Of all the hot takes you expect to see when you go to the cinema, the suggestion that Mahatma Gandhi was overrated is perhaps low down the list. But this Hindi biopic of Hindu nationalist leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (directed and co-written by Randeep Hooda, who also stars as Savarkar in a committed and involving performance) argues exactly that, although it’s careful to have Savarkar note: “I don’t hate Gandhi, I hate non-violence.” Okay then. In general, the stance across the nearly three-hour runtime is that, in contrast to the famous maxim, the sword is in fact mightier than the pen, with Savarkar exhorting followers to “get rid of your pen and arm yourselves”.
What is odd is that the film doesn’t make more use of its own subject’s principles. Much ink has been spilled over the issue of whether on-screen violence is too glamorous, too appealing– but apparently, the makers of Swatantara Veer Savarkar are unaware of what a powerful weapon cinematic images can be, because in a biopic attempting to eulogise a man they depict as having advocated strongly for violent revolution, they don’t deliver much in the way of action.
Where it would have seemed like an open goal, considering this biopic’s political agenda, to make Savarkar into a heroic figure who physically battles his enemies, in fact he spends much the hefty runtime studying law in the UK, having little chats in libraries with figures like Lenin, and, for a long stretch in the second half, suffering in the notorious Cellular Jail where the British tortured political prisoners. Of course, making the guy into a macho commando type when he wasn’t like that in real life would have involved playing fast and loose with the facts – but the film doesn’t seem too bothered about that elsewhere, for example glossing over unsavoury details like his real-life support for Adolf Hitler’s Germany, where Savarkar’s speeches were published approvingly in newspapers. It all adds up to a funny mixture of hagiography and limp film-making, albeit built around a fine central performance.
• Swatantra Veer Savarkar is in cinemas now.
