POPCORN REVIEWSS

Written by Honey Trehan, Niren Bhatt, and Utsav Maitra, it was outrageous on how the CBFC had demanded as many as 120 cuts to the film (re)titled Satluj. And one look at its cold open is enough to make you understand why (further exposing the body in question as being a mere mouth piece of the ones who must not be named; no questions asked in some ‘other films’, may I add). In a scene, you are witness to a group of cops drunk and making merry in the presence of a handful of commoners, who are soon aimed and shot at, almost resembling targets in video games. There is an unsettling ambience created even as a cop character is viciously told that he is promoted to the rank of an Inspector days before his marriage, after another shot an innocent victim for him before dumping the body in the Satluj river. It is deeply disturbing, even as I found myself seething with anger.

It is interesting on how the protagonist Jaswant Singh Khalra (Diljit Dosanjh) is leading a simple life with his wife Pammi (Geetika Vidya Ohlyan) and his children, while working in a cushy job as a bank manager. And so, his sudden awakening from slumber also stems from a personal loss of his friend, and later his friend’s mother – the former being killed off randomly, and the latter having disappeared off the grid, much like thousands of others in hindsight. What follows is a brief investigative trail that leads the protagonist to a crematorium that houses several ‘unclaimed’ dead bodies of folks who were recorded as disappeared. And the stance of the cops is clear – they haven’t killed anyone innocent, and are not anti-government.

The politics of the drama plays a crucial part in the narrative, even as innocent lives are taken away in the garb of cleaning up the state from terrorism. It probably is a very specific talking point of a crisis that is tight-lipped even today – even as you are witness to the politicians and cops working in tandem in the drama, both trying to save their perceptions in the eyes of the public. This is true so much so that DGP Bitta (Kanwaljit Singh) chooses to bring one of his trustworthy men, SSP Surjit Singh Sugga (Suvinder Vicky) to the fore.

SSP Sugga is your typical antagonist who would offer stereotypical antics to convey his evilness. He is cold, calculating and intimidating – a trait that we evidently witness in a riveting scene involving him entering the household of a junior cop, have saag and later ambush the entire family in the garb of assisting terrorism. That sequence was not only chilling but also worthy of a million nightmares, something that was enough to establish the vicious character of Sugga. Elsewhere, another sequence scarred me with its bouts of disturbance – a presumed dead body being brought for forensics, only to be discovered alive. And the cops pumping in bullets at the acquired location and driving it back. The anger in me had reached its zenith, so much so that I had to pause the narrative and let out a few deep breaths before continuing.

It is interesting on how the protagonist found support from foreign land too, a trait that could easily be mapped to the modern setup on the multiple issues only being whispered in the homeland. The same is represented in a particular sequence when a character claims on how it isn’t right to present a bad picture of the country on foreign land – a convenient act of hiding one’s own flaws in the name of nationalism. But the underlying act of nobility lay with the protagonist, when he chose to opt out of his asylum, and continuing fighting for what is right – citing on how his absence would die down the movement, also having to later face the repercussions of disappearance, much like the millions of people that he had fought for. It is the price that you pay for raising the voice for what is right – and I will leave that open for interpretation in the modern setup too.

There is a layer of uncertainty even as the focus shifts to the CBI officer Samudra Singh (Arjun Rampal), who is tasked with the investigation behind the disappearance of the protagonist. This, while he is shown to deal with several issues related to bureaucracy, red tape protocols, and hostile witnesses – that further exposes the decaying justice system, even as a few pawns are sacrificed along the way for the larger good of the folks at the top. It all felt like the zenith of frustration that we all might be feeling at some point while glancing at the news notifications on our phone.

There is a Shakespearean undertone to the proceedings, particularly in a reconstructed flashback sequence that literally touched my heart, even as a character in question almost knowingly pierces through the guilt-driven soul of another. It perfectly encapsulates the spirit of the drama, that is known to voice an opinion on things that it deems to be right. And that scene was a quiet little reminder of the same – despite ending on the most disturbing and unsettling note possible to conclude the narration that had me numb while seething with anger . If I had to take turns to wash my face repeatedly after the film had ended, you can imagine the impact that it had on me – something that stayed for hours after the end credits had rolled. The screenplay will go down as the most impactful piece of writing for an Indian film in years, something that will make you question every move of the authorities. But does that make us all anti-n*tional?