Road To Sangam Movie Reviews

It isn’t acknowledged often enough that Gandhi, the father to this nation, was victim (this day, 62 years ago) to a Hindu fanatic’s bullet. Decades later, Gandhi and his sworn secular followers were shamed further by a government that came to power in this country, pretty much over a desecrated mosque. It still irks the filmmaker to see posters of Osama and Pervez (Musharraf) make the walls of Indian ghettos. While he has a point, this could somewhere also be the failure of the Indian state. Most public artistes had rather not directly touch upon the issue of Islamic fundamentalism than run the risk of being senselessly labeled Islamophobes. It’s the curse of our delicate times. The questions are still important. They shouldn’t be ignored. Neither should this film.

This is a small, tender idea, executed with a certain amount of elan and loads and loads of heart. Writer-director Amit Rai's debut film is a Gandhian parable done up in shades that are at once, pristine, noble, gentle and funny. The imaginative plot about the Mahatma's ashes belatedly being taken out of Allahabad to be scattered in the Ganga gets its strength from the moral frailty of the times that we live in. Miraculously while constructing a heart-warming morality tale, the debutant writer-director manages to keep the tone purely and strictly non-judgemental.

The film has done its round at the festival circuit and has garnered appreciable applause. It isn't hard to see why. Because, Road to Sangam is a sensitive plea for secularism and liberalism, even as it shuns the shrill cry of the fundamentalists in any and every religion. More importantly, it articulates the moderate Muslim voice which needs to be heard loud and clear in this cauldron of increasingly hysterical extremist rhetoric. Paresh Rawal's Hashmatullah isn't just a modest car mechanic. He's a walking, talking Preamble of India, upholding the essential values of a sovereign, democratic, secular nation.

Decent effort. Road to Sangam is inspired by a news story, circa 2000, when an urn of Mahatma Gandhi’s ashes was discovered in the locker of a bank in Cuttack, 50 years after his assassination. So Tushar Gandhi, the Mahatma’s great grandson, decided to immerse these ashes in the Sangam at Allahabad. Though its heart is in the right place, Road to Sangam is simplistic and preachy. As Om Puri wonders at one point, “Humne jo chunna tha humne azaadi ke baad chun liya - pata nahin yeh muluk humme kab chunega…” Quite.