Despite an unclear narrative, Sankalp remains watchable for its strong performances, especially Nana Patekar’s Chanakya-like mentor navigating power, ambition and long-term political strategy
Reshu Nath, creator-writer of the series Sankalp
Since he made his name in Pataliputra, Chanakya was, technically/geographically, a Bihari.
So is his Patna-based, present-day acolyte, Ma’at Sahib (Nana Patekar), in Prakash Jha’s series, Sankalp (Amazon MX Player); a political drama of sorts.
You can obviously notice the large portrait of Chanakya at Ma’at Saab’s study. Ma’at Saab, as the name suggests, is a teacher — as in short/corruption for Master Sahib.
He runs a major school for penniless child prodigies in Patna; and an IAS coaching institute in New Delhi. While it’s apparent that Ma’at Saab considers parenting as separate from love/care; simply a pursuit of professional advancement for a child — it’s clear that his own goals from the said altruism are something else.
At some point, the series flashes back to Delhi’s campus politics of the 1970s. Which is when Ma’at Saab used to be a student-leader named Kanhaiya!
In fact, he looks a lot like Nana Patekar from, say, Ankush (1986) or Pratighaat (1987). These aren’t de-aged, VFX/AI generated images. It’s altogether another guy.
Since the voice dubbed on the boy is Nana’s — and it’s such a unique timbre, isn’t it —you’re absolutely convinced that’s the younger Nana himself. Likewise, for actor Neeraj Kabi, in his teenaged self. Nice touch, there!
Starring Nana Pateka. Pics/By Special Arrangement
While Neeraj is generally accent-neutral, Nana’s Hindi has always had a distinctively Marathi twang. And yet, nobody plays the unusually calm, collected, confident gent from Bihar/cow-belt better than Nana, if he’s directed by Prakash Jha (Rajneeti, Satyagraha).
Think Apaharan, foremost; and that iconic scene of him skipping on the rope in the prison cell as he draws Ajay Devgn in! You look at both performers as Prakash Jha’s alter-egos, onscreen, especially that we know what a great actor Jha himself is (Jai Gangaajal, Matto Ki Saikil).
Frankly, I watched much of Sankalp in a bit of a daze, slightly confused about its premise/purpose/plot.
And yet went on merrily through the entire show, right to its loose/inconclusive end, purely for the mood and the actors in it; among others, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, even Sanjay Kapoor, who doesn’t do much, besides, going, “What the f*** is going on?”
Circumspect as one should be about the exaggerated role of actors in movies/series in general, since they grab all the credit, if it’s a success — can you catch something, simply for the performances, sometimes?
I suspect, I can, if it’s someone like Nana, or Kabi, generally at the top of their game — whether in Vaccine War (2023) for the former; or the pretentious Once Again (2018), for the latter.
Only, of course, if the overall tenor/tone is consistent, well-defined, unobtrusive… And it doesn’t insult human intellect with senseless action, or vulgar anger.
So is the case with Sankalp. Which lasts 500 minutes (10 episodes, 50 minutes each). That, coincidentally, I watched after two screenings of the 135-minute film, Haq (second time on with students of National Law School, Aurangabad).
Which adds up to almost 13 hours of back-to-back content, solely scripted by screenwriter, Reshu Nath (creator-writer, Sankalp; story-screenplay-dialogue writer, Haq)! I just had to call Reshu Nath!
A mystery surrounding Haq (2025) — sensitively handled film on the 1985 Shah Bano case, starring Yami Gautam, Emraan Hashmi — is its final shot, with the rose that Emraan’s character leaves behind on a ledge.
Reshu kinda tells me it stands for forgiveness and reconciliation that is no longer possible. You can spot that motif throughout the movie.
The bigger mystery for me is Nana’s character in Sankalp — training students, for decades, to join the civil services, and collectively dislodge the political system in New Delhi, eventually, because the guru got thrown out of campus politics, 30 years ago?
What’s he a metaphor for — an institution like the RSS; powerful, superstar coaches, online, like Khan Sir…
Or, indeed, and of course, Chanakya — who left Pataliputra, once humiliated by the ruler Dhana Nanda, only to return, when he installed his pupil, Chandragupta, to power, marking the birth of
Maurya dynasty. Reshu tells me, “That Magadh Empire lasted longer than the British, and spread wider than the Mughals. [Sankalp] is about multiple Chandraguptas. Chanakya played the long game.”
The only way to figure Nana’s protagonist is not to see him as any other “logical” person, “who would, most likely, move on in life; or [purely] seek revenge. He naturally gravitates towards power, and believes he’s meant to rule”; as the kingmaker, evidently.
To be fair, Reshu isn’t explaining/defending her show. We’re merely making conversation.
As for how it all began, she recalls, “The original script was a slacker comedy! It was about a bunch of [IAS] aspirants in Delhi’s Mukherjee Nagar, smitten by the ‘lal batti’ (cars with red beacons), and perks of power. What you watch [in the series] was just a sub-plot.”
That subplot is what drew Prakash Jha to produce-direct Sankalp! Interesting.
Mayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture. He tweets @mayankw14
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The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.
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