Kesari does not have much to offer besides anesthetic violence

Midway from Kesari there is a scene where an army appears at the top of a hill, a long row of drums in front. Observing this scene from Saragarhi Fort, Ishar Singh (Akshay Kumar) – with a regiment in command and facing almost certain death – decides that he has time to drum up against the Pathans. He introduces himself with a dhol and begins to hit on it. There is a whole valley between them and at least 50 drummers on the other side, but his game not only reaches them but steals them so much that they stop.

This inept scene gives the kickoff to an hour of non-stop. carnage, while Pathans besieges the fort and is miraculously restrained for a day by 21 Sikhs. This battle actually took place: in 1897, the 36th Regiment of the British Sikh Army repulsed a major attack force composed of tribal men (10,000 in the film) at Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Fort Saragarhi was important in establishing a line of communication between two larger British forts on both sides. By the time reinforcements had been sent, the 21 men had been killed and the fort lost, although their last fight was easier to recover.

Throughout the film, director Anurag Singh opposes the two forces. It's odd that he works so hard to paint the attackers so negatively. Pathans fight badly, are disrespectful and untrustworthy; Sikhs are brave and speechless. Pathans are sadistic and cruel; Sikhs provide water to the wounded of both armies. Though pious, Ishar Singh and his men are broad-minded enough to help build a mosque in a nearby village. The Pathan leader, on the other hand, is a religious fundamentalist. He talks about jihaad and, at some point, the chief of a leader asks him why he continues to invoke God in military affairs. In a shameful scene, he orders the beheading of a woman while singing prayers – a bit of caricature that exposes the film's deleterious policy.

The Sikh Regiment is obsessed with manhood. The term mardangi returns several times. There are jokes about marital relationships and the playful pbad from one man to another causes a panic reaction. In contrast, the best shooter in the Pathan army is made up and effeminate. It is worth remembering that even Padmaavat acted in the same way as "the Muslim invader" with Jim Sarbh's polybadual general.

We spend enough time with the 21 men who were preparing before the battle. Kumar is the only known actor, scenes inevitably come back to him, but there is a realistic camaraderie between the actors that could have become something in a smarter movie. However, Kesari becomes incredibly violent and increasingly monotonous. Singh derives most of the action cleanly and unpretentiously. But there is no variation, just a series of bloody shooting and stabbing, and the effect is numbing instead of being visceral.

Third Hindi war film this year after Uri and Manikarnika . Unlike these two, the homeland is not as central a concern as Sikh pride. Kesari ] was not made in Punjabi. The concerns are punjabi, the characters are from there, but the spoken language is equal parts Hindi and easily understandable punjabi. It may be India's most profitable star (hidden under a gigantic beard), but it's hard to imagine why a non-Sikh audience – even in the extreme state in which the nation was Whipped – would be interested in such a dull and monochromatic film. We must pay tribute to these 21 men, but this free and reductive film is not.