Struggling for freedom

Red Alert

Cast: Suniel Shetty, Sameera Reddy, Bhagyashree, Ayesha Dharkar, Seema Biswas, Ashish Vidyarthi, Makhrand Deshpande

Director: Ananth Mahadevan

Rating: TBA

In an ideal world, violation of human rights would be an unimaginable truth. But life isn't a bed of roses. And there'll always be hurdles that block the growth of a civilisation. We are aware that class exploitation does exist in India, where poor workers are constantly crushed by their greedy, rich landlords. And it's this moment of truth that film-maker Mahadevan hopes to create by lifting a page out of this glorified Naxal movement.

In Red Alert, he picks Shetty to play his lead protagonist Narasimha, an unpaid cook who reluctantly joins the guerilla warfare. He abandons his principles only to provide for his family. So, he starts off by cooking for the "people's army", but soon trains under them and is inspired to fight for what's rightfully theirs. But a deadly incident leaves him scarred, forcing him to rethink his willingness to surrender his soul to the revolution.

While writer Aruna Raje bases her tale on a sensitive news report, Mahadevan brilliantly recreates it for the cinema. But where he falters, is in his reluctance to restrain from overindulging. He kills the essence of the story with a lazy edit. Even erasing the element of realism by squeezing in a few background songs.

But leaving these negatives aside, it's Shetty's mature act that actually astonishes us. For a man, who is known less for his acting capabilities and more for his beefy body, this is a first. It's truly remarkable how he manages to hold fort, despite sharing screen space with other stalwarts like Vidyarthi, Biswas, Dharkar, Deshpande and Naseeruddin Shah. Reddy is another revelation. She lends her soul to the broken Lakshmi with aplomb. It's questionable why Mahadevan chose to ignore the other legends, while pushing Reddy and Shetty into the spotlight. But the final act doesn't prove so terrible. But even though it was disappointing to watch Shah restrained to a five-minute role, he still created magic as a hopeless drunkard.

Barring some glaring hitches, Mahadevan's sensitive tale deserves our encouragement.