The Tashkent Files (absolutely spoiler free) review

It took Bollywood 106 years to finally come up with a good intense political conspiracy thriller…doesn’t matter if it took me 4 days to finally write this review

THE TASHKENT FILES

DIRECTOR – VIVEK AGNIHOTRI

CAST- SHWETA BASU PRASAD, MITHUN CHAKRABORTY, NASEERUDDIN SHAH, PALLAVI JOSHI, PANKAJ TRIPATHI, MANDIRA BEDI AND OTHERS

As a kid growing up, I was very much attracted to history shows on the Discovery channel…particularly the ones involving some conspiracy theories like Hitler’s suicide, JFK assassination etc. I ahve always said that even though India is a land of mystics, we sadly never had any such cool mysteries. With the exception of a few like Subhash Chandra Bose’s death, the Black Taj Mahal, Nana Saheb Peshwa’s Treasure, the city of Dwarka etc. Our 2^nd Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri’s death at Tashkent in Uzbekistan seemed like a decent but least interesting of the lot. I mean an old man died of a heart attack in the middle of the night. Not much to it. Also, no one really cares about Shashtri (This movie will tell you why you should). The factors surrounding the death were interesting – he died exactly after signing a peace treaty with Pakistan and in Soviet Russia during the height of the Cold War (You could add that phrase to anything and it suddenly becomes mysterious and cool. For example: “In Soviet Russia during the height of the Cold War, a lonely cow grazes on an endless collective farm”. Don’t tell me that doesn’t sound like an opening for a John Le Careé or a Robert Ludlum Novel or maybe a BBC documentary on collective farming during the cold war.)  But for me, LBS’s death was nothing more than a footnote on my list of cool Indian mysteries.

This movie took that footnote and made a fascinating study, not just of the mystery but of the Indian socio-political climate. I have seldom seen an Indian movie with such surgical precision peeling off masks of our most generic yet ever present characters. A converted liberal social worker with short hair and derision of authority (Mandira Bedi), a Padma Bhushan awardee Historian who has no time to listen to any other arguments (Pallavi Joshi) , a reporter who’ll stop at nothing to get to the truth (Shweta basu Prasad), a proud Hindu who sees malice behind any muslim name (Pankaj Tripathi), shrewd politcians embodying the notion that politics is indeed theatre (Mithunda and Naseeruddin) etc. These are all characters we have seen in some shape or form on screen before, where Agnihotri succeeds is giving them some sort of depth. Putting them around a mystery and making them a reflection of our times.  They are not just stereotypical cut outs where you realize hours before the climax as to how these characters will exactly react. The drama between them forms a majority of the story….while the ghost of LBS’ death lurks around the corner.

The story is about a hungry young reporter who’ll stop at nothing to be successful, to find the next big scoop. She suddenly gets a call from an unknown source, testing her Shashtri trivia before sending her some pretty revealing documents. Her publishing of the scoop eventually leads to opposition party leader (Mithun) to raise such a ruckus in public demanding an enquiry into Indian govt.’s response to LBS’ death, that soon a committee is called upon. The majority of the other cast comprise of members of that committee discussing the various factors/theories surrounding the death at Tashkent with the exception of ruling party’s home minister (Naseeruddin shah) who appears to have his own plans in mind while constituting the committee.

The majority of the drama and the investigation aspects happen in a single room where the committee is meeting. The interaction of the characters with each other is reminiscent and (knowing Agnihotri’s style) definitely inspired by the classic movie 12 Angry Men. While following such minute details by mere dialogue can be a bit tedious, Agnihotri makes certain intelligent cinematic choices to insert highlighted documents and actual interviews of reporters, descendants of Shastri, references of actual books etc. in the movie. These aspects kind of also lend a docu-drama feel to the movie and makes it more than just some potboiler conspiracy like The Da Vinci Code.

But the problem for me personally begins when the movie flows as though you are already aware of all the details and shifts its focus way too many times. When the characters debate small details like a knocked over thermos or introduce us to some rogue spy assassin currently living in Uzbekistan- it gets a bit hard to follow. Mystery is my favourite genre to read and write. I have always believed that to get an audience involved in the mystery the events must primarily be presented first- albeit from a skewed perspective. Then shining a light upon the missing details is the eventual unravelling of the mystery. Take for example a Sherlock Holmes episode (TV series starring Benedict Cucumberwatch)- it gives you a brief glimpse at the event which occurs then sets Holmes onto investigate it. Or look at any Sherlock Holmes original stories – Almost all of them begin with a mysterious client calling upon Holmes and Watson and describing the peculiar incident to them. I am not saying that’s not a format that can’t be played around with- but that’s what a mystery thriller is. If the movie would have took its time establishing the incident with at least known details (perhaps with a dramatic visualization) then it would have been even more interesting to follow. The characters always talk as if everyone knows every goddamn detail of the story and hence there is no one – not even our reporter protagonist- with whom we take this investigative journey.

The dialogue between the characters sometimes natural and organic, sometimes suddenly gets overtly dramatic and becomes a shout fight for no particular reason. However, those instances are few and far in between and the movie does near the end manage to keep the dialogue crisp and to the point. It’s like this, if you asked me how exactly Ragini Fule – our hero journalist- arrives at her final conclusion, I wouldn’t be able to recall that journey. I can however tell you how many times she cried or was frustrated or scared. Just goes to show – Shweta Basu Prasad does a fantastic job as Ragini. Particulary her climactic speech earned claps in my theatre. She has the right mix of anger, selfishness and patriotism in her eyes at all times. The rest of the cast are all stellar performances as well with special mention for Pallavi Joshi in one specific scene and an equally eye-opening pre-climactic speech by Mithunda. That speech is the best ripping apart of our society that I have ever seen.

Now am not stupid enough to assume that the claims made by the movie are 100% accurate but it is definitely some food for thought. Agnihotri is anything if not bold. His last movie Buddha in Traffic Jam was a somewhat messy but courageous endeavor. To make a movie on the Indian intellectual’s elite dubious connections with Maoist terrorist movements is no small joke (Go watch it, its free on Youtube). Agnihotri is a bit of an outcast in hypocritical, ultra-secular Bollywood. But that makes him perfectly placed to make movies like these. If you are even remotely acquainted with modern Indian history- this movie should make you ponder a lot. When the movie towards the end reveals actual KGB documents (with a certain Indian politicians name redacted to avoid direct attacks)...it made me remember Joker’s line from the recently released trailer of Joker (starring Joaquin Phoenix). To paraphrase it- I used to think my nation’s history, its politics was a tragedy…now I realize it’s always been a comedy.

A bit tighter editing and definitely better background music would have earned this movie a higher rating. But as of now it is definitely – Worth Watching Once.

PS – ENDGAME. TOMORROW.