Kartik Bhardwaj

There was a time when truth was stranger than fiction. Now fiction has become stronger, loud and all pervasive. The absolute truth is averse, dirty and disturbing. So, truth is now reduced to a perspective. You can choose your own version, one that makes you feel good about yourself, your thought process, your ideology. Helps you sleep at night. It’s an apple which is half-rotten but you can enjoy eating the good side. The real truth actually lies in an unsettling feeling in your bones. That something is not right. From the Bollywood propaganda machinery comes another ‘truth-exposer’. The subject of tonight’s debate aka movie is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the RSS, the ideological parent of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Every accusation against the RSS will be answered with table-thumping arguments, cherry-picking, sentimental background music and goalpost shifting. A character will shout, “The truth will and shall prevail!”

Doing bad acting good is an acquired art. Observe Leonardo DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood (2019). In it, the actor plays a fading Hollywood star who has been reduced to playing villains for TV Westerns. While shooting for one of them, he is seen playing an antagonist who has kidnapped a little girl. The scene is campy and DiCaprio acts like an actor who confuses intensity for interiority. He improvises, throws the young girl (who was sitting on his lap all this while) on the floor. The director says bravo. The eight-year-old whispers in his ear that it was the greatest acting she had seen in her entire life. DiCaprio’s eyes well-up, he looks around and then at the ceiling. Even in life he is showcasing that emotion like an actor in a melodrama. But the whole scene gives you two feelings. You laugh at the guy but then you feel sorry for him.

Credit where it’s due. At a time when the Bollywood movie-goer can only choose between a macho-misogynistic actioner or a propaganda-piece posing as a truth- exposé, Ek Din comes as a sweet respite. It’s warm, fuzzy and feels like sipping on a marshmallow-dipped hot chocolate after you have had enough of that tongue-reddening spice. But the taste doesn’t stay consistent, it oscillates between bland and saccharine. The film gets messy, clumsy and once the love-story gap is filled it starts to overstay its welcome.