Summer of 2022 will mark the point for a lot of us Westerners sort of newly exposing ourselves to Indian films when we get to witness the talents and stylings of actor Ranbir Kapoor. That is, whether it’s by this weekend’s release of Ayan Mukerji’s Brahmāstra: Part One – Shiva, or for folks keen on streaming, the most recent Prime Video release of Agneepath and Brothers helmer Karan Malhotra’s latest period epic, Shamshera, out of Yash Raj Films.
The film is set in the late 18th century when we meet Kapoor in the title role, the first of a dual performance that introduces the folkloric, axe-wielding legend as the leader of a dacoit tribe, the Khamerans, in a rebellion against the caste system instilled in Kaza. When its rich and powerful auspices seek the help of British colonials to rid them of their woes, it sets events in motion that ultimately force the British to compromise with Shamshera and his army, a move that would prove fatally mistaken for our hero when he and his people find themselves locked in a fortress in Kaza as prisoners instead of free people.
The legend himself, now reduced to a man no longer looked up to by his people and desperate to help find a way out to bring freedom to his people, dares the impossible only to suffer a bullet to the leg, and a deadly stoning by his people, his legacy tarnished by a false notion of cowardice. Twenty six years later and all grown up, we meet Balli (Kapoor), the son of the fallen hero, disuaded by his father’s alleged reputation and taking on a moniker of his own: a petty thief with aspirations of working his way up the caste system and becoming a military police officer.
When the time for the test comes and he is asked to beat a child to prove himself worthy, he refuses and sacrifices himself instead, a pivotal moment that results in Balli finally learning the real truth of Shamshera’s final hours, and ultimately escaping the village to reunite with other Khamerans wandering outside the fortress and living in a distant village, waiting to regroup with their leader. With the oppressive and weasley Daroga Shudh Singh (Sanjay Dutt) itching to extinguish history of any evidence of Shamshera or his family, now reluctantly looking toward the help of British Colonel Young (Craig McGinley) to help get the job done, the question that now lies ahead for Balli, however, is can he walk the footsteps of his father and bring freedom and justice to his people once and for all.
Folks who’ve seen films like the Conan movies, The Mask Of Zorro, The Lion King, or even S.S. Rajamouli’s Baahubali films will certainly take a liking to what Malhotra has done with Shamshera. Mithoon’s music score weighs prominently throughout the film as we meet our characters, including our main protagonist and his love interest, Sona (Vaani Kapoor). There’s a funny gag in one of Balli’s performances where he’s dancing with the Khameran children, and he slides down a pile of chairs, and another where he dances with Sona on a stage before whisking her away from Singh who tries to weasel his way to her and evidently fails amidst the onslaught of costume misdirection.
In the midst of Balli’s misbehaving there are two people who try to keep him grounded, his mother (Iravati Harshe), and Shamshera’s right hand and lifelong comrade, Pir Baba (Ronit Roy). Both characters were on hand when Shamshera was summarily executed, and both have kept the context of his death hidden from Balli, which is why the two have crucially remained in Balli’s life, with Baba training him in secret and preparing him for a covert mission for details which Balli himself remains unaware. Indeed, it takes a very long while for this end of the arc to come full circle, but you get plenty of worthwhile story development to keep you interested as we watch Balli ultimately transform from petty thief and caste system commoner, to a burgeoning champion Robin Hood of his time, and with none other than Dutt, standing front and center as the vindictive and vicious, Singh, the man to beat. He’s a self-hating racist bigot, steppin’ and fetchin’ for the British whom even he himself doesn’t like to a degree. He’s Malhotra’s answer to Tarantino’s “Stephen” in Django Unchained, and in proper fashion, you’re gonna love how he gets his just desserts.
Production on Shamshera took two years to complete from 2018 through late 2020. The result depends on who you read, but the film definitely sets out what it intends to accomplish. It does so, although at what does feel like an exhaustive runtime at almost two hours and forty minutes, although the fact is if runtime is your biggest concern with big-scale Indian period epics, you need to see more Indian movies, period, and while I’m at it, I recommend this one.
