When I saw the trailer of Kesari, I was reminded of a movie that I Ioved - 300, where 300 Spartans took on more than 1000 times stronger Persian enemy. Even in this movie, the storyline is similar; the Battle of Saragarhi put 21 Sikh soldiers facing thousands of Afghan tribesman on September 12, 1897.
But alas the similarities stop there.
How can one screwup a movie that has so many things going for it - Beautiful locales, great patriotic story, valour against all odds etc etc.??
But some have the art of doing just that.
The first half is so slow with Akshay Khanna appearing in every shot. Yes, he is a megastar but does he really have to be in every shot?? Akshay does scream a lot but clearly this role wasn't suited for him. Every other character looks very similar and the lack of any backstories makes connecting with any of them....impossible!! And the flashbacks to Akshay's role just don't connect either!!
The movie also has a religious twist to it, which I didn't think was required. The attacking Afghanis are shown as religious savages and the 21 Sikhs, protectors of justice. Surely they could have just had a 2 hour movie focused on war based action and avoided all these distractions, that just didn't do any justice to the movie.
I for one, walked out very confused....who and what were these 21 brave soldiers fighting for?