The Truth Files!
Thoughts on the movie The Tashkent Files
The movie is about the mystery around death of Indiaâs 2nd Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. But is it really? Actually if you see deeply, the movie is about a bigger narrative - India Whoâs Who vs. India Nobodies - the few privileged Powers to be who control the fate of the larger population. The controversy around the death is just used as a clear ploy to make a bigger point - not openly but still. (There were few movies with similar intent just before the general elections like The Accidental Prime Minister - intent can be to show truth otherwise not known or to just win the election. But then there is no smoke without the fire.).
I always had this idea in my mind about the humankind existence. God & Goddess up in the heaven playing a giant board game. And we just being the counters (or may be bots) in that game. They roll the dice and strategize the game, which in turn impacts our lives. And we donât understand that game at all. Bringing that to multitude of layers below, we have the Powers to be, who are sort of semi-Gods. They play a different power games which directly or indirectly impact our lives - by means of opportunity lost, or opportunity being opened to selective few. We are just the pawns in their game which is played in the board called country or world. And irony is we somewhat sense that but donât get to know the exact game.
The movie is about portraying that very idea. It points how the entire machinery can be used to create a false narrative, in fact even a false history. All pillars of the democracy have a price to be sold, and how they come together to create something that these semi-gods want us to see and believe. Fake news or Deep fakes seems to be a current technology or social media creation. But if you see, these have been prevalent from ages. We have been served history and narratives that suits the people holding the power. Different story that power of social media is now helping to bring many of these out.
So overall a clear and thoughtful plot. Though the execution and performances could not do full justice to it. Whatever was shown in the movie is truth or not, is hard to be proven. As they said in the movie, it is about war of narratives. And war is often won by the powerful, not necessary ones who are right - after all it is not Mahabharata, a mythology. But definitely a must watch to open the thought process to question the truth and history we have been served. No guarantee the counter history will be truth or not.Â















