The Warrior: Rod's Take
01/06/2002 . Source: Rod MacDonald 

Miramax Films, distribution by Film Four. Certificate 12, subtitles. Director: Asif Kapadia. Cast: Irfan Khan, Puru Chibber, Mandakini Goswami, Sunita Sharma, Noor Mani, Damayanti Marfatia.

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In this mythical medieval tale taking place in the fictitious northern Indian state of Rajastanto, a Hindu Lord holds power over his subjects with the assistance of a band of warriors led by Lafcadia, the main character played by Irfan Khan.

If you're looking for death-defying feats performed by super warriors, much like ‘The Scorpion King’ as reviewed in the last update, then stop right here.

You'll find none of that in this film. This is believable stuff. The pace is slower but the events are more powerful, more emotionally effective.

Lafcadia lives with his son in the semi-desert. It is a quiet, sombre life, free from the violence that awaits him in the main town where tax collections are being made. In the UK and other countries, tax isn't usually a voluntary matter otherwise none of us would pay it.

Evasion is a crime which has harsh penalties and so it was in India all these years ago, except that the penalty then was decapitation. It's observed that Lafcadia doesn't like what he has to do in cutting off a village elder's head merely because the poor chap couldn't pay his tax bill.

The Lord wants an example made of the village. The other warriors look forward to a bit of rape, pillage, destruction and burning are dismayed when Lafcadia doesn't wish to partake of the party spirit, something he'd done in the past many times before. It's in this village that he has a strange Damascene experience - with his sword to the jugular of a young girl, he has a vision of the Himalayan mountains. He also sees his son's amulet around her neck.

From this moment, his life has changed forever. Throwing aside your sword is an easy matter but redemption isn't so simple. Murderous crimes of the past still echo through to the future. The Lord isn't pleased. He says to the other warriors that nobody leaves his service in such a manner. Either his head or yours, that's the choice he gives them.

Finding Lafcadia proved a difficult task so, taking the head of someone resembling him, they present this to the Lord. They also capture the son and ask him to identify his father. This he does but, with shocking casualness, the boy's throat is cut. From the crowd, Lafcadia sees this act. There is no roar of anger, no taking of the sword to cut down the villains, no brutal act of revenge. He is traumatised and only the action of a kindly blacksmith saves him from the warriors.

A journey begins that will take him from the desert to the Himalayan foothills. He meets a young thief, a man he'd made into an orphan many years before, and a blind mystical woman who seems to be able to discern the real nature of people, just by touching their faces. The warriors pursue him, leaving a trail of death. This blood is indirectly on Lafcadia's hands.

There are no special effects in this film but who needs them when the real thing is better. No computer or camera trickery could possibly match the expansive desert, the majestic mountains, the twisting path over which the oxen-driven cart trundles. You see a waterfall in the distance and then, for what seems to be an eternity, the camera moves upwards until the white mountain tops are reached. This landscape is bigger than any human, including the powerful Lord.

High up in the foothills there is a restaurant with outside tables, adjacent to a fast flowing mountain stream, where people are served chapattis and tea. The tables are a bit ramshackle but who cares? Something tells you that you'd love to be there. The young thief and the owner's daughter seem to hit it off and it isn't long before he has his feet under the table too.

There is an end to the journey. Lafcadia's vision begins to make sense but he has to face the last warrior and end the trail of death that emanated from the Lord. We don't have terrible revenge extracted from this tyrant: he'll die eventually, this is certain, but he's as much a part of the system as the peasants and Lafcadia himself. The warrior hasn't tried to change the system. He's tried to get out and, in the white snows of the Himalayan mountains, seeks to atone for his past crimes against humanity.

Does he gain salvation? If so, has the terrible price to himself, his family and the many innocent people on the journey made this a worthwhile exercise? Maybe he would have been better killing himself before it all started but then, it seems that his course of action has been directed by someone or something else.

This is an enjoyable film if a bit unnerving at times. In watching it, I was transported to medieval India for an hour and a half, such is its absorbing nature, and I could identify with the characters who were real people and not two-dimensional cutouts.

If conventional Bollywood isn't your cup of Darjeeling, don't worry, this isn't remotely connected to anything like that. The director is new to the world scene and I think he'll go far.

Rod MacDonald