Andaman review: Entertaining film with strong social commentary

Smita Singh’s debut film Andaman, about a village quarantine centre, is an entertaining movie with a strong social commentary. Starring Anand Raaj, Sanjay Mishra and others, the film depicts the inspiring journey of panchayat secretary Abhimanyu Pratap, who changes the destiny of Bhulanpur village, locally referred to as 'Andaman'.

The film touches upon the issues of a flawed administrative system, caste hierarchy, communal disharmony and domestic violence exposed by the pandemic.

As Abhimanyu (Anand Raaj) appears for the final interview to qualify for induction into the Indian Administrative Service after two earlier attempts, his record reveal that he was suspended after working for two months as panchayat secretary in Andaman village. The story then goes into a flashback to the period of Abhimanyu’s tenure and reveals what led to his suspension.

As Abhimanyu begins serving at his post, he realizes that a powerful landowner family of a higher caste has sabotaged the power and responsibility of village chief Jhallu Mushar, who works as a manual labourer and is hardly aware of the importance of his position. Abhimanyu begins to receive threats from landowner Ranvijay Singh as he raises his voice for the development of the village and demands Jhallu’s participation in it.

Meanwhile, the first cases of COVID-19 are reported in the country. Sensing Abhimanyu’s adamant and fearless attitude, Ranvijay hatches a plan to corner him by proposing to build a quarantine centre at the remote village where it is difficult to make any medical facilities accessible because, for decades, no attempt has been made to build a proposed connecting bridge.

After initially resisting the plan, Abhimanyu vows to fulfil his duty as in-charge of the quarantine centre. There are some hilarious sequences involving the simple village folk speculating about the coronavirus and getting scared and trying to flee the centre.

As Abhimanyu rejects all excuses while bringing people with mild symptoms and those who had been in close contacts with COVID-19 patients to the quarantine centre, villagers get into brawls over matters of caste and community.

The situation becomes serious when Ranvijay’s brother Rahul is quarantined at the centre and made to obey the strict rules. Rahul is furious when Abhimanyu refuses to entertain his demand to be allowed to celebrate his birthday. Eventually, Ranvijay decides to teach Abhimanyu a lesson.

Anand Raaj, who also happens to be the writer of the film, has included several subplots within the primary narrative led by his character. In one of them, a working woman in Abhimanyu’s neighbourhood faces the pressure of taking care of the entire household during the lockdown as her husband spends his working hours playing ludo. Another, with a humorous twist, promotes gender equality.

Sanjay Mishra is commanding in a brief appearance as a wise boatman who changes the direction of Abhimanyu’s life by inspiring him at the right time to not give up on his dreams and to continue his fight to change the course of a losing game into victory.

Anand Raaj perfectly suits the character of a true leader with vision, conviction and strength of character. The rest of the cast deliver strong performances, making the film thoroughly worth the time.

Though the cinematic conception comes across as weak, the content overpowers the amateur technical aspects. Indrajit Singh’s camerawork focuses on the details while highlighting the critical theme of the film. Akshay Kumar’s editing skills retain the consistency of the pace while keeping the film compact. The music by Firoz Khan and Rishabh Panchal does not hamper the smooth progression of the plot.

The film is unapologetically critical of corruption and the evils of power politics and social media platforms. Andaman also offers several life lessons with meaningful dialogues, but the content doesn’t feel heavy. While the writer has treated serious issues with humour, Abhimanyu’s narrative, too, ends with a twist, turning him into a heroic figure from an ordinary man with a vision to change society.

Andaman was premiered on the platform Opentheatre on 22 November.