The movie of the story revolves around the INA trials of pre independence India. The Trials were held at the red fort and three INA officers Major General Shah Nawaz Khan, Lt Col Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Lt Col Prem Sahgal were court-martialled for allegedly waging war against the British Indian Army between September to 1942 and April 1945 with charges of murder and abetment to murder against them.The beginning was promising, though towards the end the story would have completely fallen apart if not for the amazing acting by Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Mohit Marwah, Mrudula Murali, andKeneth Desai. It was a story that hadn’t been covered before, but this half hearted attempt made us wonder why it did not need to be covered unless a tight script had been produced.

Raag Desh is a detailed break-down of this famous case which revealed how vulnerable the British regime had become. It was also important because Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi were taking interest in the case. Probably they knew that the trial of three officers will have a favourable impact on Congress’ demand for complete sovereignty. Dhulia doesn’t manipulate the court proceedings to earn our sympathy. After all, it’s a film with heavy patriotic fervour, nobody would have minded that, but he sticks to the facts and narrates the story of all the major characters from a neutral perspective. There lies the real beauty of his storytelling as the ambiguity around the lead characters remain till the last moments, and even when it clears you are left with many angles to think about. This isn’t the most powerful scene in the film though. The back and forth in narration hampers the flow, though. Further, the documentary-like feel hampers the drama to reach its zenith, but these are minor issues and can be easily overlooked. What matters is Amit Sadh resurfaces as an able actor after a long time. Kunal Kapoor’s matured take on the life of Shah Nawaz Khan is another plus of Raag Desh. Mohit Marwah also holds his ground and infuses seriousness into the film. There is a strange thing about patriotic films. You know what’s going to happen, but your eyes still get moist when it happens. The same will happen to you as well when Kadam Kadam Badhaaye Jaa will play on the screen. This 137-minute soldier versus traitor story is totally worth your time.

We are living in the time of terrific national pride. If your patriotism doesn’t reflect in your attitude, your cuisine, your movie-theatre etiquette and your twitter feed, its existence is called into question. And while we jump to conclusions faster than we can say ‘India’, we often forget the people who fought actual blood-and-bullet wars (as opposed to shouting matches on news shows) to get us where we are today. Writer-Director Tigmanshu Dhulia has chosen to narrate an incredibly interesting anecdote from our freedom struggle. The hard work of his four-member research team and two-member writing team is evident, even if the movie feels similar to 1992’s A Few Good Men in treatment. Whether the story needed to be told in a non-linear fashion is debatable, but it mostly gets the point across. In a lot of ways, it educates you about the socio-political climate of the time. However, its educational quality is its bane. Even though Dhulia painstakingly recreates the pre-independence era with researched costumes and sets, and employs multiple languages (the Japanese speak Japanese, the British speak English; no shady dubbing here) to maintain authenticity, the movie proceeds with the flickering enthusiasm of an old college professor. It is overpopulated with numbers, dates and facts and suddenly introduces relatives of the protagonists who have stories of their own. It’s death by information. Had the screenplay been freed of its half-hearted side-tracks, it would have made for great infotainment. The movie is only half of that word now.