‘Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh’ (2025) Movie Review - AK Swallows Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair

Karan Singh Tyagi's Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh is based on the book The Case That Shook The Empire by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat, which is centered around C. Sankaran Nair and the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The movie, however, is neither interested in Sankaran Nair nor the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. If you really want to see a well-made film about that tragic incident, watch Shoojit Sircar's Sardar Udham. The extended, graphic sequence in which Vicky Kaushal's Udham Singh rushes to help the victims is one of the finest and most emotionally devastating sequences ever made in the history of cinema. Sircar provides a raw, unflinching view of the massacre without resorting to unnecessary embellishments. He knows that the incident is too unbearably painful, and he doesn't need to commit to "popular" methods to elicit the required response from the audience. Tyagi's failure as a filmmaker is revealed during the film's opening sequence when he resorts to "popular" techniques to add "spice" to the massacre. We get a cutesy shot of a smiling girl, a sentimental mother-son conversation, and an image of a boy looking at an airplane (we are meant to say that the wings of this boy will be clipped within a few minutes, that he won't be able to fly away from the scene of mass execution) - not necessarily in this order. Even by displaying the massacre through the eyes of a victim, Tyagi isn't able to summon even one-third of the emotional energy that Sircar powerfully brought to the surface through his cinematic depiction.

During his best days, Sircar comes across as a man of terrific taste (he was woefully tasteless when he made I Want To Talk). Tyagi, on the other hand, looks like a hack. He hits you relentlessly with loud music, loud dialogues, and loud images. Kesari 2 doesn't exist on the screen; it continuously attacks your senses. Like the spiritual prequel, the film mistakes ear-splitting sounds with strong statements. Tyagi almost pummels you into submission. He wants you to get down on your knees and laud his efforts. Every line, every emotion, and every exposition is heavily underlined, which raises the pitch of this film to such a high level that you become numb long before the interval. By the time we get to the Sankaran (Akshay Kumar) vs Neville (R. Madhavan) drama, we feel disengaged and exhausted. Tyagi is so busy suffocating you with over-the-top emotions that he doesn't care if a scene looks unintentionally funny or artificial. You can't help but chuckle at the timing of an exposition related to a boy's death that comes right in front of Sankaran. It feels as if the characters were simply waiting for this lawyer to appear. And the courtroom scenes are just too terrible - they are infected by a repetitive pattern (characters argue, then we see glimpses of what they do during investigations, and then again, they argue).

Kesari 2, like many historical films, takes creative liberties, which means that don't take this story as the complete truth. It's sad that I have to write this line, but we live during such a time when people don't read books and consider fictionalized films to be the torch-bearer of truth. Just a few weeks back, so many people digested Chhaava without making an effort to read articles or history textbooks. I hope they read about C. Sankaran Nair - he was a genius lawyer. Kesari 2, though, isn't about this historical figure. It's about Akshay Kumar, the star of this show. Kumar is well-known for bending in front of the current government. He has developed a reputation of being a poster boy of Modi-era politics. In Kesari 2, Kumar plays a character who first works for the Britishers and then shifts his allegiance after realizing that his bosses are extremely cruel. When he understands that the game is rigged to protect a criminal, he turns into a real Indian - a freedom fighter. Kumar's Sankaran grills General Reginald Dyer (Simon Paisley Day) with tough questions. When Kumar, the actor, interviewed an influential politician, he asked incisive, urgent questions like whether the man eats mangoes or not. With Kesari 2 then, Kumar tries to assure us that he has turned into a true Indian - that he can now differentiate between right and wrong. Kesari 2 is Akshay Kumar's Sanju. It's a biopic that cleans up a superstar and asks the audience to shower him with love, adoration, and forgiveness. Kumar dominates the movie so oppressively that he flattens Sankaran and reduces him to an Akshay Kumar savior. It isn't enough that Kumar's character clashes against the Crown; he also says fuck you to the patriarchal system. However, it's weird that in a film that aims to celebrate women, we get a visualization of a rape scene through a brief flashback. If Tyagi had been a good director, he wouldn't have cut to the rape's depiction. Rather, he would have focused on the expression, the voice of the victim. And anyway, given the revelation around this situation, the decision to cut to this "flashback" feels stupid and absurd.

But Kesari 2's "go girl" stance is merely performative. It relegates both Dilreet Gill (Ananya Panday) and Parvathy Nair (Regina Cassandra) to the sidelines while the hero performs his heroism. This hero wants to be so desperately noticed and adored that he steals the spotlight from Dilreet when she attempts to shine in the court. Dilreet proves herself through her questions, her verbal attacks, and her interrogation, but it's Sankaran who gets the final applause when he takes a glass of water and a handkerchief to the crying woman. This action itself makes the whole scene about the rivalry between Sankaran and Neville, which - despite being one of the main subjects of this film - is clumsily, half-heartedly executed. Kesari 2 tells us that Sankaran tainted Neville's image to reach a higher position. Tyagi, however, doesn't dig into this accusation. Its implications are left hanging in the air. Kesari 2, after all, doesn't want to poke a hole in the image of its star. It wants to just put him on a pedestal. Sankaran, in the film, is great and virtuous only because he's played by Akshay Kumar. The actor swallows the character. He shines so brightly that everything - the story, the filmmaking, the characters - disappears into darkness. Even the kesari rang becomes indistinct, invisible in front of Kumar.

There is some truth in Kesari 2, however, and it deals with the mindset of Indians. We tend to automatically bend over backward in the presence of money and power. There is a reason why Tirath Singh (Amit Sial) continues to defend the Britishers, even when he knows what Dyer has done. Kesari 2 is semi-effective when you see it as a mirror to the modern world. Many Indians still lose their spine in the presence of authoritarian forces. Britishers are no longer a threat, but oppressive entities have taken another form. Only the flag has changed, not the regressive practices. We are still selfish, still greedy, still shameless to a large extent. We wake up in the end, but the process is too slow. Our eyes won't open until the fire reaches our home until cancer reaches the final stage, and until the lungs collapse entirely due to bad air. Till then, whenever someone says, "Sab changa si," most of us will simply nod our heads in agreement.

Final Score- [2/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times