Gour Hari Dastaan: The Freedom File (2015)
Director:
Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Gour Hari
Dastaan – The
Freedom File is the kind of film that one would have gladly fallen in love with
had it been more engaging. Its
story is drawn from real life, its protagonist is a unique figure on a
remarkable quest, and his plight lays bare the mess we have ended up in as a
nation over the 60-odd years that India has been independent.
Gour Hari Das, who joined the struggle for independence when he was only 14, inspired by a call from Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is inevitably invoked on more than one occasion. In one soft-focus scene, Gour Hari Das has a conversation with the Mahatma. Gour Hari Dastaan offers a rather simplistic take on a grindingly bureaucratic system that the man is grappling with, with several characters, Gour Hari Das included, admitting that we were probably better off in some respects under the British. The story takes several other detours in the form of Gour Hari Das’ relationship with his wife (Konkona Sensharma) and his guitar-strumming son who flies away to the US in search of a better life.
With so much happening around him that is beyond his control, the storytelling would have done with a dose of energy. At no point does the film fully convey the deep sense of frustration and helplessness that Gour Hari Das would have felt in the course of his 32-year struggle to prove that he was indeed a freedom fighter. The dreariness of Gour Hari Dastaan is allayed somewhat by an array of cameos by fine character actors – Saurabh Shukla, Rajit Kapoor, Vikram Gokhale and Murali Sharma, among others. Owing to its undeniably relevant theme, Gour Hari Dastaan does have some archival value. If only it had more to offer, it would have come far closer to being the triumph that it – and its subject – deserved to be.
Gour Hari Das, who joined the struggle for independence when he was only 14, inspired by a call from Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi is inevitably invoked on more than one occasion. In one soft-focus scene, Gour Hari Das has a conversation with the Mahatma. Gour Hari Dastaan offers a rather simplistic take on a grindingly bureaucratic system that the man is grappling with, with several characters, Gour Hari Das included, admitting that we were probably better off in some respects under the British. The story takes several other detours in the form of Gour Hari Das’ relationship with his wife (Konkona Sensharma) and his guitar-strumming son who flies away to the US in search of a better life.
With so much happening around him that is beyond his control, the storytelling would have done with a dose of energy. At no point does the film fully convey the deep sense of frustration and helplessness that Gour Hari Das would have felt in the course of his 32-year struggle to prove that he was indeed a freedom fighter. The dreariness of Gour Hari Dastaan is allayed somewhat by an array of cameos by fine character actors – Saurabh Shukla, Rajit Kapoor, Vikram Gokhale and Murali Sharma, among others. Owing to its undeniably relevant theme, Gour Hari Dastaan does have some archival value. If only it had more to offer, it would have come far closer to being the triumph that it – and its subject – deserved to be.
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