast Akshay Kumar Parineeti ChopraRatingFirst off this might well be actor Akshay Kumars finest performance ever And this has much to do with an earthy trueblue proud Punjabiness that he exudes in his natural persona that translates so seamlessly on to the big screen him fitting into the getup like a glove as Havildar Ishar Singh a diehard hattakatta soldier with a sharp disc on his huge turban belonging to what the British deemed the martial racemdashborn to fight and protect for community and honourAnd thats tall compliment for a superstar currently at the brightest phase of his career who for years since he made his debut was condescendingly dismissed as woodworkmdashchiefly for the kind of work he starred in of courseKumar lesser known as Rajiv Bhatia over the past few years has upped his game to a point that you cant tell one character of his from the next his last outing was as the iPhone sensation Pakshi Rajan in 20 naturally generating curiosity in ways that Aamir Khan has been capable of Surely there are other contenders too but hardly as prolificThat said you know where this film is coming from 1897 Battle of Saragarhi fought between Sikh soldiers under the British and AfghanPashtun tribesmen from North West Frontier Province or whats now the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in PakistanWhats more important for the viewer to figuregaugeunderstand is where this film is goingmdashmainly towards mainstream massbelt audiences in PunjabNorth naturally inclined towards manic action films exhibiting bravado of a community that has enough history to prove for itThe director is most loved for massive Punjabi hits like Jatt And Juliet and its sequel Frankly Sunny Deol is the only other actor I can think of who could so easily have pulled off this rustic gadarness with gusto The younger lot doesnt quite cut it in that sense And Kumar has a cred that precedes his presence Here he does to Sikh pride through dialogueheavy relatively overthetop period actiondrama what he attempted in Singh Is Kinng 2008 through comedy with considerable successThe key is the story of course But the downer the scriptscreenplay probably naturally flows from there as well For how do you spin off an entire feature from whats essentially a merciless brutal battle between two groups where the side youre on the Sikhs has no stake in the systemTheyre minor soldiers Their bravado is deliriously captivating yes You can see it You can feel it But the battle cant be the whole film Well it is already half of it with scenes leading up to the big moment essentially checking off boxes for issues that the film wants to perfunctorily highlight caste religion colonialism slavery What you seek is simply what you get no more no lessAt the heart of this pic is the fact that 21 soldiers of a Sikh regiment held fort carried on what was selfadmittedly a suicide mission against an army of over 10000 tribesmen attacking them one fine day Could this be a casestudy on tactical warfare How else did the Sikhs survive even more than a second Or were the AfghansPashtun soldiers completely daft to suffer huge casualties still Was there unlimited ammo at Saragarhi or was the opposing side marching in with seriously primitive weaponsWatch Kesari TrailerThe statistics are staggering This explains why this film has been made and can be loved for that moment in military records alone And which is why there is already a movie on the same episode on Netflix with Mukul Dev havent seen yet and another one that director Rajkumar Santoshi is currently shooting stillMaybe theres more to the battle Or maybe this inyourface goosebumpy ridemdashheartwarming because its history and hysterical because its that kinda moviemdashis just the best one can do Well either way this works alrightAlso readSikhs dress up in saffron hues to watch Akshay Kumarstarrer KesariCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates