Director: Anurag Singh
Rating: ***
The Punjab 1984 is a good attempt to recapitulate the painful yesteryears of Punjab's political and social history. The movie succeeds to convey it's message in a very subtle manner. This is the reason that some sections of movie critics have labeled the story as imaginative withdrawn from reality and a distortion of facts. In a subtle manner Diljit Dosanj conveys that in those painful days, the terrorists, the police and the politicians all connived in the horrific episodes of violence. The director deservers accolades for his attempt to present the reality of 1984 when Golden Temple was invaded by the Army to flush out Sant Bhinderanwale and his brigade.
The story details the situation and condition of a mother's (Kirron Kher ) longing for the love of his missing son, named Shiva. Her husband was earlier shown as killed by the police declaring him as a terrorist. The director vividly narrates the story of terrorism, a juvenile love relationship, the mischievous game plan of the politicians and their mediators, who show their true colours.
The setting is mainly rural from Amritsar district villages. The director of the picture does a balancing act by showing how a group of terrorists killed Hindus travelling in a bus. The atrocious conduct of the Punjab police. The story also imbibes the fact of village level feuds regarding cultivation of land. Such personal rivalries resulted in bigger incident of killing one of the farmers by Shiva.
1984 is repeatedly echoed in the film but the massacre of the Sikhs in whole of the country has not been justifiably dealt with pictorially. The massacre of the Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister is oblivious.
From another angle it can be said that it is the story of mother who missed his son in the riots of 1984, when Punjab was dealing with the terrible period of terrorism. This movie is the love of the mother searching his son and the love of his son to his mother. The movie looks sensitive.
This movie is a dream project for Diljit Dosanjh and Kirron Kher working for the first time in Punjabi movies. This movie's budget was about 7 crores.
