Midway through Atul Sabharwal’s Berlin, there is a poignant exchange between sign-language interpreter Pushkin Verma (Aparshakti Khurana) and intelligence officer Jagdish Sondhi (Rahul Bose) about the nature of ‘truth’. While interrogating the deaf-and-mute suspect Ashok Kumar (Ishwak Singh) for his involvement in an alleged crime, Pushkin seems to guide him using inconspicuous signs.
When confronted later by Jagdish, Pushkin firmly echoes the principles of truth which propels Jagdish to give his definition of the term. “Truth is merely that which gets recorded, typed, gets approved by an officer and finally gets archived,” he says agitatedly. Pushkin, on the other hand, is vary of such manipulation.
The film centers its plot on these two conflicting ideas to make far-reaching connections on the internal workings of intelligence agencies, their efforts to manufacture the truth and how these systems can inherently become authoritarian. It does all of this through a tightly woven, espionage thriller-like narrative that unfolds more like a sublime novel than an impulsive film.
This can be seen in the unhurried way in which it chooses to tell a complex story, structuring it with careful precision. It is set in Delhi in 1993, with characters riding vintage cars, wearing dramatic overcoats and slipping into the dark shadows of Lodhi Gardens. It begins with an eerie prologue-like sequence introducing Ashok with a certain vagueness as his ears are being checked by the doctor to corroborate on the authenticity of the claim that he is really hearing and speech impaired.
Then, it cuts right to the chase from the next scene as we meet Pushkin as a teacher to hearing and speech-impaired students at a government school. Due to the strange allure to his name, he feels straight out of a Russian story by Chekhov or Tolstoy. “My father liked the poet Pushkin, hence he named me so,” he says during a conversation.
The connection to Russia doesn’t end here as Pushkin is called upon by the intelligence bureau to speak to Ashok, who is alleged to be involved in a plan to assassinate the Russian president. The film is also written by Atul who has chosen to base it at an important juncture in world history. There are references of an India that is getting liberalised as it opened the markets to more privatisations.
A mysterious café where intelligence officers discuss government secrets is called Berlin. The year 1989 marked a crucial time for Berlin in Germany with the breaking of the wall, signifying the end of the Cold War in 1991. As if a symbolic representation of the time, the café Berlin is frequented by agents of two intelligence units, called ‘Wing’ and ‘Bureau’, who are at loggerheads with each other.
It seems to reciprocate the tensions spewing over decades between America and the Soviet Union during the cold war. Having such a rich historical undercurrent helps the film to create a flavorful experience in telling a story of a world on the threshold of change. All of it blends seamlessly into the screenplay without the need to over-intellectualise the storytelling.
That becomes possible due to a consistently self-reflective editing. Scenes are thoughtfully placed one after the other so as to elevate the effect in combination. Ashok’s story takes us back in time when he worked at Café Berlin and observed things happening around them without the aid of his ears. The simultaneous cutting between the interrogation room and the café isn’t just a means to move the story ahead but to signify a change in emotion as well.
The manner in which character reactions appear right after some pivotal moments helps in establishing the multiple shades to their being. It’s almost as if through the editing, there are spaces left to have a thoughtful conversation with the viewers. Ashok’s inability to hear transports into the filmmaking when there’s just silence spread over some scenes which are seen through his perspective. It’s a small yet intelligent detail which creates an immersive experience of trying to make us ‘see’ the world through his ‘eyes’.
Berlin shines in the performances too. Aparshakti Khurana embodies Pushkin with a certain middle-class awkwardness that gets rewarding as the film progresses. It feels at times that the film could have utilised a tint of his comic-timing and mixed it together with the otherwise grim tonalities. Yet, Aparshakti shows fabulous restraint in the way he plays the character, combining his exterior firmness with intensely emotive vulnerabilities.
Rahul shines in embodying the complex shades of a shrewd intelligence officer as he carries the arrogance through the sturdy pitch of his voice and the angsty folds of his face. Ishwak stands out as he brings forth bouts of enigma and charming innocence to portray the tumultuous emotions of his character. There is a Shakespearean tint to him which ultimately takes the film to an explosive outcome.
Atul Sabharwal exhibits topmost control over the form, never letting the film succumb to genre cliches but rather goes on reinventing them into the narrative. Unlike other Indian spy-thrillers which have a self-righteous, overtly patriotic ‘saviour’ playing an intelligence officer, here he chooses to dive deep into murky layers and manages to ask some daring questions.
An emotive, nationalistic appeal takes the shape of a more practical survival instinct-ness where battles are not actually won in the end; where there’s little closure to sacrifices and sufferings and neither does the ‘happily ever after’ really exist. Much like the times we live in.
Streamer: Zee5
Director: Atul Sabharwal
Cast: Aparshakti Khurana, Rahul Bose, Ishwak Singh, Kabir Bedi, Jigar Mehta and Anupriya Goenka
Rating : 4/5