Anek

Politicians don't like peace. Masses love it. Beautiful movie. How to identify we are Indians? If Hyderabad people start calling Pune people North Indian... If every state has a different theme or anthem... What about India as an identity?

How to identify different straits or identities? We still consider east side people as Chinese. We as Indians think only what is been shown till date.

KGF2 dialogue of Nepotism has not been gobbled and digested by Bollywood, who infact have swept Dadasaheb Falke family.

Satyajit Ray, and there are innumerable south Indian stars who contributed to Indian cinemas.

But Anek movie calls you to watch it full screen and understand what an Indian is all about!

Anubhav Sinha's Anek is a gripping-layered narrative about efforts to negotiate a peace treaty in the North-East India with a separatist group, a process that has gone on for decades without a conclusion. A covert operative, Aman (Ayushmann Khurrana), who goes by the alias Joshua, is tasked with creating a situation that brings Tiger Sangha (Loitongbam Dorendra), the top rebel leader of the region, to the negotiation table. Along the way, Aman finds that everything isn't as black and white as he had initially thought and finds himself conflicted, emotionally and professionally.

With conversational dialogues interspersed throughout the narrative, Anek brings you face to face with the undercurrents of discrimination and alienation from 'mainland' India that exist in different pockets of the northeast. At times uncomfortably so, but then that is the intent of the narration. Anubhav Sinha doesn't use heavy-duty, seetimaar lines or overt jingoism. What works here is subtlety in the dialogues and performances, and some nuanced writing that brings out the essence of the grey that Anubhav Sinha set out to depict through the film.

Anek, through its runtime, draws subtle parallels between the northeast and other parts of the country, in particular Jammu and Kashmir. For instance, Manoj Pahwa's character, Abrar Butt, Aman's superior and a Kashmiri himself, looks out of an airplane's window while on a flight to the northeast. Taking in the breathtaking view, he says, "Agar Firdaus bar Roo-e Zameen Ast, Hameen Ast-o Aameen ast-o Hameen Ast" - Khusro's well-known line that describes the picturesque beauty of Kashmir. Through the window of that plane, the director offers you a glimpse of the outer beauty and inner turmoil of both regions.

The film is engaging, but it could have done with a tighter screen time by trimming 5-10 minutes . It's a tad slow pre-interval and comparatively fast-paced post that, and unpacks a lot in that timespan.

With some powerful performances by Ayushmann Khurrana, Manoj Pahwa, Andrea Kevichüsa, Kumud Mishra, Loitongbam Dorendra, and JD Chakraverti, the film leaves the audience with plenty of unsettling questions - primarily, what makes you an Indian. The use of silences, regional dialect, folk songs and the background score, the production design, the visual tone, cinematography and action pieces, lend themselves well to the narrative.

Anubhav Sinha continues his run as a conscience-keeper of sorts, making one film after another - Mulk, Article 15, Thappad - that force you to think about equality and justice in the context of religion, caste, gender, and now region.

ANEk rides on the Ayushmann Khurrana platform of socially aware films but starts and ends with the mic passed on to the actor whose story is being told. This is a step in the right direction. It corrects what Aysuhmann's last film left to be desired. However, Anek isn't just about the North East region of India. Anek is ambitious. Almost too ambitious for its own good. It's less film and more an idea. The idea of moving towards participatory democracy. The idea of India transitioning into the United States of India.

Anubhav Sinha is a fantastic questioner. You can see that he hates leaving any question unasked and that habit is at the forefront in this film. His questions are often challenging and occasionally even existential. The hope is that his insatiable urge of asking questions will rub off on the moviegoers and will make them imbibe critical thinking that our education system has largely kept at bay.

The movie stays on brand with this theme and even ends with a question. Reasoning is simple. The film wants the public to come up with answers to those questions instead of being didactic about its point. And the film does its job of giving every side enough footage to appear unbiased - the government, the disillusioned government officer, the politicised rebel group, the militant group who represents the voice of the people, the group whose entire struggle is nudging mainland India to recognise them for real and not just on paper. Unlike other political thrillers, this film is extremely nuanced. So much so that I've seen people thinking it's muddled because of it. It's a fair concern because the film is noticeably marred by what I call as the Batman vs Superman syndrome.

The editor has done the entire crew dirty. Their job is so choppy that it does terrible injustice towards everyone else from the actors to writers to cinematographers all of whom have done a near-perfect job. There are scenes where you can actually tell that they were cut to shorten the film and thus end up being pointless. There are also a few plotholes (why is Joshua having a change of heart 3 years into his stay in the unnamed state of the NE) which demand a level of suspension of disbelief that you don't expect from a film this rooted in reality. Add to that the production value of the film is cheap probably because of its tight budget.

Ayushmann Khurrana, however, does his level best to carry this film despite all its shortcomings. His performance lifts the film and keeps you engaged even when the editing zones you out. His shades of gray are more impressive than his transition into the empathetic man - the latter he has done often throughout his career. Watch out for his scene right after the viral North-South language scene. It's a career-high, award-worthy performance that involves a nihilistic question that is bound to make literally everyone uncomfortable and ends with a statement that would rile up a large chunk of his audience. It's a shame though that the film doesn't give him enough action sequences because the man was bulked up enough to pull it off. Andrea does a phenomenal job for a debutante. She is consistent throughout the film. Seasoned actors Kumud Mishra, Manoj Pahwa and Loitongbam Dorendra live up to their names specially the latter two who get ample footage in the film.

Despite all the issues that plague this film, its highs are so thoroughly engaging and leave such a slow burner impact on you with its very relevant questions that they almost make up for the lows. Hopefully, we will get the director's cut of this film someday which would do justice to it.

Its not a movie worth for entertainment.... It's certainly not made for that.. The picture would make you aware of the circumstances which are probably faced by the living citizens of North East... And its not probably about North East, about majority of the Indian states are eventually disregarded or are made discriminated with the United power of India by some racial remarks, to be honest... The picture just brings out the mentioned issue infront of all... The plot has been exaggerated a little so the ratings have been cut upon that, but i won't say that the gist is wrong... In the end, the choice is all yours if you would wanna watch it or not... But pls kindly dont expect it to be a entertaining one cause the issues are not...

First, people need to understand the situation in the NE before watching this film . Only then will they understand.

Second, this is not for masses. It is for the audience of the highest class. So please, if you come across reviews saying "slow", "boring" etc, prolly they are masala film fans. You are watching a film that requires your utmost attention otherwise everything will go over head and this is where the highest class audience excel at, that is, paying attention.

Now coming to the main film, the makers have tried to include literally 3-4 plots into a 2hr 30 mins film, an operation to keep peace, a sports angle, the Tiger Sangha angle etc. Had they focused on only the rebels story, this film would have been terrific but sadly juggling between one plot to another, you really cannot digest everything, even the best audience can't. They come to watch a film with a proper one plot and at the max 2 plot film but this one has too many to digest, this is where Anek falters big time.

Setting of this film is great. Gives off proper NE vibes . The action sequences are few but are well choreographed despite limited budget. The one where the Johnson rebels get cornered in a small jungle, that part is really well made. The sequence following that made me emotional.

The 1st half requires your utmost attention while the 2nd half is quite interesting.

Ayushmann khurana has finally ventured into a different kind of social message film. A first timer as an agent , he does a commendable job. Rest everyone have also done a terrific job, especially that little boy who joins the Johnson army.

Another negative is it gets too preachy often and they disrupt the flow of the film.

Overall, a good one time watch only if you are ready to watch patiently about an important topic.