Black Warrant, Udaan and Lootera, Vikramaditya Motwane and the art of never making the same film twice

 

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Watching his most recent release Black Warrant on Netflix, sent me down a small rabbit hole of Motwane’s work. I watched Udaan again, and my favourite parts of Lootera, Sacred Games, Jubilee, and Bhavesh Joshi Superhero. As I tried to analyse the secret sauce behind all these different yet well-made stories, I noticed that there are some recurring themes in Motwane’s films and shows. First the exploration of courage and cowardice as life choices that define a character’s journey, secondly the human need for dignity and acceptance from family and society, and thirdly the emotional dynamics and power struggles between men, whether in father-son relationships, friendships or as subordinate and superior in the workplace.

Udaan, which was equal parts gut-wrenching and liberating, addressed the concept of generational trauma long before it became a subject for mental health reels. Rohan (Rajat Barmecha) is forced by circumstances to live with his emotionally repressed and abusive father. While home should be a safe space, for Rohan and his half-brother Arjun, living with their father Bhairav Singh (Ronit Roy) is an unending cycle of physical and emotional abuse. It is implied that Bhairav grew up in a similarly toxic environment but never dared to advocate for himself. Now like any bully, he directs his anger and unhappiness on those he perceives as weak and helpless. But the courage to rebel against his father sets Rohan and Arjun free. By symbolically returning a watch that has been passed down from father to son for generations in his family, Rohan ends the cycle of oppression, choosing to thrive in an uncertain future instead of perishing in a life with his father.

Courage or cowardice are life choices Varun (Ranveer Singh) has to make at different junctures in Lootera. Though he loves Pakhi (Sonakshi Sinha), he does not dare to stand up against his boss and father-figure AK Bajpai (Arif Zakaria) who has inducted him into a life of deceit and crime. But when fate gives him a second chance, Varun chooses to stay and give Pakhi the courage to fight for her life. He faces the woman he has wronged and puts his own life at risk to save hers. As Motwane beautifully portrays, to love is to be brave and protecting the person you love, especially from themselves, isn’t for the faint-hearted.

 

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Fathers, both literal and figurative, have a big role to play in Sacred Games as well. Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan) aspires to be an honest and upright officer like his father. However, his refusal to support the corrupt practices within his department proves detrimental to him. Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), who changes Sartaj’s destiny with a phone call, also speaks to him about three fathers /father figures who shaped the course of his life. In parallel narratives set in different periods, both Ganesh and Sartaj are seeking to improve their lot in life. While Sartaj bravely pursues the truth and goes up against his department to save Mumbai, Ganesh refuses to accept a life of poverty and deprivation, rising to become a notorious gangster. As Kanta Bai (Shalini Vatsa) tells Ganesh, “Agar bada aadmi banna hain toh daring kar” (If you want to be a big man, show courage). Though they take different paths in life, the hunger for respect, success and a desire to prove their worth drive both Sartaj and Ganesh in the first season of the show.

 

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In Motwane’s most recent release Black Warrant, young jailer Sunil Gupta (Zahan Kapoor) shows courage in constantly seeking to improve the conditions at Tihar Jail. Though his spirit is almost crushed by a corrupt system, he manages to bring his colleagues together and builds a team to solve a major crisis. Unfortunately,  not everyone who is courageous finds success. The young men in Bhavesh Joshi Superhero are brave and have all the right intentions. But their courage has tragic consequences, especially for Bhavesh (Priyanshu Painyuli) who is killed while trying to expose corruption. His friend Sikander Khanna (Harshvardhan Kapoor) then takes on his identity to continue his work and almost meets the same fate, before justice finally prevails at the end of the movie. In Motwane’s films Trapped and CTRL, Shaurya (Rajkummar Rao) battles for survival after getting locked into his home with no way to gain access to the outside world, while Ananya Panday’s character Nella falls from social media stardom to anonymity after she tries to expose a powerful organisation that has killed her boyfriend Joe. Though Shaurya shows immense courage in escaping from his apartment and Nella risks it all to get justice for Joe, they both find themselves alone and forgotten.

 

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But while courage is not always rewarded, cowardice and cruelty aren’t forgiven in Motwane’s world. In Jubilee, Binod Das’ (Aparshakti Khurana) desperation to go from being the shady right-hand man to leading man is dealt with empathy, but his cowardly act of killing Jamshed Khan (Nandish Sandhu) to fulfil his ambitions, is the first step towards his tragic fall. Binod unfairly snatches what was not meant for him and others like Srikant Roy (Prosenjit Chatterjee) and Jay Khanna (Sidhant Gupta), conceal the truth for different reasons, denying a young man justice. Almost like a ghost with unfinished business, Jamshed’s murder haunts all those associated with him, denying them the happily ever after he never had. In Jubilee too, Jay’s relationship with his father, and Binod’s equation with Roy, who rebirths him as Madan Kumar, are important arcs in the show.  While Jay’s father manages to save him from complete ruin but refuses to accept the woman he loves, Roy and Binod’s toxic relationship ensures their mutual destruction.

Vikramaditya Motwane and his collaborators have given us multiple memorable characters and cinematic moments on screen. But most significantly, the filmmaker has shown that the only limitations that exist in Bollywood are in the minds of filmmakers. Amidst the post- pandemic floundering in the movie business, Motwane has given us AK vs AK, Jubilee, CTRL and Black Warrant. Though they may not have earned hundreds of crores, the filmmaker’s commitment to creativity and originality is a glimmer of hope. At a time when over-the-top masculinity is the one-line premise of films releasing on the big screen, we hope that Motwane keeps showing ‘daring’ as Kanta Bai suggested and we see many more gems from the filmmaker this year and in all the years to come.