Starring: Irrfan Khan, Brijendra Kala, Mahie Gill, Rajendra Gupta, Rajeev Gupta
Directed by Tigmanshu Dhulia
Rating:
How many Hindi films in recent memory have made you want to go in for a repeat viewing? How many started measly on Friday, only to see a nearly 80 per cent rise in their Saturday collections? Paan Singh Tomar is that kind of underdog cinema. The film, on India’s steeplechase champion-turned-dacoit (Irrfan), came from nowhere—released with negligible publicity and a mere 300-odd prints—but hit the spot compellingly. And that is without overtly pandering to the commercial diktats of Bollywood.
Director Tigmanshu Dhulia, who assisted Shekhar Kapoor on Bandit Queen, brings that authenticity of terrain, characters, lingo and emotions. It is rooted, rustic and raw. Dhulia also packs in the finer details and nuances, be it the way he shoots the encounters or captures the familiar sight of swarming flies at the sweet shop. Be it his use of the radio news of Nargis Dutt’s death or his choice of background score. Like when Paan Singh meets his wife Indra (Mahie) after a long absence, the folk song that tellingly plays is “Banvasi re ghar aao”. The film talks in the Bhind-Morena dialect and does not make concessions for viewers who may not understand it. But they do. Because Paan Singh’s embattled life is affecting, distressing and heartwarming all at one go.
The deceptively straight, simple, but engaging story-telling packs in many intelligent, thoughtful layers. Like the tantalising interplay between an admirable outlaw and the despicable law. It harks back to the days of a humanist Mujhe Jeene Do, where the dacoit was a besieged, tormented soul, not a menacing villain like Gabbar Singh. Paan Singh Tomar offers a biting critique of the impotent system and the benumbed society that forces people to rebel. No wonder the most celebrated dialogue is: “Beehad mein to baaghi rehte hain, Parliament mein daaku.”
The film rides on a fabulously layered performance from Irrfan. His Paan Singh is at once forceful, idealistic, daring, sporting, simple and guileless. There is a likeable candour and sense of humour to him as well. Dhulia lines up a battalion of brilliant actors for every supporting role, be it Brijendra Kala, the reporter interviewing Paan Singh, or Rajendra Gupta as his outspoken coach. Even the smallest characters reach out, like Paan Singh’s Japanese admirer or the compromised cop (Rajeev Gupta), who refuses to budge from his chair till a few drop dead. Similarly, Paan Singh’s trysts with his wife—in between life in the army and the ravines—though short, are sweet and moving.
More than anything else, Paan Singh Tomar is a film that resurrects three talented men—Irrfan who was doing silly comedies not worthy of his talent, Dhulia who had come up with a string of disappointing films and, of course, Paan Singh Tomar, an icon-in-waiting who got tired of the wait.
