OTT Review: Sankalp - The Politics of Aspiration
Sankalp | Director: Prakash Jha | Cast: Nana Patekar, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub | Hindi | Amazon MX Player
Prakash Jha has single-handedly introduced a sub genre into Hindi entertainment, the Bihar political potboiler with movies such as Gangaajal (2003) and also Apaharan (2005). No surprise then that he is the man behind the new series Sankalp which imagines a compelling though fictitious scenario of an intellectual baahubali, Kanhaiya Lal (Nana Patekar) who runs Chanakya Coaching Centre that prepares young men and women for the civil services exam. Over three decades, or so the story goes, Kanhaiya Lal has placed these men and women—who clear the civil services thanks to his support—in important positions, ensuring they owe him complete loyalty. All goes well, until one young recruit Aditya (a brilliant Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub) comes into conflict with his guru, realising that he is being used as a tool in his longstanding war with a powerful politician and his advisor. It is a fascinating premise and Patekar is quite the enigmatic do-gooder who may have a darker, more diabolical agenda. From the desperation of parents who are conflicted between love for their offspring and their inability to give them a life out of poverty, to the reliance on the state for jobs, to the power of a good education, the series confronts difficult themes with a sense of drama but also a sharp dose of political realism.