Road to Sangam

Today I watched Road To Sangam online on funbolo.com and now I have only one regret that I could not watch it earlier. It's a movie to be watched by every true Indian, every true Muslim and every true human-being. It was released sometime back and to the misfortune of the Indian audience, it was not even took notice of. I really pity that meaningless and mindless movies score on the box office due to the pre-release hype generated for them and outstanding movies like Road To Sangam are not even given a look.

A motor workshop owner, Hashmatullah (Paresh Rawal) gets a job of repairing the engine of a very old truck without being aware of the fact that this is the truck which has carried the remains of Gandhiji's body for dispersal in different rivers of the nation and now only one such urn is remaining which is to be carried to Sangam (the amalgamation point of Ganga and Yamuna at Allahabad) for the dispersal of its contents there. Before he could accomplish the job, his community leaders call a strike of the Muslims in protest to the arrest and torture of local Muslims as the aftermath of some explosions in the city. He himself is the general secretary of the concerned committee but once coming to know that the job undertaken by him is related to the remains of Gandhiji, he refuses to become a part of the strike and thus invites the wrath of his community-man. Being a liberal and right-thinking person and taking the inspiration from the life of Gandhiji himself, he finally succeeds in carrying out the job as well as make his community-men understand his point-of-view.

This novel idea pertaining to the dispersal of the ashes of Gandhiji has been developed quite proficiently, linking it to the Muslim-psyche and the activities of the fundamentalist elements as well as the negatively thinking elements in the community. How less educated and ill-informed youths are misguided, is shown quite realistically but it raises hope that right-thinking persons can change the scenario if they come to the front and speak to their community brethren fearlessly on related issues. True, the police atrocities and tilted mentality towards the Muslims is also responsible for the already deteriorated and further deteriorating situation in our country, still the Muslims can themselves introspect and look at several things objectively to find out what is right and what is wrong. That insight itself will guide them to move in the right direction. It's always easy to misunderstand others as well as misread the things prevailing. However the movie emphatically underscores the positive and hope-providing fact that proper observation and correct understanding of the things is also very easy. Only the windows of the mind are to be kept open. Right-minded people (which are always there) can come forward and bring about a positive change in the scenario, provided they throw off the burden of fear of the fundamentalists and the vested interests which appear to be mighty but actually may not be.

Gandhiji's philosophy of humanity is still relevant which discards all the differences of the mankind whether on the ground of sex or religion or cast or creed or race or province or language or likewise. Through the character of Hashmatullah, it has been propagated once again and this propagation is, in fact, very effective. Though the long dialogues send an air of preaching, the actions of the hero support the talks and do not allow them to appear hollow. The message is pretty clear to the Indian Muslims - 'You have to be the change you want to see in the world.' The narrative takes some time in taking off but once taken off, there is no laxity. Despite the exemplary message, it is not weak on the entertainment front and is very very interesting. The editor could have shortened the length by 15-20 minutes. However the length is not felt very much because there is no boredom.

The art director and the cinematographer have done a splendid job by creating the middle class areas of the city on the screen with a high degree of reality. Everything appears in such way that the viewer gets a feeling of witnessing in person whatever is visible on the screen.

The performances of all (including the great-grandson of Gandhiji - Tushar Gandhi) are highly admirable. However it's Paresh Rawal's movie who carries it alone on his strong shoulders. He has made himself deserving to be considered among the greatest Indian actors through his talent and toil. In this movie, his hard work speaks for itself.

The music of the movie (by Sandesh Shandilya and others) is also good. The very old prayer - Lub Pe Aati Hai Dua Bann Ke Tamanna Teri and the Qawwaali - Hum Subah Ke Bhoolon Ko (sung by Vijay Mishra, Ghulam Qadir Khan & Ghulam Murtuza Khan) are specially mentionable. The devotional songs dear to Gandhiji have also been incorporated suitably and emphatically.

Summing up, producer - Amit Chheda and writer-director Amit Rai have done an outstanding job. It's a movie pronouncing the message of the Mahatma, the message of humanity without any overtones or rhetorics. It has won several international awards but not the viewership of the Indian audience. I recommend this movie as a must-watch for every right-thinking Indian. Nobody willing to watch meaningful and purposeful cinema should miss this masterpiece.

The movie keeps us pondering even after it is over. It is a feel good movie with an exception story, linking to one of the greatest leaders of the 21st century Mahatma Gandhi.

What worked:

• an unique and very powerful concept
• great performances esp Paresh Rawal and Om Puri.
• Real life old footages of Gandhi, museums and photos.

What did not work:

• movie with such strong message would have still worked without the songs. Songs, although directed the flow of the story,I felt they could have been reduced partially or completely.
• some dialogues and scenes profiling Islam sentiments could have been taken away

Final verdict: Definitely a must watch. Highly recommended, at least for the concept of the movie.

*this review contains no spoilers* I went to watch Road to Sangam only knowing that it was a film with a connection with Gandhi and had won some awards. What transpired on the screen in the next 135 minutes changed my perception of Gandhi and changed me as a person. I am some one who did not regard Gandhi in the high esteem a lot of people regard him in. He, to me, was some one who was adamant and threatened the nation with his blackmails which were carried out promptly by his followers. What I did not understand was that it was the power of Gandhi's thoughts which made people act the way they did. It had reason, it had logic.

Coming to the film. We are given a rationale and the film makes a strong case for it. You almost start believing in the thinking behind it. Then, there is a slow process of change which is so slow and gradual. It is not some thing which happens right away or through a flash bulb of genius. It is realization in process. The way the change is shown is convincing enough for some one to believe in the Gandhian principle.

The film has many layers to it. It is a film which asks 'what defines Karma'. It is a film about holding upright the faith Gandhi showed in the muslims of India. It is a film about how a person be it a Muslim or a person of any religion (or even an agnostic or atheist for that matter) should behave. That's the bigger picture.

Then the film touches on tough subjects like partition and the role of an Indian Muslim. Many layers and subjects touched, all given due space.

Paresh Rawal is excellent in the role of a man who works based on logic and is principled at the same time. I can't think of a better actor to carry out the role. The part of a Muslim from the state of Uttar Pradesh, perfect with the local accent, who has his own little mannerisms and characteristics is played perfectly. The facial expressions are not exaggerated. The lines are spoken with a calm balance about them, exactly how the character would say it.

The pace of the movie is neither fast, nor slow. It has it's own rhythm and flows rather than moves. The cinematography is excellent with aspects of small town India (the city Allahabad in this case) shown. There are panoramic views and then there is attention to detail. A man making aloo tikki is shown for instance to capture the flavour of the chaat which is so popular in small town India.

Coming to Gandhi films, I have seen quite a few. Gandhi was a great biographical sketch. Gandhi My Father shows the flaws of Gandhi - the father of his son. Lage Raho Munnabhai which was so popular tries to explain the Gandhi way of thinking and does a fair job of it. It has the bollywood masala mixed in it, was perfectly marketed and was a huge success. Gandhigiri became a trend. Sardar, again starring Paresh Rawal (as Sardar Patel), paints Gandhi as a principled, yet stubborn man whose will might have cost India There are umpteenth movies which are presented as documentaries on Gandhi, most of which are holistic. No movie portrays Gandhism, like Road To Sangam does. At least none I have seen.

The show I went for was almost canceled as only one other person showed up at the ticket counter. In the end, just five of us came to watch the movie which they did screen thankfully. One engineer who had studied from Allahabad itself remarked that Gandhism is dead as no one turned up for this movie. I remarked that Munnabhai was a huge success. So it is a marketing flaw and lack of funds which meant audiences didn't come to watch this film. There is another aspect to it. It isn't a masala flick like many other bollywood flicks or like Munnabhai. It is not boring in any way, mind.

I give the movie a perfect 10/10. Don't think it could have been made better.

I just hope more people see it. So go see it and spread the word!

A small low budget movie that almost no one has heard of – is one of the most nuanced, heart-warming tales I have seen. It is a story with loads of heart, which all of us need to see – if for nothing else, to remember who we are as a country. It is a commentary of our times, yet very gently, it questions our conscience about some of our society's beliefs. Story wise, it is like a children's parable, where everything ends well – the cynical among us might scoff at it. But Road to Sangam's achievement lies in its ability to make us look at each other, in a Gandhian way – something that we have long forgotten to do, despite Raj Kumar Hirani's best efforts.

In Allahabad, Hashmatullah is a sincere, god-fearing motor mechanic, well liked in the community - and is also the general secretary of his neighbourhood mosque committee. He is entrusted with repairs to an old Ford V8 engine, ignorant of its historical significance that it once carried the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi for immersion at the Sangam. He promises he would repair the engine and he would do it as soon as possible. But when some of his innocent neighbours are arrested by the police after some bomb blasts on suspicion of harbouring terrorists, the committee sends out a 'farman' to down shutters in the locality as a protest.

At this point, Hashmatullah comes to know the significance of the engine – and is stuck in a dilemma. One on hand, he wants to finish his work - but to open his shop, he would have to go against the mosque 'farman' and his 'quam'.

While on the face of it, it's a story of a common man stuck in a larger-than-life situation, Road to Sargam morphs into a story of how we need to find a common ground between our two communities – without stepping on each other toes. And the reason why Road to Sangam is such a fantastic movie is that it doesn't do or say anything explicitly – everything is gently suggested or implied. No flag waving jingoism, nor any flower-giving gandhigiri. Its so nuanced, it would take you a while before you figure out that it could even pass off as a patriotic movie! The star of the show is Paresh Rawal (who in the same week gave a langoor-looking performance in Rann). Its here that he shows us what wonderful performances he is capable of – because we are in a serious danger of forgetting it after his Priyadarshan movies. In Road to Sargam, he plays Hashmatullah with conviction – showing us the gradual move from doubt and confusion to resolve. Accompanying him in performance honours is Pawan Malhotra. Playing the jingoist maulvi, his high pitched nasal voice make him almost unrecognizable and very believable. Om Puri doesn't have much dialogues –and does competently.

It would give you an idea of how good or bad the movie is when you consider that Tushhar Gandhi (Mahatma's grandson) plays himself in the movie – for a considerable part (without dialogues though). Road to Sangam is a non-judgemental look into the collective paranoia of the Muslim society in India – and how sometimes it just requires a few voices of reason and some patience. The movie does have its fallacies – some of its scenes should have been written more tightly and the solution director Amit Rai provides is bordering on naïve. But these pitfalls do not distract from the appeal of the movie. Road to Sangam touches your heart with its sincerity and feeling. I repeat, it is something you shouldn't miss.

I write about movies regularly at http://bombaycinephile.blogspot.com

It somehow seems like every other unconventional Hindi movie these days is aligned to either showcase Mumbai's undeniable spirit as a city that has seen the heights of mass peril or to herald a pro-Muslim message to those who might not already have heard it. Of the two, if we take a look at that rather colorful array of movies that have attempted to paint Islamic fundamentalism in a shade more palatable to the untrained layman palette, some great examples ('Aamir','Sarfarosh'), some decent instances ('Anwar','Yeh Hai Mera India','Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan') and some Herculean debacles('My name is Khan', 'Kurbaan') come to the foreground. Whilst all the aforementioned movies had varying degrees of success with portraying the life and times of an ordinary Muslim in today's India, there has never really been an attempt to juxtapose the Muslim community against Gandhi's backdrop. For that, 'Road to Sangam'(RTS) has my respect.

Now, I am not a hardcore Gandhian. I have read abundant material on the man, exhaustive literature on his legend and certainly seen a dozen variations of his mantra in recent celluloid years. Notwithstanding my personal views of the Mahatma, I was getting a tad frustrated at how almost every movie that used him as the nucleus, would invariably get so sugary at one point that one could die instantly from that lethal injection of diabetic shock. His message of global peace, non-violence and inter-communal brotherhood would be echoed way beyond the subtle reality it so desperately needed. Thus, making an erstwhile honest attempt, seem preachy and philosophical.

What makes RTS more authentic in such a stereotypical scenario is how it attempts to demystify the reasons why Maulwi saahibs and other patriarchal Muslims are screaming from atop mosque enclosures and what the everyday worker is hearing sitting in front of them, convinced that they know more about what being a true Muslim is. RTS dissects that so neatly that it takes your breathe away.

The premise revolves around Hashmatullah (Paresh Rawal), a renowned mechanic and a devout Muslim, who works out of his grease stained garage in Allahabad. He is the general secretary of his community's organization which is headed by one time friend Mohammad Ali Kasuri (Om Puri) and the local Maulwi Maulana Qureshi (Pavan Malhotra). Hashmat is a non-threatening fellow who sits in on rhetorical meetings spilling with the irate and cranky Maulwi's never ending rants about how Muslims are being targeted each day in today's India. Despite his ideology that are slightly different from that of his peers, he does not see the need to voice his philosophy in their presence. He nods his head, joins in their hymns and plays his role to the T.

And then one day a bomb goes off. A few prominent Muslims are arrested by the police and this sends shocks of rage across the community. They unanimously agree to shut down their businesses in protest of what they are convinced is a racist act. Hashmat, without a choice, reluctantly joins in not realizing that a recent project that has come his way, of fixing an age old Ford's rusty and dead engine, is in fact of the same vehicle that had once carried the Mahatma's ashes after his death in 1948. This, for a reason he cannot completely fathom, changes Hashmat's priorities.

On the one hand he does consider himself a true follower of the Koran and a blue blooded supporter of his organization. On the other, there is his conscience that continues to prick him into the confession that his little deed of helping the Mahatma's final bounty of ashes to be submerged into the Triveni Sangam (a spot where the rivers Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet), somehow seems like a more justified statement of Muslim being a faith of peace, rather than shutting off work and listening to a radically inclined Mullah each day. Thus, aware of the respect he knows he needs to pay to the man who was assassinated for being an open supporter of the Muslims, Hashmat prepares to face the wrath of his own kin by reopening his shop to fix the engine. Hashmat's personal journey of awareness lit brightly by the knowledge of the true meaning of Islam culminates with the Mahatma's final journey into the rivers of the country he fought so hard to liberate.

RTS is no average emotion-heavy movie that is high on religious jingoism without a clear degree of practicality. In fact, it is the most mature movie I have seen on the subject after 'Aamir'. If 'Aamir' was the attempt to present the true anti-thesis of a Jihadi, 'Road to Sangam' paves the way for more clarity on the difference between blind fanatic adherence to one's faith and the need to see the bigger picture. That bigger, brighter, and more appropriate picture.

I would definitely recommend a relevant film like 'Road to Sangam' purely because of the honesty with which it unfolds its theme.