‘Berlin’ review: A beguiling take on the conspiracy thriller
Atul Sabharwal’s Hindi film, starring Aparshakti Khurana and Ishwak Singh, is out on ZEE5.
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Atul Sabharwal’s Berlin is a double-weave of a conspiracy thriller and a study of political currents intersecting with personal ambition. Berlin’s beguiling take on the espionage movie spins on an uncommon theme as well as a sure sense of time and place.
The title of Sabharwal’s third feature refers to a cafe in Delhi that serves as a meeting point for intelligence agents from various countries. The restaurant dishes out intrigue along with chocolate eclairs and vegetable puffs. The staff of deaf-mute waiters play a key role in maintaining secrecy.
The actual Berlin isn’t that far away. It’s 1993. The Cold War has ended. The wall that divided East Germany from West Germany has come down. Yet, nostalgia for the sureties of more clearly delineated times drives events.
The delightfully named sign language teacher Pushkin Verma is one of the reminders of Indo-Soviet bonhomie. Pushkin (Aparshakti Khurana) is summoned by Jagdish (Rahul Bose), an officer in the plainly-named Bureau, to interrogate Ashok (Ishwak Singh).
Ashok can neither hear nor speak, but he has sharp eyes and fire in the belly. Is Ashok the key to a plot to assassinate the Russian premier during a visit to Delhi, as Jagdish insists? Or is Ashok a fall guy, as Pushkin comes to believe?
