Much like the Independence movement itself, films set around it have also been of two types. First, the ones that focus on the pacifists like Gandhi and Nehru, whose brand of freedom fighting shaped the contours of modern Indian history as we knew it for the longest time, not to mention how the world viewed our nation’s origin tale of sovereignty. The second (and arguably more popular) kind of Independence-era cinema focused on the revolutionaries.The firebrands. Bose, Bhagat Singh, Mangal Pandey. Think Rang De Basanti or RRR. One school of thought said, “If the oppressors slap you on one cheek, turn the other cheek around.” The other advocated, “Tum mujhe khoon do, main tumhe azaadi dunga” (Give me blood and I will give you freedom). If the echoes around contemporary culture, propaganda and polity are any indication, the events that brought forth our Independence in 1947 continue to be a matter of widespread contention and some overly convenient mythologization.
In one scene in Devil, Manimekhala (Malavika Nair), an Indian congress leader draped in a khadi saree is seen saying something to the effect of…“Freedom cannot be attained by bloodshed, it is brought by peaceful dialogue.” So far, so good. This is what the Congress leaders of that time have said, in stark criticism of the revolutionaries. Then, in the next dialogue, comes something surprising. Manimekhala calls out the freedom fighters headed by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, explicitly calling them fascists for associating themselves with Adolf Hitler. To openly associate a nationally celebrated leader like Netaji with an internationally disgraced leader like Hitler would not make for some glorification-friendly cinema now, would it? But after Manimekhala brands Netaji’s ilk as fascists, something interesting happens. She is seen going to a room after her speech, where her aide shows her an arsenal full of weapons. She takes a look at them and asks her aide to quickly dispatch them to places that need them. Eventually, we find out that she is a member of Netaji’s INA (Indian National Army) and that her stint as a Congress leader is merely a cover. So, what was the point of invoking Hitler’s name and dropping the politically contentious F-word? Was she merely aping what the Congress leaders at that time said? Or, can we take a step back, do some meta-criticism and see the mention of Hitler and fascism as a politically neutral stance, considering how the character is immediately seen dispatching weapons after making her speech? How politically neutral can the mention of fascism in a film-set-in-1945-but-shot-in-the-2020s even be, when fascism is the buzzword of choice in India’s political discourse in 2023? Or, is this a subtle way of showing that the pacifist strain of the Independence movement is all smoke and mirrors, and that real freedom was actually won by the purportedly unsung men in close communion with bloodshed and guerrilla warfare?
While pondering upon these questions we realise that cinema seems to have a thing for telling the stories of the unsung. It is far from noble, though. How else can one spin urban legend if you are opting to tell the tale of the ‘sung’? In that way, it serves the interests of cinema to frack creativity from the deposits of speculation. Devil (Nandamuri Kalyanram) is the titular spy of this film. The film, written by Srikanth Vissa, is rich in concept. If the lore of pre-Independence is one side of the coin, then its adherence to the genre conventions of murder mystery and espionage is where the story flips and flips, tumbling through its two and half hour runtime. A murder cracks the film open, in Madras and the fictitious town of Rasapadu (shot in Karaikudi, home of the films Kandukondein Kandukondein, Meenakshi Sundareshwar and Atrangi Re). Nothing is what it seems, when an Intelligence agent is sent to solve a simple murder case. The murder mystery portions are at best campy, filled with moments considered fun by true-crime lovers (“In what direction will blood splatter if a neck is slashed by a left hander? What colour will the flames under a stove change to when the gas is carbon and not methane?). Immediately, we move on to moments crafted for an espionage fan’s pleasure.
In this process, we are introduced to Nyshada (Samyuktha), a work-from-home spy. Unlike most espionage films that merely act as a front for your typical hero-worship film, Devil does its bit to ground its film in actual intelligence. Make no mistake, there is some “action” in the film for sure, it is not entirely out there to be honest…but it tries to be different than your average mainstream espionage entertainer. Needless to say, Devil is an espionage entertainer, not an espionage-bait entertainer. The entire film’s conflict rests on a piece of stolen code. The safety of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose lies in the code resting in the right hands. Throughout the film, powers that be wrestle for that code. Seek to encrypt it. Hatch plans over plans on it. There are murders, explosions, backstabbing. Devil’s writing is admirable that way. In the second half, the story turns into a version of the classic ‘they-don’t-know-that-we-know-they-know-we-know’ rabble roulette from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. After all, isn’t espionage all about that? Trying to find out what others know and pretending to not know, so that one can continue to know more? The film’s direction is not as exceptional as these myriad thought experiments,when decoded (pun intended), turn out to be. It is almost a crime to watch a film not go all the way. The direction of the film is at best, functional. The world, otherwise ambitious, is capsized by lazy casting and a half-hearted romantic track. But all said and considered, this film is a decent step, if not an entirely sure-footed one, into the direction of spy films in Telugu cinema.