
Kesari 2 director calls Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘synthesis of history and fiction': ‘Films based on real-life events aren't supposed to be photographs'
There's an ongoing conversation around Akshay Kumar's latest film Kesari 2, with many questioning whether it's a fictional story that uses real-life characters. The film stars Akshay in the role of lawyer SC Sankaran Nair, who legally fought the British Empire in the aftermath of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in 1919. In a recent interaction, the film's director Karan Singh Tyagi addressed the issue and called the film a 'synthesis of history and fiction.'
During an interaction with Bollywood Hungama, when Karan was asked if Kesari 2 is a 'synthesis of history and fiction,' he agreed and responded, 'You called it a 'synthesis of history and fiction' — and that's exactly what I wanted it to be. One of my screenwriting heroes, Aaron Sorkin, once said that films based on real-life events aren't supposed to be photographs. They can be paintings. In a painting, there's more room for interpretation, more latitude to dramatize and express an idea.'
Karan admitted that he took creative liberties so the film could reach a wider audience. He said, 'That's what I aimed to do. I wanted Sankaran Nair's story to reach as wide an audience as possible. With the support of his family, my co-writers and I set out to portray a man's journey from a British loyalist to one of India's fiercest patriots — someone who used the power of the courts to challenge an empire.'
Despite the criticism, Kesari 2 was hailed by several political dignitaries including Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj, Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa, and Minister Anurag Thakur during its screening in Delhi.
SCREEN review of the film by Shubhra Gupta read, 'While the film is clearly aligned with the Make India Great Again thinking, you can spot a couple of smartly subversive ideas nestling in there. A line about a joint 'Hindu-Muslim' celebration around Ram Navami which happened for the 'first time ' just before the massacre (apparently the dangerous thing that incensed the divide-and-rule British masters so much that it put the pre-planned executions at Jallianwala Bagh into motion, according to the film) tells us such a thing actually happened, something that seems like a receding hope these days. And both the British and Indian lawyers blow the bugle for 'freedom of speech': now where have we heard that phrase before? And can it gain currency again?'
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Scroll.in
24 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Funds under Right to Education need not be linked to National Education Policy: Madras HC to Centre
Funds payable by the Union government to state governments under the Right to Education Act need not be linked to the implementation of the National Education Policy, the Madras High Court said on Tuesday, according to Live Law. A bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and V Lakshminarayanan urged the Centre to release to Tamil Nadu the funds under the Right to Education Act. 'It is true that implementation of the Samagra Siksha Scheme is aligned to NEP 2020, but the obligation under RTE is independent by itself,' Live Law quoted the bench as saying. The Samagra Shiksha scheme, implemented in 2018, is the scheme through which the Union government provides support for elementary and secondary school education. In April, the Union Education Ministry had told the Rajya Sabha that Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal received no funds under the central education scheme for 2024-'25. Data shared in the Upper House by Minister of State for Education Jayant Choudhary showed that while Kerala was allocated Rs 328.90 crore, Tamil Nadu Rs 2,151.60 crore and West Bengal Rs 1,745.80 crore from the Centre for the current fiscal year under the scheme, no funds had been released to these states as of March 27. The halt in funding to Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal came against the backdrop of these states refusing to comply with the PM Schools for Rising India, or PM SHRI, scheme. The centrally-sponsored scheme aims to upgrade the infrastructure of schools managed by central, state or regional bodies. However, to avail the scheme's benefits, state governments must first sign a memorandum of understanding with the Centre to implement the 2020 National Education Policy. Tamil Nadu has repeatedly expressed opposition to the three-language formula in the National Education Policy. The state government said it will not change its decades-old two-language policy of teaching students Tamil and English. Of the total funds pending to be paid to the state, the Right to Education component amounts to Rs 200 crore, according to The Hindu. On Tuesday, the High Court pointed out that under section 7 of the Right to Education Act, states and the Union government have concurrent responsibility for providing funds to carry out its provisions. 'Therefore, funds payable to the state governments representing the central government share towards discharging the RTE obligations need not be linked to NEP 2020,' said the bench. It also took note that the state government had moved the Supreme Court against the Centre withholding funds under the Samagra Shiksha scheme. 'We are not in a position to issue any binding direction in this regard,' said the bench, urging the Union government to consider delinking the Right to Education component from the Samagra Siksha Scheme. The court was disposing of a public interest litigation petition seeking directions to the Tamil Nadu government to begin admissions under the Right to Education Act for 2025-'26.


Indian Express
26 minutes ago
- Indian Express
D for dope test returns to Punjab politics vocabulary as Ludhiana West bypoll heats up
A demand for legal cultivation of poppy in drug-hit Punjab has triggered a war of words between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress ahead of the high-stakes June 19 Ludhiana West Assembly bypoll, with leaders challenging each other to take dope tests. Making a case in favour of legalisation of poppy cultivation, Ludhiana MP and Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Sunday said that consumption of poppy was less harmful than synthetic drugs. Ruling out any possibility of meeting the demand, state Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday demanded Warring undertake a dope test and accused him of 'promoting drug culture'. Cheema also held the previous Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP governments responsible for the 'alarming rise of drug abuse in Punjab'. 'It was during their terms that drugs were sown in Punjab's soil. The AAP government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is now committed to uprooting this menace,' he said. Warring almost immediately responded and urged Cheema not to politicise the issue. 'I welcome Cheema's suggestion (of me taking a dope test)… I am ready for the test but I will get it done along with Cheema. Before that, CM Mann should also undergo the test… I raised the issue of opium cultivation as the number of deaths due to drug overdose have been on the rise. The cultivation of poppy can put an end to this,' he said. Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa too echoed Warring's views. 'I have been suggesting for a while now that all leaders, starting with the CM, must take the test…' he said. Terming the issue a 'diversionary tactic', state BJP chief Sunil Jakhar said, 'As the bypoll is round the corner, politics is being played over the issue to divert the people from real ones.' The standoff comes amid the Mann government's crackdown on the drug menace to make a 'drug-free Punjab', a pre-poll promise of the AAP. The Punjab Police has filed 11,156 FIRs under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act between April 1, 2022, and February 28, 2023. The Punjab and Haryana High Court in January 2023 also weighed in on the issue. 'The lives of citizens are being destroyed due to the selling of these banned substances… There is an alarming spike in the number of people buying and selling these contraband in the country, especially in Punjab, which needs to be controlled in an effective manner so as to minimise the said offence, if not to eradicate,' the court held, while hearing the anticipatory bail plea of a person accused of peddling drugs. In March 2023, then Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh told the Assembly that the number of individuals grappling with addiction stood at 10 lakh. Now new to Punjab's politics Incidentally, demanding testing for drugs is not new in Punjab's politics. In 2018, with former CM Amarinder Singh at the helm, state minister Tripat Rajinder Singh Bajwa had demanded dope tests for all government employees after several people died of drug overdose. As employee unions demanded that leaders take the test first, several MLAs and ministers volunteered for it, before the government took a call. First to get himself tested for drugs was Punjab AAP chief and then Sunam MLA Aman Arora. Tripat Bajwa himself took a dope test and was followed by a few MLAs, including then Speaker Rana K P Singh. In 2015, a similar demand was put forward by the then Opposition Congress, which demanded SAD and BJP ministers undergo the test after then DSP Jagdish Singh Bhola, an alleged drug kingpin, was nabbed. The upcoming bypoll, necessitated after sitting AAP MLA Gurpreet Gogi 'accidentally' shot himself to death in January, has turned into a prestige battle for the AAP as it comes close on the heels of its drubbing in the February Delhi Assembly polls, where party bigwigs including party chief Arvind Kejriwal and former Delhi deputy CM Manish Sisodia lost. The Congress is also going all out to wrest the seat from the AAP. The AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora for the bypoll. He will be up against former minister Bharat Bhushan Ashu of the Congress, the Akali Dal's Parupkar Singh Ghumman and Jiwan Gupta of the BJP.


India.com
27 minutes ago
- India.com
Meet Anam, beautiful younger sister of Sania Mirza, got divorced at young age, now married to a star...
Image credit: Source: Instagram In these collection of pictures, we find out all about beautiful younger sister of Indian tennis legend Sania Mirza, Anam Mirza, who is herself a very successful businesswoman. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza is younger of two daughters of Imran Mirza. She completed her schooling at Nasr School in Hyderabad. She graduated from St. Francis College for Women with a degree in Mass Communication and Media Studies. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza is the younger sister of Indian tennis legend Sania Mirza. The two sister share a very close bond. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza's first husband was Akbar Rasheed. She had got married in Hyderabad on November 18, 2016, in a grand Muslim ceremony. After two years of marriage, Anam and Akbar separated in 2018. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza's second husband is Mohammad Asaduddin, son of former India cricket captain Mohammad Azharuddin. The couple got married in 2019. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza owns a couple of top fashion brands. She started her own fashion brand, 'The Label Bazaar'. The brand displays its collections through exhibitions and shows in Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Dubai. She also has another fashion label named 'Dua' after her daughter. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza's reported net worth is Rs 331 crore while her sister Sania Mirza has net worth of Rs 216 crore. Image credit: Source: Instagram Anam Mirza and husband Mohammad Asaduddin had bonded over Hyderabadi Biryani in their early dating days. "We'd choose a lot of restaurant known for biryanis," Asaduddin had told TOI.