UTV motion pictures presents Paan Singh Tomar
Directed by: Tigmanshu Dhulia, Screenplay: Tigmanshu Dhulia and Sanjay Chauhan
Cast: Irrfan, Mahie Gill, Vipin Sharma, Brijendra Kala, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Imran Hasnee.
*spoiler alert
At the time when Hollywood was battling out for the statue with biopic films like J.Edgar, My week with Marilyn, The Iron Lady and The Artist we had our very own Paan Singh Tomar to be proud about. It took Timgmanshu Dhulia 2 years of research on the athlete turn dacoit of Chambal valley and an Irrfan Khan to come up with a realistic film after Haasil. This for me is indeed his true comeback. The film apparently had a ‘terribly manipulative’ background score and lousy editing but UTV took it up to re-edit it at the able hands of Aarti Bajaj, the one who has cut films like Aamir, DevD, Gulaal and Jab We Met.
You do something because either you are passionate about it or because you are good at it for Paan Singh athletics was the later one for he joins it because it’s the only place in the army which promises him unlimited food. But this choice of his as a steeple chase runner falsely promises him much more than he had dreamt of.
It’s probably the story of every dacoit of Chambal Valley. Paan Singh Tomar loves his farm and family beyond everything. He joins army two days late because he had to take care of his farm and he quits the army for the same. We all know he will soon turn into a dacoit because of the injustice at the hands of a corrupt and a debauched system and we wait for it. But Tigmanshu makes this wait indiscernible; he makes us learn Steeple chase with him, sets into his rhythm, gives us his fame and makes us his family before blowing off the whistle.
Irrfan comes up with a masterful performance yet again but his true skill lies in portraying the transition of Paan Singh Tomar from a guileless and naïve adult to a brash and vindictive dacoit and he does it with effortless conviction. He has that rural charm, the gift of tantalizing eyes and that athletic built. This is definitely an important milestone in his acting career. The best parts of the film are the monologues of Irrfan in close ups filmed through the weeds and the rugged settings. He is equally backed by the rest of NSD actor crew as dacoit gang. The film however seems loosely directed in the scenes without the powerhouse actors. The images at times are as obsolete as sholay and at times as authentic as Bandit Queen for which Tigmanshu was a casting director.
The film is packed with refreshingly new rural wry humor somewhere on the lines of Ishqiya and Peepli Live. The “Happy Badday” mujra song reminded me of “mehangai dain” from peepli live for its deeply rooted humor. Dhulia gives it its own flavor by not taking a depressing tone and the film is throughout filled with the treat.
How refined a romantic person would you have been if it wasn’t for cinema? Paan Singh might not be familiar with the idea that a rose might mean love but he is romantic in a crude yet ingenuous way and it adds to his persona.
Soon Paan singh comes to a point where he is one of the big dacoits of Chambal valley but one question which bothers him till the end in a nagging way is what did he do to deserve this life of a dacoit and why was his racing track snatched away from him? What worries me however is not the fact that Tigmanshu glorifies his character but perhaps something more basic, did these questions really bother him in real life. If it din’t I am not sure if wanted to feel sad for Paan Singh Tomar unlike the death of Vito Corleone. It made me feel sad for his Empire not for him. Of course it would be unfair to compare an army man and a national athlete to Vito Corleone. But this is where I felt Tigmanshu would have been blindly in love with Paan Singh Tomar that he kept glorifying a dacoit giving him a respectful death that his ideal hero would have wished for. But I can’t blame him too for he spent two years on him or can i?
This film truly is a great tribute to those unsung National champions and a worth watch but I am not sure if it does justice to the breeding grounds of dacoits ‘The Chambal valley’.
Imaging Cinema 
Is this applicable only for Indians?