Expose of an ugly political cover-up |
Films likes of `The Tashkent Files` based on true events, ironically, begin with a disadvantage: they do not propagate populist or politically-correct ideas and people, but instead focus on lesser-known or rare people from history who are equally, or more, deserving, or on events that deserve to be investigated, written or spoken about.Like “Veer Savarkar” made in 2001, which was a top-class authentic and crowd-funded thriller that could not even get a proper release as it showed true sequences that made the government of that time pretty uncomfortable. Invariably also, money runs short even in promoting and marketing such bitingly honest films, and you find less supporters. This resultant low buzz could prove counterproductive in today`s times when most of the media is set to demolish the film for the political stand it takes. Writer-director Agnihotri focuses on cold facts, correlates evidence, painstaking research and authentic detailing (including a video interview of author Kuldip Nayar, of Shastri`s son and references to or depictions of key books and documents) to get to enlighten us about that dark time when India`s second prime minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, died of a sudden heart attack in January 1966.
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