PAAN SINGH TOMAR

Paan Singh is the true story of a champion Jawan who wins laurels for the army in the steeplechase events. His life has none of the obstacles which he crosses with élan on the track. It is like a smooth flight of a bird. He is happy and contented in his professional success and is loved by his dusky wife. The story is beautiful – made more so by the flawless narration.

However this much of happiness does not last for long. Be it the screen or real life. His land in the village is encroached by the powerful neighbours. He takes early retirement and goes back home in an attempt to retain the ancestral land. This effort endangers his life and that of his family who are brutally attacked by the encroachers. He runs to the organs of the state for protection only to realise that protection of his life and property is none of their concerns. When faced with this barrier he jumps towards a ditch. Like steeplechase. Only this ditch does not have mud and water. It is a one way journey of revenge, murder and a following career of a dacoit run on the money earned from abductions. (Paan Singh would object saying he is a BAAGHI (rebel) and dacoits are only found in Parliament.)

The theme sounds familiar but is narrated with originality. Each frame of the movie is a work of art. Irfan Khan’s performance is as breathtaking as the murderous beauty of the ravines of Chambal. He metamorphoses from a Forrest Gump like awkward runner to a Gabbar Singh like dacoit with such ease which can come to only him. The depiction of his relationships with his wife, brother, son, coach and so on is enchanting. But what makes the movie a masterpiece is his relationship with the State. He is a jawan raring to lay down his life for the country in the 1965 war. He is not allowed to do so because his life as a champion sportsperson is a national treasure and needs to be preserved. However, when in village, the threat to his life and property would not bother the State. He does not exist when he is threatened or as long as he murders a few. The State becomes interested in him only when his criminality scales up across the districts and states and the number of abductions and murders committed by him are far too many and far too frequent making him a threat to the State. That is where the movie rises from being an individual’s story to the story of the Indian State in relation with the multitudes.

Modern democratic state exists in an eternal tension between the individuals’ basic rights of freedom and equality and the control of the State on the individual. The individual is an end in itself and parts of his liberty and freedom are ceded to the State only to ensure that those inalienable rights of the individual are protected. Indian State exists on the same theoretical foundations.

However, the practice is inverted. Indian State is an end in itself. It has to be preserved for its own sake. Its law and order machinery is effective only to that extent. Otherwise, what happens to the individual in the hinterland depends on his own luck. The State would have nothing to do with it except when the individual is to be used as a source of revenue generation for the State or for its officers. Paan Singh is far too simple to understand this and has too much energy. He has to be done in the by the state.