By Ruby Zaidi
Kesari Chapter 2, starring superstar Akshay Kumar and directed by Karan Singh Tyagi, hit theatres just a few months ago with a powerful promotional hook — that it unveils the “untold story” of Jallianwala Bagh, a chapter in history that has supposedly remained buried for over a century.
According to the filmmakers, the movie is inspired by the aftermath of the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where thousands of innocent Indians were gunned down under the orders of General Reginald Dyer — a figure often likened to Hitler for his brutality.
More than 100 years on, the United Kingdom has yet to issue a formal apology for this heinous act.
While Kesari Chapter 2 rightly reminds audiences that such an apology remains overdue, it also ventures into questionable territory by attempting to reshape the legacy of Sankaran Nair, a prominent figure in India’s freedom struggle.
The film portrays Nair as leading a legal battle against General Dyer in a courtroom in Amritsar — a trial that, in reality, never took place.
Though Nair was indeed a courageous and vocal opponent of British rule, the dramatized courtroom scenes in Kesari Chapter 2 are fictional. Critics argue that by presenting imagined events as historical fact under the guise of an “untold story,” the film distorts Nair’s genuine contributions.
The film claims to draw inspiration from the book The Case That Shook the Empire by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat, descendants of Sankaran Nair.
However, both this book and Nair’s autobiography confirm that there was no direct legal trial against General Dyer involving Nair.
Despite this, the film’s promotional campaign and public statements from its cast and creators suggest a revisionist stance, even asserting that history books have failed to adequately tell the truth.
While the film includes a standard disclaimer stating it is a work of fiction, this seems insufficient when juxtaposed with its aggressive marketing as “the untold story.”
Many have criticized Kesari Chapter 2 for blurring the lines between historical fact and cinematic fiction, potentially misleading audiences in the process.
