I had great expectations from Kannan Iyer’s Ae Watan Mere Watan. Iyer’s last feature film, Ek Thi Dayyan, hooked me on the discourse around witchcraft in India. The film had a handful of superbly written female characters with the male protagonist wrapped around their fingers. It was engaging, enlightening, and entertaining.
Unlike his last directorial venture, the Sara Ali Khan starrer Ae Watan Mere Watan lacks all three of the adjectives mentioned above. Everything here feels superficial. The characters are seen on the screen doing their bidding, but you, as an audience, never connect to their cause. The film paints the Bombay Chapter of the Quit India movement in broad strokes — something as coarse as a PPT in your undergraduate History class — the underwhelming screenplay does not justify the life and contributions of Usha Mehta.
The film focuses on Mehta’s contribution to the Indian Freedom Struggle. It walks us through her rebellion against her father and her love for revolution. The opening act of the film or the prologue happens in a flashback. There is an exchange between Usha and her father about the freedom that Siberian cranes possess, but she does not. I get that it is about a woman’s lack of agency.
But the case presented is not strong enough for you to invest in it. Added to that, Sara Ali Khan is terribly out of form here. She lacks conviction of Alia Bhatt’s Sehmat in Raazi. Moreover, a lackluster production design on the dimly lit sets, gimmicky portrayals of archetypes, half-baked romances, and lack of nuanced storytelling add to the misery of the film. It is yet another Sara Ali Khan film that will get lost in the traffic of weekend releases.
No Need For a Spoiler Alert
The plot deals with a young Usha Mehta and her college comrades joining the Indian National Congress in the Indian Freedom Struggle Movement. In 1942, Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘Do or Die’ slogan became the motto of their lives. She is a Gandhian who recognizes the country as her beloved. After the INC was banned and the British government stopped all types of private radio transmissions, Mehta and her friends established an underground radio station named Congress Radio to keep the fire of revolution burning.
She became an integral part of Ram Manohar Lohia’s closest associate. She broadcasted the message regarding the Non-Cooperation Movement. The film touches on the highlights of her life between 1942 and 1946. The British government imprisoned her for illegal broadcasting.
The screenplay by Darab Farooqui and Kannan Iyer does not do justice to the raw material. Usha’s father (played by Sachin Khedekar) is a Judge under the British government and a Royalist who believed that Churchill was India’s protector against the Axis Powers in WWII. He is an antagonist in Usha’s life, but the screenplay fails to show how Usha becomes indoctrinated by Gandhian principles. You see her call herself a Gandhian, but to what extent it is unspecified. The dialogues do not pack a punch. The English official John Lyre sent to ‘nip’ the radio problem in the bud is fascinated by the word ‘tod’ (or hack) and spends the entire duration of the film seeking the ‘ tod ka tod’ and then ‘tod ka tod ka tod’. I bet you can’t say that quickly like a tongue twister.
The Better Aspects of the Film
Although Sara Ali Khan misses her mark by a huge deflection, the supporting cast does a noteworthy job. Sparsh Srivastav, recently seen in Laapaata Ladies, fleshes out the role of Fahad beautifully. He walks with a limp and has dedicated himself to the cause of the nation. The best scene of the film is a tussle between Fahad and Usha as they try to justify why they should be the ones to undertake the onus of the final broadcast.
There is also Kaushik (played by Abhay Verma) smitten with Usha. For him, the revolution and Usha are synonymous. But he is a one-dimensional character. Kaushik is a coward who cycles away from all the troubles; for some reason, he always seems teary-eyed. He is a typical Bollywood chocolate boy.
Some Bollywood tropes never die. For example, there is always a Parsi character dancing the Jive and comic English characters who talk in catchphrases. John Lyre (Alex O’ Niell) even dresses like the Nazi baddies from Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards. Is a leather jacket ever wearable in the humidity of Bombay, even if it is 1942 and pre-global warming?
Sachin Khedekar’s experience and capability shine on the screen when he reads aloud a letter written by her daughter. Emraan Hashmi in a cameo as Ram Manohar Lohia is efficient. But Sara Ali Khan is the weakest link in the cast. Her inability to flesh out Usha Mehta serves as an impediment for the audience. You never connect to the character or the cause she is fighting for. In a scene where she falls while trying to protect the national flag, you are not enraged at the British police force. Sara fails to find her ground in the film.
Karan Johar’s Dharmatic has produced the film, and it is part of a series of films, like Raazi and Shershah, that celebrate the unsung heroes of India’s freedom struggle. But Ae Watan Mere Watan does not match the production standards of the other films.
Certain parts of the film have been filmed in the older part of South Bombay (which feels like a time warp). But the rest is shot on sets that look artificial and seem to try hard to bear semblance to the real world. There are three good songs yoked forcefully into the narrative.
Usha Mehta’s story is an important tale that needs to be told, especially in today’s politically surcharged environment where mass media is being used by fascist regimes all over the world to control the popular belief of the nation. But Ae Watan Mere Watan, with its flawed writing and lead performance, is not the treatment the real-life hero, Usha Mehta deserved.
Ae Watan Mere Watan is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Follow us: