Berlin (2023) – Brilliant slow burn

Genre: Spy Story

Time: 1 Hour 50 minutes

Platform: Zee 5

Writer Director: Atul Sabharwal

Cast: Aparshakti Kurana. Rahul Bose. Ishwak Singh.

 

People have complaints, and my favorite is that the James Bond franchise has distorted people’s perception of spy films. If pressed, they will reluctantly concede that while it’s not real, it’s great entertainment. The YRF Spy Universe, with its mega stars and mega budgets, has also raked in the moolah, based on this  Bonded “spytainment”.

 

Which is why Berlin comes as a complete surprise. I assumed that the story was centered in the German Capital,  and would feature an abundance of scenic vistas of the bustling city.

 

Sometimes its nice to be wrong 🙂

 

Its post liberalisation 1993 and Pushkin Verma (Aparshakti Khurana) is leading a mundane life, commuting by bus daily to his job as a teacher , in a deaf and dumb school as he is proficient in sign language. He is suddenly confronted by his principal, who grumbles that he has been granted leave after some pressure “from above”. Bewildered, he goes to a building to be received by three suited men, one of whom Sondhi (Rahul Bose), leads him to a room to interrogate a suspect Ashok (Ishwak Singh), who is deaf and dumb. Sondhi gives a set of questions to Pushkin and watches as Pushkin interrogates Ashok through sign language.

 

Pushkin then goes to a cafe named Berlin, where Ashok had been a waiter. As he sits down to have his tea, Sondhi comes in . Sondhi informs Pushkin that Berlin functioned as a café where intelligence agencies could trade information safely, due to the deaf and mute waiters .

 

As the interrogation unfolds, Ashok and Pushkin form a bond as Pushkin’s younger brother is also deaf and dumb. One night Pushkin is kidnapped. His kidnappers are revealed to be from The Wing – aka Research and Analysis Wing. They know what’s going on and want Pushkin to slip in their own questions without arousing Sondhi’s suspicions.

 

Thus starts Pushkin’s nightmare, as he does not know whom to trust and what game is being played . He knows he is a pawn in the game, but Ashok now reveals more and more to Pushkin what are the complex events that brought him to the interrogation centre.

 

This film takes place in New Delhi in 1993, when the Soviet Union had finally faded into history and the ramifications of that were felt, including the American pressure not to buy Russian cryogenic engines. To smooth over the relation, the Russian President is on a state visit to India. That is when things heat up, as Ashok has details of a plot to assassinate the visiting Russian president. Or is it something else ? Camouflaging another later ?

 

The 1993 look and feel is excellent.  Hardly a computer in sight and the archival information is seen through microfilm readers. Ambassador and Fiat Cars. The odd Maruti 800. Winter dress typical to Delhi.

 

Wheels within wheels. Circles that keep expanding. Doubt. Distrust.  We are on this journey along with Pushkin and are stunned when the final secret is revealed.

 

This film is on par with any of the intricately plotted western spy films of the non-Bonded variety. It is an adventure that is definitely worth your investment in time.

 

As the man from The Wing says, “we know that two and two makes four. But in our business, it is either three or five, never four”.

 

Check out what number you arrive at.

 

Be prepared for the underexposed photography that gives an eerie dull look to the whole film which is on Zee 5.

 

Script – 5 out of 5

Story – 5 out of 5

Direction – 5 out of 5

Photography – 4 out of 5

 

Total – 4.8 out of 5