Thankfully an irrepressible Ketan Mehta takes-off in flamboyant fashion, mixing art and commerce in equal measure to carve out a vibrant, enlivening narrative that is fortified by an interestingly fleshed out script. The socio-political milieu, the caste and class politics of those times, oppression, personal tragedy, natural calamities, apathy, ridicule, corruption, subterfuge, and even snakebite are brought out stingingly leaving you reverberating with the pain and agony experienced by the victims.
Mehta’s style, while staying true to the story manages to add color and pungency to the experience. The exciting cinematography and effects, a hauntingly brilliant and elevating orchestral score by Sandesh Shandilya, sharply honed larger-than-life performances and thrusting dramatic surges with memorable dialogues by Mohinder Pratap Singh and Shahzab Ahmed keep at bay what could have well been the unrelieved monotony of a man chipping away at a mountain for 22 long years.