CAST: Ayushmann Khurrana, Andrea Kevichusa, Mipham Otsai, 

DIRECTED BY:Anubhav Sinha

BLUF : Anek asks the difficult question of what it means to be Indian, a loaded riddle in a period where Hindutva rhetoric has fostered brutal discrimination all across India.

For Aido (Andrea Kevichüsa), a boxer, she channelizes all her disappointments and frustrations of being labeled an outsider, into proving herself by working hard for  her dream of earning a spot on the national boxing team. She stands up to prove that she belongs by leading the pack.But she questions why she has to prove her identity at all. Why do some people have to fight hard to belong to a country while others have the privilege of belonging without a  doubt.

For her father Wangnao (Mipham Otsal), a school teacher who covertly leads a rebel group against government forces, assimilation is associated with the stripping of cultural identity.

In between of all of this is Joshua (Ayushmann Khurrana), an undercover agent who finds his loyalty put to the test. 

He works for the Government to collect intel to drive the peace process but in the process gets close enough to the people to understand the human aspect of the insurgency. He is effected by the brutality of disassociation that the people feel towards the rest of the country.

He watches helplesslessly as the Government keeps making the same mistake of cosmetic moves to show a peace process on paper, while further alienating the people by not working towards bringing real peace.

In a very pertinent scene, he asks his boss  if it is peace or the peace accord that the Government was more interested in accomplishing.

Another important protagonist in the movie is Abrar (Manoj Pahwa), who, is Joshua’s boss, and being a Kashmiri muslim himself, understands the politics of the situation that he himself is helming.

The situation becomes personal for him when the rebel violence results in the apathetic brutal disassociation that Kashmiris themselves have felt with the Indian Government in Kashmir. 

As he compares the beauty of the region from atop an aircraft to the scenic beauty of Kashmir by recapitulating a famous couplet in farsi, he cannot also help but compare the templatized handling of the rebel situation to the politcs in Kashmir. When asked about changing the template, it is as if he does not want the people in the North East to deserve better than the people of Kashmir when he says, ” It either changes for all or changes for none”

Anek is a rare hindi cinema film that tells the story of the unrest in the Northeastern Indian states. However a hat tip to the Director’s lens for not being judgemental about the cause of the people. The movie steers clear of condemning any guerrilla fighters as terrorists or anti-nationals. Here, violence is not for the reason of, but the outcome of years of abuse,servility and prejudice. Keeping clear of the jingoistic narative, the movie raises important questions about national identity and if everyone has a right to it.

Ayushmann Khurrana gives a very understated performance leaving the canvas open to the other actors to perform. Andrea is not very comfortable in emotional sequences. The cinematography and camera work is exellent and some shots define the lens of the region in their entirety.

The BG score is fantastic. The theme is worth amplifiation.

Some of the shootout sequences are blood and gore. 

Overall, the script is very intelligently written and the execution is smartly consummated.