Welcome
to India’s “Red Corridor.” While
referring to the ideology of the militant Naxalite-Maoists who exercise de-facto
governing authority in some of the country’s poorest provinces, it applies just
as readily to the blood they shed to maintain their power. However, one ambitious policeman is
determined to reestablish law and order in Prakash Jha’s Chakravyuh (trailer
here), a
selection of the 2012 South Asian International Film Festival, co-starring
Bollywood legend Kabir Bedi, who will participant in special intimate on-stage
conversation at the Helen Mills Theater this afternoon.
SP
Adil Khan is so by-the-book, he must be headed for a fall. He is for a rude awakening when he accepts
his newest posting, replacing a fallen friend and colleague in the Red
Corridor. Just like his predecessor,
Khan is lured into an ambush by false Naxalite informants. At least Khan lives to tell the tale and
change tactics. Unlike his colleagues,
Khan tries to win over the dirt poor villagers’ hearts and minds, but whenever
one reaches out to the copper, they are publically executed by the ruthless Rajan. It looks bad for the home team until his
academy drop-out buddy Kabir volunteers to go undercover. With no formal ties to the cops, he is the
only one with a puncher’s chance of surviving the vetting process.
Thanks
to their cover story, Kabir fits in with the Naxalites rather easily. He feeds Khan breakthrough intel, turning the
tide against the Maoists. Yet, as Kabir
starts to go proletarian, Khan realizes he may have made a mistake sending an
impressionable hothead prone to snap decision-making on a sensitive
infiltration mission.
This
film would give Debbie Schlussel a conniption fit. Basically, it features the Muslim cop Khan
(the only character whose religion is expressly identified, at least to western
eyes) waging war against an increasingly sympathetic terrorist cult. Indeed, Chakravyuh
is problematic in multiple ways, but also fascinating in much the same manner
as the best Soviet propaganda films.
There is no doubt India’s rural poor have a hard lot in life, but it is
pretty clear by now the shining path offers no salvation. Perversely, Kabir and Rajan spend most of the
film fighting the steel plant Kabir Bedi’s evil industrialist is trying to
build, doing nothing to increase local employment opportunities.
Obviously,
the irony of China allegedly supporting the Naxalites while explicitly repudiating
the Maoist excesses of the Cultural Revolution is an irony lost on Jha. At least, he can stage rousing gun battles
and spectacular massacres. Jha also
integrates the musical numbers into the action in a manner that is more organic
than one might expect. Yes, this is most
definitely Bollywood.
Jha
gets a critical assist from Arjun Rampal, who is an appropriately forceful
presence as Khan. Had Jha belived in his
mission, Rampal’s Khan might have joined The Raid’s Iko Uwais as the second great Muslim action hero of the year. Unfortunately, we are clearly meant to identify
more with Abhay Deol’s Kabir, but his brooding is more petulant than
Byronic. Still, Chakravyuh has the beautiful and well-armed Esha Gupta as Khan’s fiancée and comrade, Rhea
Menon. SAIFF special guest Kabir Bedi
also chews the scenery in a manner befitting a former bond villain (the lethal
Gobinda in Octopussy).
