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Film Review: Sameer (2017) by Dakxinkumar Bajrange

"Who is Yaseen Jarsi?"

The 2002 Gujarat riots, also known as the 2002 Gujarat violence, was a three-day period of inter-communal violence in the western Indian state of Gujarat. The burning of a train in Godhra on 27 February 2002, which caused the deaths of 58 Hindu pilgrims and karsevaks returning from Ayodhya, is cited as having instigated the violence. Following the initial riot incidents, there were further outbreaks in Ahmedabad for three months; statewide, there were further outbreaks of violence against the minority Muslim population of Gujarat for the next year.
According to official figures, the riots ended with 1,044 dead, 223 missing, and 2,500 injured. Of the dead, 790 were Muslim and 254 Hindu. sets his story in the same area, 10 years after the events, with the fire of terrorism still burning intensely, as the serial bomb blasts instigated by Yasin Darji and the tension in the neighborhoods where Muslims and Hindus co-exist eloquently highlight.

It is in this setting, and just after one more bombing, that a special ATS team lead by officer Desai arrest Sameer for the bombing, and bring him into a special branch in Ahmedabad to interrogate. It turns out, however, that Sameer was just Darji's roommate and had no clue about his terrorist activity. Instead of letting him go, the authorities, under the guidance of Desai's higher up, force him to become a mole, infiltrating Darji's gang, and to start the whole thing by approaching his mother. In the meantime, ATS also cooperates with journalist and activist Alia Irade, who receives emails of the upcoming attacks moments before they actually happen. Thus, Sammeer, Alia and Desai begin a chase to catch Darji, although their work is anything but easy, and their collaboration anything but smooth.

Check you the interview with the director

Dakxinkumar Bajrange directs an intricate political crime thriller which aims at highlighting the sociopolitical situation in the area, and mostly the reasons behind a violence that has not yet ceased. In that fashion, the movie unfolds in two axes, with the one revolving around the arrest of Darji and Sameer's infiltration of his gang, and the second around the reasons that have led people into terrorism and the overall conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The combination works quite well, with Bajrange taking no punches in criticizing the tactics of the police and the authorities in general, with the way they exploit and essentially torture Sammeer, hack onto journalists emails, and their overall violent ways portraying them with the darkest colors. At the same time, the thriller aspect, as the protagonists get closer and closer to Darji also works quite well, giving an almost constant sense of agony and tension to the movie, and the finale essentially justifying a number of behaviors and events that seemed somewhat off before.

On the other hand, the movie falters when it moves beyond these aspects, a tactic that, thankfully, takes but a small part of the film's duration. Still, some efforts at comedy, heightened by the sound, the presence of Manto, a local theatre artist who essentially stands in for Bajrange and prevents violence between Muslims and Hindus on his own, and a number of melodramatic moments intensified by cheesy music, are quite faulty and disconnected from the rest of the narrative. The same applies to some dialogues, like the one between Shaheed and his mother, which are too on-the-nose with their sociopolitical comments, and most of all, some romantic notions between Alia and Sameer, who truly have no place in the particular story.

Apart from these elements though, that also give the movie a slightly TV-approach, the rest work quite well. Gargey Trivedi's cinematography captures the various settings with realism and artistry, while Aashish Mayur Shah's editing implements a very fitting, relatively fast pace, with both aspects finding their apogee in the numerous action scenes, both indoors and outdoors.

is quite convincing as the “poor guy” Sameer who finds himself in over his head without his own will, while as Desai makes an excellent ‘chaotic good' character. Gorgeous as Alia may be a bit too beautiful for the particular role but is still quite convincing, while as Shaheed steals the show a number of times with his ‘chaotic evil' attitude.

“Sameer” is a good film that manages to communicate its director's comments while remaining entertaining for the majority of its duration, but some faults, and particularly the fact that Bajrange tried to do too much for a single film, strip it of the opportunity to be a great one.

About the author

Panos Kotzathanasis

My name is Panos Kotzathanasis and I am Greek. Being a fan of Asian cinema and especially of Chinese kung fu and Japanese samurai movies since I was a little kid, I cultivated that love during my adolescence, to extend to the whole of SE Asia.

Starting from my own blog in Greek, I then moved on to write for some of the major publications in Greece, and in a number of websites dealing with (Asian) cinema, such as Taste of Cinema, Hancinema, EasternKicks, Chinese Policy Institute, and of course, Asian Movie Pulse. in which I still continue to contribute.

In the beginning of 2017, I launched my own website, Asian Film Vault, which I merged in 2018 with Asian Movie Pulse, creating the most complete website about the Asian movie industry, as it deals with almost every country from East and South Asia, and definitely all genres.

You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

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