Andolan
(Aziz Sajawal, 1995)
Andolan,
initially, was SO INCREDIBLY LIKE several other films of its type
that I've seen that to begin with, it took me a while to figure out
if I had actually already seen it and just forgotten.
Obviously,
that's not a great start: being seemingly entirely forgettable or
just particularly mediocre, despite a the star factor presence of a
slinky, scowly, bemulleted Sanju Baba
and a wholesome, beaming Chi
Chi (inexplicably dressed in baggy pastel V neck jumpers like a
granddad for much of the time);
despite opening with a bang: it's
Hindustan, outlined in FIRE!
That...subtle...visual, and the title
Andolan (meaning Revolution) clues us in fairly early
that although the first third of the film wastes a bunch of time with
a college romance comedy plot that LITERALLY GETS COMPLETELY DROPPED
AND APPARENTLY HAD NO REAL POINT, this is actually one of those
wildly idealistic, patriotic films about uniting the country against
the corrosive force of corruption. No wonder I thought I had seen it
before. I've seen SO MANY of those films.
The
third of a trio of films starring both Sanjay Dutt and Govinda
(Taaqatwar and Do Qaidi are the
other two; if you are going to see just one of them, my personal pick
would be Taaqatwar, but
all three films suffer from the curse of being pretty much
interchangeable), Andolan completed
filming in 1994 and was slated for release in 1995. In the
intervening time period, Sanjay Dutt was arrested in connection with
the 1993 Mumbai bombings, and began serving a 6 year jail sentence
(he would serve about 16 months between his arrest in 1994 and his eventual
release in 1995) and thus was unable to dub his role in post
production. IT'S NOT EVEN HIS VOICE IN THE FILM (to be fair, the
voice artist filling in for him is a pretty good substitute).
From
the perspective of watching this film as part of my vastly neglected
Govinda Project, this is worse: it's a film featuring Govinda pretty
near the peak? (okay maybe nearing the tail end of the peak) of his
popularity, and Chi Chi is, to be honest, relegated to second hero
(this film really is Sanju Baba's) and SANJAY
DUTT DANCES MORE IN ANDOLAN
THAN CHI CHI DOES. (I
swear. Govinda only gets one proper dance, and it's wedged in as a
nonsensical dream sequence, because it really has NO PLACE in this
film).
So
here's the story:
Aniket
(Govinda) and Adarsh (Sanjay Dutt) are, for all intents and purposes,
brothers. Aniket was actually a street orphan who was taken in by
Adarsh's kindly father after he fainted from near starvation in the
street and Adarsh's father's social conscience kicked in hard;
henceforth, Aniket (meaning “he who is detached”) and Adarsh
(“the ideal one”) shared everything and were as close as if they
were related by blood. When the two graduate college (following a
brief, pointless but sweet comedy/romantic plot taking place on
campus that is NEVER revisited, and really only there to establish
that Adarsh is the more cheeky, confident and forthright brother;
Aniket the more serious, shy, academic one) Adarsh follows his father
into working as a manager at the local factory, while Aniket heads
overseas to London on a scholarship to further his studies in
engineering.
And
while Aniket is gone, the shit hits the fan.
Basically,
the guy who runs the local factory is crooked, the local cops are
crooked, the local politicians are crooked, and all of this combines
into one big horrific mess. The crooked factory owner hires a local
mob don to rile the unions up – the plan being that they will torch
the factory and he can collect an insurance payout; that the crooked
police will turn a blind eye AND murder the older factory workers in
the ensuing riots (err, win win?). What nobody counts on is Adarsh –
an idealistic young graduate, standing up to the don attempting to
start the union riots.
Adarsh
gets hired by the factory, but makes an enemy for life of the mob don
for daring to stand up to him. The union workers decide, with
Adarsh's father, to start their own factory, a move that ends in
tragedy when the mob don exacts his revenge on Adarsh against his
father.
So
all the while, working at the crooked factory, Adarsh grows more and
more disillusioned (seeing your father cold-bloodedly murdered in
front of you for having principles will do that to you too, I guess)
and corrupt, so that when Aniket returns from London, as wholesome
and idealistic as ever, we have this situation on our hands:
Noble
idealistic principles versus weary acceptance of eternal corruption.
Good
brother versus bad brother.
CAN
ANYONE SAY DEEWAR?
Honestly,
there were two films I kept thinking of, all the way through watching
Andolan. BETTER FILMS, on the same basic theme.
Satyakam – for the exploration of disillusionment and
idealism post-Independence, and the portrayal of the struggle of
living without corruption in a corrupt society; and Ghayal, the
Sunny Deol story of a wrongly imprisoned man fed up with a corrupt
system, using violence to fight for revenge when the system fails
him.
I
won't lie, a third film did flit acriss my mind. Khatta Meetha. Mainly for the
similarities in BORING DETAIL ABOUT UNIONS AND ENGINEERING STUFF AND
BLAH BLAH UNSUBTLE DIG ABOUT CORRUPTION. Khatta Meetha
has better songs:
but remains to this day THE WORST FILM I HAVE EVER
EVER SEEN, so please NEVER WATCH IT.
The
thing is: Andolan isn't a bad film, it's just...been
done before, and done better, and brings nothing at all new to a
genre that can be kind of tiresome at the best of times. And
this is coming from ME. I will defend mediocre 80s and 90s films till
my dying day, especially ones like this that have a clear (read:
amazingly unsubtle) social message and insight into the social
history of the time. I am kind of fascinated by the bizarre mixture
of idealism and gory vengeance that plays out on screen here, the way
it suggests that in some segment of society, people had had enough of
the pervasive corruption in Indian society, and were extremely
disillusioned with what society had become following the glittering
promise of Independence. If you want to get into analysis, and give
the film some meaning, look at what happened the year prior to it
being made: the Mumbai bombings in 1993. You can read a lot
of frustration and anger and disillusionment with how it could come
to that, into the events that play out on the screen = or you can
look at it as another one in a long line of pulpy, lurid, mediocre
melodramas.
But
I am also extremely confused with how this film ends (SPOILER ALERT):
amid burning bodies, with the heroes drenched in blood, dispatching
of the corrupt bad guys in what looks to be a murderous – if not
justified – rampage. As the last of the villains is thrown alive
onto a burning pyre, the heroes embrace (ahh, brothers reunited!) and
we see this:
WHAT?!
DIDN'T WE JUST SEE VIOLENCE SOLVE EVERYTHING, NOT JUST AT THE END,
BUT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE FILM?
Like
when Sanju Baba would abandon his office job and randomly (AWESOMELY)
just go APESHIT?
Like
when Chi Chi decided that FUCK IDEALISM, IT GETS YOU NOWHERE, I'M
GONNA CUT A BITCH AND LET THEM BLEED ALL OVER ME AND MAKE SURE I'M
WEARING WHITE SO EVERYONE KNOWS I'M A BAD MOFO.
Like,
seriously, Andolan? WTF?
