Interview: Rajan Verma

By: Ashika Sengupta

It may appear a daunting task to some, but Rajan Verma seemed to have walked himself into a landmine when he agreed to make his big-screen debut portraying the life of someone who was just sentenced to death via hanging by Indian courts a few weeks ago for apparently serving as the mastermind of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Then again, Rajan knew the real value of S.P. Munishwar’s low-budget, high-moral film, Ashok Chakra – A Tribute to Heroes (which opens May 28th), was not in his rendition of 22-year-old former Pakistani gunman Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, but instead in paying homage to the fallen men and women of that fateful day in 2008 when about 166 people were killed and more than 300 others were injured. While the film is meant to honor the police and service officers (heart-fully portrayed by Homi Wadia, Ashish Vidyarthi, Sudesh Berry and Ashok Kulkarni) who died in the line of duty in their collective attempt to bring the events of 26/11 to an end, Verma’s villainous role is not intended to glamorize Kasab’s actions.

Quite the contrary, Verma said, during his promotional interviews with the press, that, in playing the only living terrorist captured and subsequently tried by authorities in relation to the Mumbai attacks, he explicitly took the final four words of the film’s title literally and dedicated Ashok Chakra to the men and women of service who proverbially took one for the team in taking on the ten-member terror outfit that commenced a three-day siege on Mumbai beginning 26 November, 2008.

“The film is a tribute to all the martyrs of Mumbai police and our armed forces who lost their lives in the terrorist attack,” Verma, who plays Kasab, respectfully informed the press, adding that the film’s tone mirrors the look and feel of that three-day ordeal two falls ago. “The film has no songs or dance but only action and what happened on that tragic night.”

That tragic night Verma is referring to was a series of attacks by ten militants (who hijacked a fishing boat in the Arabian Sea prior to their entry into Mumbai) on several venues across Mumbai during the final week of November 2008, including three luxury hotels, the central Mumbai railway station, a restaurant frequented by tourists, and a Jewish cultural center. By the time the dust settled, the executed plans of the alleged terrorists led to the reported deaths of about 166 people.

The only living person captured by Indian law enforcement was Kasab, a 22-year-old Moslem who apparently underwent training at a cell camp in Pakistan. A little more than two weeks prior to this weekend’s release of Ashok Chakra, the real-life version of Kasab was formally tried, convicted and sentenced by a special prison court in Mumbai; the young man was reportedly found guilty of waging war on India, murder, terrorist acts and conspiracy.

Verma hopes the film connects with audiences and serves as a reminder that there were good people who fought the good fight during those three days in 2008 — and those people should not be forgotten.

The debutant actor also added that steps were taken to portray Kasab in a manner that not only demonstrated his disconnected sense of reality but also mirrored the real-life public opinion throughout his subsequent prison trial that demanded the alleged terrorist’s head publicly delivered to the afterlife on a platter.

“Our film focuses a lot on top cops who lost their lives that fateful night. In (one) scene, I am wearing nothing. That is the time when my character is shown languishing in jail and has lost all interest in life,” Verma told the press. “Months before the real trial ended, we had decided that Kasab will be hanged to death in the film; it was the only just thing to do. The film shows Kasab accepting his guilt before his death. The hanging mirrors public sentiment.”

While Ashok Chakra, albeit fictionally, tries to captivate as much of the perceived poetic justice as possible, Verma obviously hopes audiences will see the film less for his portrayal of Kasab and more for the innocent and good lives that were directly affected by the fateful events of 26/11.

Ashok Chakra – A Tribute to Heroes is now playing on more than 125 screens across India. Directed by S.P. Munishwar, it was written by Mohanish Sharan.