Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Cast/Actors: Akshay Kumar, R. Madhavan, Ananya Panday, Regina Cassandra, Simon Paisley Day, Alexx O’Nell, Amit Sial & Others
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Director: Karan Singh Tyagi
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Production House: Dharma Productions, Leo Media Collective & Cape Of Good Films
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Release Date: 18th April, 2025
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Available On: Theatrical Release and (likely to be released on JioHotstar OTT Platform)
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Released/Available In Languages: Hindi
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Runtime: 2h 15m
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Critic Review:
Once in a rare while, a film comes along that opens old wounds and corrects history so effectively that the revisit is worth much more than the price of your ticket.
Director Karan Singh Tyagi’s retelling of The Case That Shook The Empire (authored by multi-faceted banker Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat) which focuses on the courtroom brilliance of Indian lawyer C Sankaran Nair (Akshay Kumar) is one such piece of cinema which shrinks the once mighty Crown into a small-minded, genocidal brute, exemplified by General Reginald Dyer (Simon Paisley Day), aka the Butcher of Amritsar. Tyagi and co-writer Amritpal Singh Bindra take cinematic liberties with a true story but the outcome is an impactful court case that lays bare the bloodiness of the Baisakhi massacre.
Several screenplay efficiencies show up, beginning with the juxtaposing of the 1919 massacre at Jallianwala Bagh with Sankaran Nair being bestowed with a knighthood for his service to the Crown, and with filming the genocide from the viewpoint of young survivor Pargat Singh (Krish Rao).
The introduction of multi-talented Nair with a Kathakali dance, his gradual eye-opening transformation as he takes on the Crown that he once served with such servile willingness, and the pitting of Nair against the prowess of equally gifted lawyer Neville McKinley (R Madhavan) keep melodrama out of the courtroom. But Pargat Singh looms in the background to keep alive the brutality of a planned genocide and this gives the narration its required emotional strength.
Dialogues by Akshat Ghildial and Sumita Saxena add to the heft of several courtroom moments and showdowns out of it, including the now much-watched scene of Nair and Dyer in the washroom. The ‘Dogs and Indians not allowed’ notice outside a club is woven into Nair’s final outburst and the Titanic gets a worthy mention as McKinley (nursing his own personal wounds) concedes to Nair with an appreciative, “You were the iceberg”. The ‘Eff’ word too comes at the right moments and with taali-fetching punch.
The background music and numbers (Shashwat Sachdev) move with the mood whipped up by Tyagi while camerawork (Debojeet Ray), production design (Rita Ghosh) and art direction (Krishnanand Sharma) play their parts in creating a compelling atmosphere.
Without a doubt, Akshay Kumar must be given a round of applause for the age-appropriate and the range of roles he picks, and for the fire he brings to Nair’s character. The casting of R Madhavan as a heavyweight opponent is to be equally cheered as McKinley gives Nair the balance a courtroom battle required. Cast in the curious role of a legal genius of Indo-British lineage, Madhavan stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Akshay never once letting it peter into a weak, one-sided case. Ananya Panday has the necessary wide-eyed innocence to pull off young lawyer Dilreet Gill who goads Nair into taking on Dyer and the Empire. It is the right first step forward to graduate to playing characters with substance.
On the flip side, while Tyagi ups the rage of viewer as the truth behind the Jallianwala Bagh unfolds, the intensity and single-minded focus of the film may also narrow the audience that will come in, stay glued to the screen and go back feeling enriched by a lesson well learnt. The liberal and necessitative use of English makes it what’s called a ‘multiplex film’.
Kesari Chapter 2 Watch Or Not?: Why just Indians? If you’re human, go watch it and cheer.
Kesari Chapter 2 Review Score Rating: 4 out of 5 (i.e. 4/5)
Kesari Chapter 2 Movie Official Trailer:
Credits: Dharma Productions
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