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A spy thriller, by definition, needs to have spies, and thrills. Berlin, set in the Delhi of 1993, revolves around the doings of two men, Pushkin Verma (Aparshakti Khurana) and Ashok Kumar (Ishwak Singh), as they take the measure of each other in a grey government building, the former, a teacher in a deaf-mute institute, the latter, a speech-and-hearing impaired individual accused of being a foreign spy.
Spies there are aplenty, tumbling out of airless offices, ransacking safes in pokey flats in sarkaari colonies, and exchanging secrets in a cafe called Berlin, which acts as a clearing-house and listening post for spies of all persuasions. The big event which has everyone agog is the imminent arrival of the Russian president, and the spooks suspect an assassination plan is afoot: hence, arrests and interrogations.
The real hero of this film, directed by Atul Sabharwal, is the production design. Delhi has never looked drearier, or duller, or greyer than in this, even though you do wonder about the location of Berlin cafe, purportedly somewhere in the famed circularity of Connaught Place. It is winter, when the skies are overcast and there is no sun. We literally do not see colour in the entire run-time for 2 hours and some, except in a couple of interior scenes in domestic settings.
The two main leads, Aparshakti Khurana as the regular joe Pushkin Verma (the name is a stroke of genius, a throwback to the socialist times when Russian literature was easily and cheaply available in the country, and Indo-Russian ties were close), and Ishwak Singh as the orphan who never has got a chance to participate in his institute’s football game, but is showing smart foot-work in a dark cell while dodging pointed questions, are both solid. Singh, in particular, is excellent: his eyes speak for him.
Berlin movie trailer:
But the crucial element in a film like this, which ideally lights a fuse and allows for a slow-burn, is escalating tension. That’s absent, even when the characters– Rahul Bose as Sondhi, the leader of the investigating pack, Kabir Bedi as the big chief, Anupriya Goenka as a mysterious Mata Hari-type, and several others—are involved in dodgy pursuits which lead to torture, honey-pot seductions, blackmail, and dead bodies. The rivalry between local agencies called Wing and Bureau (standing in, presumably, for RAW and CBI) feels concocted and colourless. The only interesting characters are out of this net: Joy Sengupta as a snarky gent, speaking of liberalisation and ambition, leaves a mark in just one scene; so does the actor playing his daughter, as Pushkin’s potential bride.
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At no point did I feel a sense of fear for any of the characters. Or of them. ‘Berlin’’s world, where faceless, nameless characters live in the shadows, doing shadowy things, tries inhabiting John le Carre territory. Ever tried reading one of his classics without holding your breath? Here, there’s no dread, only a spreading dullness.
This spy-fest left me cold.
Berlin movie cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Ishwak Singh, Rahul Bose, Kabir Bedi, Anupriya Goenka, Nitesh Pandey, Joy Sengupta
Berlin movie director: Atul Sabharwal
Berlin movie rating: Two stars
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