It has been more than two years since the Gujarat riots struck the Indian consciousness with a lightning bolt and confronted Indians with the reality of how far their secular fabric had been damaged. Recent events show the promise that a semblance of justice may finally be forthcoming to the victims of the Gujarat carnage. The Supreme Court has intervened effectively in the Best Bakery case to move it out of the Gujarat jurisdiction where there seemed little chance of the culprits being brought to justice. The BJP government has been defeated and most observers, including former prime minister Vajpayee, attribute the Gujarat riots as one of the factors responsible for its defeat. The butcher of Gujarat, Narendra Modi has lost his hold over Gujarat and there are powerful moves to remove him from the office. Even Bal Thakray, the Shiv Sena Supremo, does not want to be associated with Modi.

So, just when it seemed that the wounds from Gujarat were starting to heal comes the film Dev, by Govind Nihalani. The film’s story of a communal riot in Maharashtra is obviously inspired by the Gujarat riots, thus reopening old wounds. This is as it should be because if Gujarat is not to be repeated, it must never be forgotten!

Govind Nihalani is known for making socially relevant films and has produced such masterpieces as Ardh Satya and Tamas. In Dev he has once again shown what a master craftsman he is. The film describes the role of the police, the unscrupulous politicians and criminals in fomenting and sustaining communal riots. It sees the communal riot from three different perspectives:

- of a Muslim youth, Farhaan (Fardeen Khan), frustrated by the daily suspicions faced by him for just being a Muslim;
- of a communal Hindu police officer, Tejinder Khosla (Om Puri), who feels that the only way to deal with the Muslims is through a display of force (‘shakti’); and
- of a tolerant Hindu police officer, Dev Pratap Singh (Amitabh Bachan), the protagonist, who believes in upholding the secular constitution in letter and spirit. I have deliberately categorized this as a tolerant Hindu view because Dev is not a hardcore secularist but a Geeta quoting Hindu who believes that it is his dharma to uphold the constitution to which he swore in his police academy.

The story of the film revolves around a communal riot and how it affects the lives of the main characters. Farhaan has just completed his law degree and is caught between his father’s idealist, non-violent teachings and the influence of an ambitious Muslim politician out to make things difficult for the Party for denying him the Party ticket. The politician turns the arrest of a criminal gangster into a communal issue and in a protest march by Muslims, Farhaan’s father is killed by a police bullet. Farhaan is enlisted by the politician in an unsuccessful attempt to kill the police officer (Dev) and becomes an unsuspecting carrier of a bomb that explodes outside a temple, killing several Hindus. The Hindu mobs, led by a communal politician and, with the blessings of the Chief Minister, indulge in massive retaliation in the form of killings, rape, arson and looting of innocent Muslims.

Tejinder Khosla is an otherwise honest senior police officer, who is nevertheless infected by the communal virus and considers Muslims to be the invaders of India and disloyal citizens of the country. His close friend and fellow police officer, Dev does not agree with this analysis and believes that his duty is to implement the law regardless of the religious affiliation of persons involved . But he too carries past scars, as terrorists had killed his 8-year old son in a cold blooded murder and Tejinder constantly reminds Dev of that tragedy to turn him over to his viewpoint. The disagreements between the two friends become more than an academic jousting when Tejinder is posted as Dev’s boss in handling the communal situation, which is rapidly getting out of hand. Dev is caught between obeying his friend and boss and doing what he regards as his duty as a police officer to quell the riot and to protect the innocent. The rest of the story deals with how Dev handles this dilemma, its impact on his friendship with Tejinder, and how his handling of the tragic events wins the love and admiration of Farhaan who starts to treat him as his roohani (spiritual) father. I will not reveal the ending of the film, except that it ends on a positive note with Farhaan donning the robes of a lawyer to continue his fight for justice through legal means.

The message of the film is quite clear. The politicians manipulate communal feelings for their selfish ends. The communal virus has spread to the entire society and the police force, instead of helping the victims, is a willing collaborator of the perpetrators of violence.

The film excels in most departments. The script is strong and moves at a fast pace. The acting performances are superb: Amitabh Bachan and Om Puri are old veterans of the commercial and parallel cinema respectively, and when the two of them are together on the screen, they create magic. Kareena Kapoor as the love life of Farhaan comes across as a surprise. In the role of Alieya, inspired by Zaheera Sheikh of the Best Bakery case, she comes across as an actress whose full talents had until now remained undiscovered. She looks stunningly beautiful even in plain salwar-kameez and shows that her mobile face can be used to showcase powerful emotions by a skilled director. She sings her own song and her singing is quite passable. Amreesh Puri as the Chief Minister and Rati Agnihotri as Dev’s wife provide good support while Ehsaan Khan turns in a superb performance as the Muslim politician. Fardeen Khan as Farhaan, on the other hand, does not measure up to the standards set by Amitabh and Om Puri.

The music by Adesh Srivastava is quite appropriate. The songs are few but quite pleasing. In most Hindi films, the story is interrupted by songs and dances; in this film I had the opposite complaint – the classically oriented songs are interrupted by the plot. My favourite song was ‘piya ke rang, rang deeni odhni’. The cinematography, editing and direction is superb, just as one would expect from a Nihalani film. Still, there are some bloopers: in the beginning of the film, Dev is shown to shoot a student protestor dead merely for showing disrespect to the police and, in another scene, he orders shooting of a stone throwing mob, without first resorting to tear-gas or even laathi-charge. This is quite inconsistent with Dev’s strictly by-the-book persona created by the writer.

In short, the film accurately describes today’s India. Secularism is on the decline and the real debate is between the tolerant Hindu ethos and the intolerant hindutva. Advani could easily be Tejinder and Vajpayee could have been Dev, if he had chosen to follow his conscience and dismissed Modi.