White Punjab Movie Review : A raw, riveting story of notorious gangster wars in Punjab

STORY: Kesar and Durlabh gang, active around Chandigarh and its suburbs, are engaged in a bitter rivalry and revenge drama that leads to killing of several important people like a music producer, youth leader, and singer. Their rivalry enters Panjab University student elections too, and leads to the murder of the student leader's niece, worsening the enmity between the two gangs. In the end, this animosity leads to gangsters being killed on both sides, except one, named Head, who lives to old age to narrate the story to the future generation.

REVIEW: Some stories need to be told and White Punjab is one of them. Raw, compelling and fearlessly honest, the story is riveting and maintains a tight hold over the narrative and ambition of the film. A saga of the notorious gang wars in Punjab, the film uses two gangs led by Kesar (Kartar Cheema) and Durlabh (Dakssh Ajit Singh), to highlight a deep-innate rot and nexus between politicians, cops, drug peddlers and gangsters in Punjab. As the two gangs go about settling scores with each other, the film draws from real life instances in Punjab, of gangsters uploading threats to each other on social media, targeting public figures like singers and youth leaders, and jail breaks.

The film marks the acting debut for singer, Kaka who plays Head in Kesar gang and is the right-hand man for Kesar Bai (Kartar Cheema). An unconventional choice to mark his acting debut for a Punjabi singer, who usually settle for romcoms, Kaka has played his role with unusual conviction considering his preferred genre of romance as a singer. Kartar dives deep into Kesar to play a gangster who is principled and loyal to his peers, as he is fierce to his enemy.

The film shows how gangsters are exploited by politicians and cops to further their agendas of winning electoral seats and shows this through Panjab University' student council election. With both gangs vying to back the student leader elect, Robin (Supneet Singh), to help the local politician in leveraging the to win the state election, Robin's school going niece ends up becoming the scapegoat and is murdered in the process. The narrative uses this incident as symbolic to highlight the fact that these men maybe noted gangsters, but inherently these are good men who went astray to fulfil shortcomings of their social standing. Both Kesar and Durlabh are haunted by the death of this little girl.

Dakssh Ajit Singh essays Durlabh genuinely well and straddles the cusp of a man torn between the good and bad, arousing sympathy for his dilemma.

The film ends with the age-old rivalry between Kesar and Durlabh ending with both killing each other inside the jail. Head is the lone survivor in both gangs and has lived till old age, on the promise he gave to Kesar on his death bed.

The music is haunting and befits the pathos of people, both innocent and criminals, being murdered in cold blood.

The film has a strong direction, and the story is tightly promoting the narrative. The screenplay is a little loose at places and tends to lag the pace of the story. However, White Punjab deserves a watch for its guts to depict a nexus that runs deep under the respectable garb of society and in not projecting gangsters as black and white, and instead it humanizes them to let the truth emerge.