First stings first: Akaal: The Unconquered is a furiously entertaining period film where the periodicity is not over-punctuated; strong storytelling is.
Akaal is more pan-India in mood and intent than any Hindi-language action film I’ve seen in recent times. Its gritty storytelling green flags valour and cultural pride without seeming like a propaganda machine. To those of you out there not familiar with Punjabi cinema, let me inform you: the scale of presentation here is vastly upgraded , from economy to business, as compared with anything we’ve seen in Punjabi.
The camera loves the toasted-brown milieu and the rustic characters. Cinematographer Baljit Singh Deo lenses the ruggedness with visible camaraderie. The action sequences are choreographed with visceral vigour. The focus is not on the gruesome, but the skill, the craft that goes into hand-to-hand combats.
Standing tall at the vortex of the dramatic dissension is Punjab’s no. 1 star, Gippy Garewal, so stately and contoured he could easily play a pivotal character in Game Of Thrones. Gippy gamely takes control of the writing and direction, besides playing the valorous lead, although he is overshadowed by his own blood.
Little Ekom Garewal’s (who is Gippy’s son in real life) self assuredness is disarming. The boy rattles off long dialogues on battle, loyalty and national pride with the ease of a veteran. Little Ekom is one the many reasons why Akaal commands our attention.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s robust yet moving music (especially a funereal song that comes on to aggrandize the impact of a serious dramatic twist) does its bit to anchor the polished procedural. There is a persuasive strain in the storytelling that keeps us glued to the screen , especially towards the climax when the plot gathers momentum without straining at the seams.
The main conflict is between Gippy Grewal and Nikitin Dheer, who play the saviour and marauder with ease and fluency. I wish the conflict converged more confidently on the two characters rather than playing on the peripheral characters’ weaknesses and strengths in a display of shadow and light that tends to get heavyhanded.
That said, there is so much to take home in Akaal. Although there are only two main female characters, — played by Nimrat Khaira and Mita Vashisht–they are no walkovers but full-blown warriors with a mind and body of their own.
At one point in the pulsating plot, Khaira upbraids her screen husband for not allowing her to come to war and expecting her to cook and mind the home for her husband and son. This is in the late nineteenth century, although no placard announces the era. Akaal just lets us soak it in. Hats off to Gippy Grewal and Karan Johar for putting their hard-earned money into a film that breaks the regional barrier most effectively.
