Ashok Chakra is a film set against the backdrop of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. Newcomer Rajan Verma plays Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving culprit of the attack, who was sentenced to death by a court recently. But the makers of the film had decided months before the real trial ended that Kasab will be hanged to death in the film. They felt that it was the only just thing to do. The film shows Kasab accepting his guilt before his death.
Earlier titled Total Ten, the movie has been directed by S P Munishwar and is based on media reports of the carnage and accounts of police officials and survivors. The terror attack on Mumbai in November 2008 had shocked one and all. There were many film makers who were inspired to make films based on the attack. Ashok Chakra is the first such film to get released and it narrates the story of the 26/11 attacks with focus on the policemen who lost their lives.
The incident had greatly disturbed the writer of the film, Mohanish Sharan, and his heart went out to the policemen. That is when he decided to write the film from their perspective. The film stars Homi Wadia (as Hemant Karkare), Ashish Vidyarthi (as Tukaram Ombale), Sudesh Berry (as Vijay Salaskar) and Ashok Kulkarni (as Ashok Kamte). Apart from them, the film has a number of small time actors playing Kasab's handlers in Pakistan. Sharan intensely followed news reports and studied footage from news channels to build the sequence of events and has stuck to the reality. With different channels and news sources giving varied accounts, it was a bit tough to establish which of them was the most precise. So Sharan had to intensify his research.
The movie shows Ajmal Kasab (played by debut actor Rajan Verma) training at the LeT cam in Pakistan and then following his journey – along with nine others – to India. From there on, the main characters are the policemen and their family as the film talks about the anguish brought upon them by the terror attack. However, in Sharan's original story, the film ended with the policemen Karkare, Salaskar and Kamte receiving the Ashok Chakra and Kasab awaiting trial in the jail. But when Kasab was pronounced guilty and given death sentence recently, the makers of the film Ashok Chakra changed the ending with patchwork. The film is hoping to cash in on the interest the case has generated as the nation awaits the date of Kasab's execution to be announced.
With such films, one has to introduce some elements of fiction and drama to keep the audience interested. Ashok Chakra is a docu-feature. Only 30 percent of the story has been fictionalized. So if in real life Kamte is survived by a son, the film makers have taken the cinematic liberty and have shown him as the father to a daughter.
Film Ashok Chakra depicts a war against terrorism. It was Kasab who informed that he was one of the human bombs. These human bombs are made in quantity and sent to different countries to spread terror. Kasab was one of them who came to Mumbai through water and created terror in the city and killed people in Mumbai. Thus, every year, 26/11 will be remembered as terror day in Mumbai.
The film has all its actors who include Rajan Verma, Arun Bakshi, Milind Gunaji, Mushtaq Khan, Avtar Gill, Ashan Khan, Sudesh Berry, Homi Wadia, Amit Bhel, Mehul Buch, Ashok Samarth, Adi Irani, Sandeep Munde, Manini De Mishra, Vaibhavi Bhel, Usha Jadhav and Firdous playing their respective characters convincingly. Director S P Muneshwar, Cinematographer Najeeb Khan, Music Director Aroon Bakshi, Lyricist Manoj Kumar, Action Director Nisar Khan, Art Director Suresh Pillai, Editor Rakesh Kakaria, Dialogue writer Mushahid Husain Pasha and Story wrtier Sartaaj Maani have done their jobs excellently. The producer of the film is Hari Om Sharma. The film was made with a budget of Rs 2.5 crores.
The film, which was earlier titled Total 10 and was then changed to Ashok Chakra – A Tribute to Real Heroes, has a sequence in its climax where the protagonist Rajan Varma, who plays Kasab in the movie, screams, “Hang me without the hood so that my nation (Pakistan) sees my plight and suffering, especially the youngsters.” It was important for the filmmaker to change the title of the film as Total 10 seemed to glorify terrorism. The film focuses mainly on the top cops who lost their lives on that night. Rajan has also done a full nude scene. The scene features him wearing nothing as that is said to be the time his character is suffering in jail and has lost all interest in life. He then goes on to write 'mere gunaah ki saza sirf maut hai' on the wall.
The UPA government had decided to restrict the Ashok Chakra for those who died in the Mumbai terror attacks to ATS chief Hemant Karkare and ASI Tukaram Omble. On the night of November 26, Omble took the bullets but held on to the gun which led to the capture of terrorist Ajmal Amir Kasab at Girgaum Chowpatty while Karkare was killed in the line of duty at Cama Hospital. Though the Maharashtra government had recommended that all 16 policemen who died in the attacks be awarded the country's highest peacetime gallantry award, the Centre decided to award it to two with Kirti Chakra for six, including Ashok Kamte, Vijay Salaskar and Shashank Shinde, and police gallantry medals for the rest.
Newcomer Rajan Verma was chose to play the role of Ajmal Kasab because he bore a striking semblance to the lone surviving terrorist in the Mumbai massacre. He is only an actor playing the character. The film is not against the law. The film maker has made an effort to show the reality. It is clear that he doesn't intend to misguide anyone nor does he make any judiciary judgments. Sudesh Berry who plays Vijay Salaskar is shown as a sharp shooter. When he was approached with this role, he was shown some pictures and briefed about Salaskar. One of Sudeshes friend was familiar with Salaskar and he told him about the man in real life. He was a simple man, not one of the typical foul-mouthed policemen we generally see.
The film just pieces together the 60-hour ordeal the city went through. The story has not been fictionalized so much so as to make it captivatingly entertaining. But it is not a full-on documentary too. The narrative follows the lives of ten people, including the police officers and their families, who were directly affected by the unfortunate events that struck Mumbai about 18 months ago.
Thus the film Ashok Chakra really makes the audience feel like it is reliving the events of 26 November 2008. Such realism is perhaps which separates Ashok Chakra from other films tackling terrorism in India. The film shares with audiences the grim tales of martyrs and honoured deaths. It talks about human bombs, justified killings and the spread of terror. The psyche and mentality of each character is vividly portrayed. The film is a gripping psychological tale on martyrdom. It is a tribute to the Indian soldiers. Such riveting emotion and stark realness make Ashok Chakra a film worth watching. So do watch it!
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