Paan Singh Tomar

Rating: 7
Release Date: 2nd March, 2012
Time: 135 minutes
Director & Writer: Tigmanshu Dhulia; Music : Abhishek Ray
Starring : Irrfan, Mahie Gill, Zakir Hussain, Vipin Sharma, Imran Hasnee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajendra Gupta

Stop me when you think you’ve seen or heard it before. We in India treat our sporting heroes badly. If you’re poor, God help you because the system wont. Might is right, especially in villages. Our policemen are steeped in corruption, the court system inefficient. Justice delayed is justice denied. Ultimately, after a point trying the right way, you have no option left but to resort to violence.

The fact that, despite knowing all of the above, despite knowing where the story is heading, you still are engaged for 2 hours is a tribute to a fantastic performance by Irrfan, a very good ensemble cast, very funny dialogue and crisp editing.

Paan Singh Tomar, an army recruit, was naturally gifted as an athlete. He decided to join sports as the meager rations of the military men could not satisfy his voracious appetite. He wins many races, sets many records and then to solve a land dispute in his village, he takes premature retirement. Ultimately, the same dispute escalates, makes him take up arms and rebel against the system.

The setting, in the feared ravines of Chambal, with villages, along the UP and MP border. The rustic lingo and the one liners. The whole sequence involving the journalist. The deadpan delivery of Irrfan. His mannerisms and eccentricities. The omnipresent spectre of violence in that belt. Its an environment that really works, a setting that is rich and unusual enough to make you follow what is happening on screen.

I wish the second half was shorter. I wish it was all not so predictable. I wish things unfolded differently. I wish

One of the most telling dialogues in the film is the difference between a dacoit and a rebel. The system labels you a dacoit. But in reality you are a rebel, a product & outcome of the very same failed system. Paan Singh Tomar, after this film, stands taller in my eyes and that’s where the success of this film lies.