REVIEW HINDUTVA

Producers-Sanjay Chowdhary and Karan Razdn

Director-Karan Razdan

Star Cast- Aashish Sharma, Sonarika Bhadoria, Ankit Raj, Govind Namdeo, Anup Jalota and Deepika Chikhalia

Genre- Social

Platform of Release- Theatrical

Rating- **

Predictably Jingoistic!

Jyothi Venkatesh

To put it in just a nutshell, the film is a tale of two best friends who are pitted against each other by divisive forces on the basis of their religion. The plot is predictable of how they are able to rise above the politics of hatred.Bharat (Aashiesh Sharma) and Sameer (Ankit Raj) are childhood buddies. As their names suggest, Bharat is a Hindu while Sameer is Muslim, but they have grown up in harmony with a history of familial bonding that has stood the test of time.

Sameer is swayed by the intense hatred fed into him by some corrupt leaders and starts running for Presidency of the student union in the college. He is backed by a few like-minded students that include his girlfriend Sapna (Sonarika Bhadoria), who is equally vocal about her views and feels that the minorities get a raw deal in the country among many other issues.

Bharat throws his hat in the ring after he is encouraged by his father (Anup Jalota) and given some gyan by his Guru Maa (Deepika Chikhalia). His resolve to fight the elections becomes stronger when he realises that his former best friend Sameer is now completely radicalised and won’t back down despite repeated attempts to reason with him.

Bharat on the other hand is the saffron-loving religious youngster, who doesn’t believe in the cause that Sameer and Sapna are fighting for. There is nothing by way of novelty in the predictably stereotyped plot though director Karan Razdan makes an honest attempt to drive home the poignant message that violence is not the solution to anything that we strive to achieve in society. What is worse is that vital topics such as CAA and Article 370 are taken as backdrops for the conflict and there is no profound subtext to it. The film’s overall narrative is coloured in hyper nationalism and seems like a knee-jerk reaction to some of the most significant recent developments.

As far as performances go, I should concede that Aashiesh Sharma and Ankit Raj put up decent performances in their respective roles, while Sonarika Bhadoria looks glamorous and performs well within the limited scope of her character. Veteran television actor Deepika Chikhalia, singer Anup Jalota and Govind Namdeo play characters that depict a certain type of people from within a community.

To sum up, Hindutva is a one time predictable and jingoistic watch, if you like patriotic films which espouse the cause of the country