Rahul Dholakia’s ‘Agni’ has the Faint Glimmers, and the Uncontained Wildfires of Vintage Bollywood

I couldn’t help but be left with the feeling that there’s an enjoyable disaster film somewhere within Rahul Dholakia’s Agni, which surely owes a debt to The Burning Train (1980). There is more than one echo of the Ravi Chopra-directorial, where the spectacle is foregrounded by professional rivalry – Danny Denzongpa and Vinod Khanna’s in the 1980 film; emulated by Pratik Gandhi and Divyenndu’s characters in Dholakia’s directorial.

The innate Bollywood melodrama after an unexpected death, the high-voltage social commentary and righteous anger fuel both spectacles. Both Chopra and Dholakia’s film balance a strong ensemble, offering everyone their moment, and yet Dholakia’s film fails to stick its landing. It might have to do with what Hindi films have become in 2024 – too self-conscious, cautious, and reverential towards any uniform.

There’s a falseness that pervades through the early portions of Agni, where a man takes the aarti (holy flame) around the Parel fire station. The uniforms look crisp, clean – like they’ve just been opened by the prop department. If they’ve been doing this for years, there’s no sign of it on their uniform, or the way they communicate. The exercise drills taking place in the premises look like a part of a recruitment clip. The director’s reverence for firefighters is immediately palpable. Even though they keep mentioning how no one really cares about firefighters, the crew acts like they’re surrounded by cameras from a Bollywood film. There’s a contradiction here, which Dholakia is not able to put to bed even by the film’s climax. It’s a shame, really, because the possibilities for a decent film are right there in Agni.

Agni bemoans that underneath the gleaming tags of being a ‘Maximum City’, Mumbai is a large-scale crematorium/cemetery/burial ground in the making. Such are the pressures of doing business here that almost all safety/security measures can be bypassed to cut corners. Or such convenience can be bought thanks to a rotten-to-the-core bureaucracy, taking after the values of Maharashtra’s stellar politicians (even more timely if you’ve followed the recent state elections). As a result, it’s the firefighters who have to endanger their lives on a daily basis, only because someone chose to remodel a fire exit to seat five more people in a restaurant; so they could earn a bit more. 

I was on board with Vitthal Rao’s (Gandhi) fury against the ‘system’ for a large part of the film. It explored with a light touch in a track featuring Rao and his brother-in-law, supercop Samit Sawant (Divyenndu). Sawant is an affable encounter specialist, rising up the ranks because of  his proximity to his superiors and politicians. Divyenndu never tries to Bachchan-ify the part, which was refreshing.

Sawant is his own man – slippery, plays fast and loose with the rules, living an unduly rich life for an honest cop. And yet, it’s hard not to be charmed by his character. Gandhi and Divyenndu were a riot together in the other Excel film this year, Kunal Kemmu’s Madgaon Express – and there’s something about their timing together that makes Agni come alive. They remind one of Amitabh Bachchan/Vinod Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan/Shatrughan Sinha as rivals – where each is trying to come out on top as the alpha. Their scenes are laced with an element of humour, and Vijay Maurya’s Marathi-infused lines elevate even the most straightforward scenes. 

There are others in Rao’s crew in the Parel fire station – Jazz (Udit Arora), Avni (Saiyami Kher), who reiterate their disgust for the system, where the firefighters are placed an echelon below Mumbai police. According to the film, they don’t get any insurance, their kin don’t get any compensation even after dying in the line of duty, and they’re stationed behind a desk on the day it becomes known that they are ‘high-risk’ individuals (afflicted with morbidities like a lung condition etc). What prompts such people to remain in selfless service, putting their lives on the line for strangers on a daily basis, without the slightest hint of validation or respect?

Also read: ‘All We Imagine As Light’ Is a Sentient Ode to – and a Lament for – the Spirit of Mumbai

Dholakia’s film builds momentum as an action-packed social drama, but takes a jarring turn in its second hour, veering into a bizarre plot twist involving a serial arsonist wreaking havoc on Mumbai. It’s where the film starts to go downhill, culminating in a laughably bad climax. All the angst against the city, bureaucracy and the ‘system’ is diluted by one person’s vengeance against it. It feels like a cop-out climax written in an environment because the film can’t actually critique corrupt politicians, bureaucracy or anyone in power. 

There are a few decent performances in the supporting cast – Sai Tamhankar plays Rukmini, Rao’s dutiful wife. She has a ritual where she keeps a tub of hot water ready when Rao comes home from work, so he can immerse his feet in it, and she can ward off evil. The ritual gets an added level of pathos, when Rao comes back home drunk, after a colleague has just passed away. Jitendra Joshi, plays Mahadev, Rao’s colleague and the chief of the Byculla police station. There are few actors more authentic in Hindi cinema than Joshi, especially when his characters are drinking inside a bar. The way he manages to deliver his lines in the midst of pouring drinks, plonking ice in glasses, listening to the person across him and gulping down drink in one go, is almost like watching a documentary unfold.

Agni has the faint glimmers of a good Bollywood film, but ultimately cowers from taking on the powers that be. As a result, the film makes less and less sense by the time the final set-piece unravels. The shot-taking (cinematography by K.U. Mohanan) in the fire scenes become repetitive after a while. And before we know it, supporting characters disappear from the film without a word, and the whole narrative is ablaze. As the end credits of Rahul Dholakia’s film played, I couldn’t help but think: What if?

*Agni is streaming on Amazon Prime.