‘Kesari Chapter 2’ trailer: Akshay Kumar, Ananya Panday challenge the British crown
The Hindu
Kesari Chapter 2 trailer launch by Dharma Productions, starring Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, and Ananya Panday in historical drama.
Dharma Productions on Thursday (April 3) launched the trailer for Kesari Chapter 2. Starring Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan and Ananya Panday, the historical drama is set during and after the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of 1919.
Kumar plays a lawyer, inspired by C. Sankaran Nair, who challenges the British crown and seeks to uncover the truth of Jallianwala. “We are suing the crown for genocide,” Kumar says in the trailer. Madhavan pitches up as a fearsome Indian-origin lawyer defending the actions of the British administration in Punjab. Ananya Panday, as a bright female lawyer, plays Kumar’s steadfast aide.
Directed by Karan Singh Tyagi, Kesari Chapter 2 is based on the book The Case That Shook the Empire by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat. The film appears to combine several historical events into a single, streamlined narrative, spanning the findings of the Hunter Commission and a libel suit filed by Michael O’Dwyer against Sir CS Nair in England.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre was one of the darkest chapters of British colonial rule in India. On April 3, 1919 in Amritsar, Reginald Dyer, a British Brigadier-General, ordered soldiers to fire upon an unarmed crowd of over 15,000 Indians gathered at Jallianwala Bagh on Baisakhi day. The crowd had gathered to peacefully protest the Rowlatt Act. The killings shook the world and became a rallying point for anti-British sentiment in India.
CS Nair was a distinguished Indian lawyer serving as the sole Indian representative in the Viceroy’s Executive Council during the time of the massacre. Anguished by the killings, he resigned from the prestigious post, forcing the British to implement changes such as the revocation of martial law in Punjab.
CS Nair later wrote a book, Gandhi and Anarchy (1922), where he criticized Michael O’Dwyer, the lieutenant Government of Punjab during the massacre. He accused O’Dwyer for abetting the atrocities through his repressive administration. This, in turn, invited a libel suit from O’Dwyer, who by then had returned to England after being dismissed from Punjab.
Kesari Chapter 2 is set to hit theatres on April 18, 2025.
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