The film looks cold, in a John le Carré space, like Cold War itself. It helps that you feel the same way about the two leads as well.
Aparshakti Khurana in Berlin
Movie: Berlin
On: ZEE5
Dir: Atul Sabharwal
Cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Ishwak Singh
Rating: 3/5
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The Cold War is a full-blown genre in the West, with America, of course, as its epicentre.
Not that India was immune to it. What has been Indian cinema’s contribution to the genre? The best one I can think of—or at least, top of mind, given recency bias—is Vikramaditya Motwane’s Prime Video series, Jubilee (2023).
Given how brilliantly it weaves in American-Russian spies, while fictionally retelling history of Indian cinema—with Bombay Talkies’ Himanshu Rai, Raj Kapoor, et al, pushed into a covert, global-cultural turf war.
Atul Sabharwal wrote Jubilee. He’s written-directed the espionage, suspense-thriller, Berlin—actually about the end of Cold War. That essentially got sealed with the fall of the Berlin Wall (1991), isn’t it?
Berlin, for the movie’s metaphorical title, refers to a café in 1993, Lutyens’ Delhi.
Which works more like a stock-exchange, where state secrets would traditionally get traded. Only that the Cold War is over. The same rules needn’t apply. The world has changed. Some remain,where they were.
Or as the line in the film describes the regulars of Berlin Café: “Industry ka trend shift hua—jo wahan khade the, khade the. Jo predict kar paye, nikal gaye.”
As in the spy-industry’s trends changed. Those who could tell, survived; rest got left behind. For some reason, it sounded like an observation on movie-industry veterans and aspirants, to me.
Especially, for the line that follows, “Café mein coffee peene se career nahin bante (You don’t make careers out of hanging in cafes)!”
Berlin, as a movie, reflects that change in the industry it emerges from. The film is a spy-thriller, sure; but so eerie, realistic and subdued, that it makes for a perfect, solo-watch on an OTT (although an art-house release would’ve been just as great).
Imagine the lead actors—given what’s an action-genre in the mainstream, but with almost zero stunts in it—jostling, jamming, delivering their most bombastic dialogues, in sign language. And they hit punchlines—like how!
Basically, a mysterious, deaf-mute person (Ishwak Singh) has been nabbed by the Indian, internal intelligence agency, namely Bureau, for alleged involvement in the potential assassination attempt, on a visiting Russian President (guessing, Boris Yeltsin).
The Bureau blokes—led by the suitably riled-up Rahul Bose’s character—employ a sign-language teacher, named Pushkin (Aparshakti Khurana), from a Soviet-style government institute, to lead the interrogation.
What follows is a chamber drama, that doesn’t obviously preach to the choir. It sticks to the suspense, alright—but draws you in more and more, foremost, with the atmospherics.
Or the world-building, as it were. Visually transporting you to the early ’90s—through the Contessa, Fiat cars, Atlas cycle hoarding, National Panasonic cassette-recorder…
It’s something that director Sabharwal excelled equally, with capturing early ’80s, in the gloomy cop-drama, Class of 83 (2020).
But much more than that, it’s the asphyxiating quality of this film, pretty much shot behind hard, closed doors (by Shree Namjoshi), that wakes you up to watch.
And notice the sounds and score, in the quietness. Or observe the bureaucratic, brutalist architecture of the sparse, dry spaces all the characters inhabit, and are evidently entrapped in.
The film looks cold, in a John le Carré space, like Cold War itself. It helps that you feel the same way about the two leads as well.
We know nothing about the sign-language instructor, Pushkin—there isn’t a long run-up, for his backstory—before he gets tangled in red-tape. That’s Aparshakti, i.e. star Ayushmann Khurrana’s brother.
Now, I have a theory about siblings in the same profession. The older one inevitably does better, given the headstart. Unless it’s sports, where the younger sibling has the privilege of practicing with the elder one, from an early age!
With acting, I think the younger one is somewhat screwed, with an obvious disadvantage, if the siblings look like each other—Anil-Sanjay Kapoor, Anupam-Raju Kher, etc.
Aparshakti is visibly different from Ayushmann; also, with separate style/manners. He totally stands as his own.
Opposite him is Ishwak (Paatal Lok, Rocket Boys), who plays Ashok Kumar, which is the real-life role that Aparshakti portrayed in Jubilee!
To think of it, Ashok Kumar is John Doe in Indian law. A proxy name used, when we don’t know who the person is. What do we learn about this ‘Ashok Kumar’?
Of course, I’m not gonna tell you that. Or anything else, for that matter, since I’d like you to watch this film, instead. I do know how you’re likely to respond, though, once you have watched the movie.
You’re inevitably gonna call it ‘moody’ (if a millennial), ‘vibey’ (if GenZ), “slow-burn”… What it essentially means is the film’s got the ‘feels’. Just don’t let intricacies of the plot get in the way of the laid back, lilting experience, though.
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