Chekhov’s gun — Journey of a thousand stories (story 2)
The most compelling stories, I believe are the ones that originate from the storyteller’s roots.
If you’re into literature, you would’ve come across the term ‘Chekhov’s gun’. Named after the famous Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, the term Chekhov’s gun refers to a method of foreshadowing, where an explicit hint is given early on in the play, about a character or an object that holds its importance later on in the second or final act. The term is derived from Anton Chekhov’s famous quote,
“If there’s a rifle on stage in the first act, then it absolutely must go off in the second or third act.”
This method of foreshadowing has been followed meticulously in various films. A fine example of the Chekhov’s gun is the blind rabbit in the movie Andhadhun.
The rabbit appears in the very first scene, after which the movie carries on in a completely different direction with a series of intriguing events that during the film, the audience have completely forgotten about the blind rabbit. The rabbit later appears in the climax, being a major part of the showdown. But Kamal Haasan has used this method in his screenplay for Hey Ram in quite a conventional, yet interesting way. In Kamal Haasan’s ‘Hey Ram’ the Chekhov’s gun is the character Amjad Ali Khan played by Shahrukh Khan. He appears in the beginning of the first act for about 13 minutes and is not seen in the next 2 hours of the film. The movie is 3 hours and 20 minutes long by the way.
The film is set during the time of partition. Amjad Ali Khan is a fellow archaeologist and friend of Saket Ram (Kamal Haasan). In the first act, they are found working at the excavation sites of Mohenjo Daro. When the excavation is called off by their British boss, they return to Karachi. Amjad is a happy go Pathan, who loves to drink and party. Saket, Amjad and their industrialist friend Manohar Lalwani (played by Saurabh Shukla) are found enjoying the party for one last time before parting ways. The inseparable three musketeers are not seen together in the movie after that.
The audience is engulfed into the life of Saket Ram, witnessing one of the finest written character arcs in Indian cinema. By the end of the first half, we see Saket Ram as a transformed person. A transformation from a secular, liberal youth to a cold-blooded murderer seeking revenge, whose goal is to kill Gandhi. The audience have gotten into the character’s conflict. From losing his wife (played by Rani Mukherjee) in the Calcutta riot, to murdering people in revenge, his mental instability, and his plot to kill Gandhi. Amidst all the chaos we have almost forgotten that a character called Amjad existed in the movie. Kamal Haasan was able to achieve that by not bringing him up the entire time in any form, not even in a dialogue.
In the second half of the movie Saket develops an affection towards his new wife (played by Vasundhara), who believes in the Gandhian way of life, which becomes the seed to his new internal conflict. The events that follow, makes him doubt the righteousness of his intention to kill Gandhi. When the family reveals that his wife is now pregnant, Saket Ram leaves an apology letter for his wife and heads to Delhi to kill Gandhi and fulfil his destiny. In Delhi, again a series of events lead Saket Ram to an area where the population is predominantly Muslim. There he finally meets his long-lost friend, Amjad Ali Khan.
Amjad, being the expressive man he is, hugs Saket in joy. Saket is not able to hug him, nor is he able to keep his joy unexpressed. The conflict that began with his wife is now blown out of proportion when he meets his beloved friend Amjad — The Chekhov’s gun, now pointed at Saket Ram.
Amjad understands that Saket has turned into an Islamophobic Hindu extremist. But he chooses not to give up on his friend. He saves him from the rioters in the area while still arguing with him about the side he has chosen. Amidst the existing chaos, the area gets surrounded by Hindu extremists. Amjad and Saket are now surrounded by a Hindu mob. Saket tries to hide Amjad’s identity to save him from the mob, but Amjad refuses. When one of the mob members attack Amjad, Saket opens fire at the Hindu mob.
By the end of the final act, Amjad dies, leaving his widowed wife, mother, and son at the care of Saket Ram. Saket Ram finally visits Gandhi to ask for forgiveness, where Gandhi is shot down by Nathuram Godse.
In this parallel history screenplay, where the audience is almost sure of the protagonist killing Gandhi, the Chekhov’s gun goes off out of nowhere to give the audience an unanticipated showdown. Shahrukh Khan’s role as Amjad Ali Khan is not a cameo as most people claim. He is very much part of the screenplay as any other lead character in the movie. The wit of Kamal Haasan to use a star like Shahrukh Khan as an impactful tool for storytelling, is what makes him one of the greatest filmmakers in Indian cinema.
Although I do not share the same page as the film’s political narrative, it happens to be one of my favourite Tamil movies. This gem of a screenplay is indeed a great case study for aspiring filmmakers to enhance their screenwriting abilities. A movie made with vision, that showed Indian filmmakers that we can make world class movies, by extracting stories from our roots.
