‘Ram Setu’ movie review: A bridge too far for Akshay Kumar

The influx of films that give voice to the cultural manifesto of the current political system has reached a degree where we can choose between the sharply outspoken and the manipulative explicitly. In this exclusive category of movies, where you can watch WhatsApp messages and discussions at the dinner table live on screen, Ram Setu It is a persuasive attempt to uphold the controversial theory that the limestone cliffs connecting the Pamban and Munnar islands are part of a man-made structure and not a work of nature.

Drawing from the controversy surrounding the Sethusamudram project and Pushkar Bhatnagar’s little-known 2003 book where the author attempted to date the era of Lord Rama based on the planetary positions described in Valmiki. RamayanaThe makers have tried to create a bridge between faith and science, between myth and oral history, and between religion and culture. It’s a wavering ride that ends with a powerful lecture on preserving cultural pride and along the way, and gives a clear picture of the so-called majoritarian perspective on preserving channels of faith, which can even crush judges off their feet. and can threaten. To melt the structure of the Constitution.

The VFX looks fake, and the performances are almost average, but the views are good enough to keep devotees interested. For others, there is a clear message; Those who do not believe in Lord Rama, their faces deserve to be black.

Ram Setu Directed by Abhishek Sharma, but the voice is of creative producer and co-writer Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, one of the creative forces who use imagination to legitimize the real politics of the ruling party and portray the previous governments in the dark. work in the field. color. In Emperor PrithvirajDwivedi presented the epic taught in Hindi literature classes in the form of history. Here again, he places a revered epic poem as a source of historical evidence to keep believers invested and converting fence-sitters, as the Adams Bridge or Rama Setu is a place that traces the story of Rama. takes it beyond religious semantics and geographical boundaries.

Set in 2007, follows the structure of the narrative The Kashmir Files, If Vivek Agnihotri film portrays the change of heart of a young, secular Kashmiri Pandit, Sharma depicts the transformation of Aryan Kulakshetra (Akshay Kumar), a renowned liberal archaeologist.

Aryan is working with his Pakistani and Afghan counterparts to save the Buddhist heritage in Bamayan before he is sent to Tamil Nadu by those in power to protect the interests of a shipping tycoon (Nassar) whose expensive ships are in the shallows. Couldn’t swim in the channel. Indian and Sri Lankan.

He wants a ‘favourable’ report to be placed before the Supreme Court, and in the ‘atheist’ Aryan, he sees the right candidate. But when Aryan and his team start getting evidence of Lord Rama, they become a threat to his business interests. In his search for ‘hard’ evidence, Aryan goes to Sri Lankan waters and finds AP (Satyadev Kancharan), a mysterious guide who leads him to the places mentioned. Ramayana.

to like The Kashmir Files, Ram Setu Hindu sees liberal and secular values ​​in society as a kind of rot that needs to be stopped. The film gives the sense that if you hold an opposite point of view, be prepared to face the backlash. Aryan’s wife (Nushrat Bharucha), a history professor, advises her husband to Faith: (confidence) of the majority before the filing of the report. His son, who is shown attending a ‘Lutyens’ school – a term often used by those close to the government to target others who hold a contrary view – is targeted for his father’s views. Is.

In both films, the writers read the past in the spirit of the oppression of the majority, and tell us that we are in the midst of a war of civilizations. So it documents the demolition of the Bamyan Buddha and the Jaffna Public Library, but makes no mention of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. It explains how the metro route was moved to save the Qutub Minar, but makes no mention of how it got away from the iconic Hanuman statue at Karol Bagh. It speaks of environmental concerns around the Taj Mahal, but forgets to point out to the audience that one of the reasons the Sethusamudram project was not cleared was that the top court took note of environmentalists’ concerns. The film also features an environmentalist, but she, played by Jacqueline Fernandez, remains a decorative piece.

Producers want to look at the issue through the prism of faith, and instead of negotiating the complex layers of the past, Ram Setu Without building a bridge, a fable attempts to jump into the Golden Age.

Ram Sethu is currently running in theaters