A film that dares to highlight subjects no one wants to touch these days, given the kind of widespread paranoia there is about religion and the social compact some of its dodgy practitioners force upon believers, needs an automatic pat on the back. ‘Dharam Sankat Mein’ opens with promise, bringing up concepts that need to be spoken about, but you soon realize that the film is not as radical as it could have been, which should have been clear with its choice of title.
Based upon British film ‘The Infidel’, the film opens with Dharam Pal (Paresh Rawal) discovering a long-hidden truth about himself. It turns his beliefs, about himself and others, on their head. Suddenly, all is not what it has been. How will he deal with it? How will this truth impact his family and friends?
Hindu Dharam Pal’s embracing of his Muslim neighbour (Annu Kapoor) and the interactions they have forms the crux of the film, and some of it is funny and close to the bone. But then the narrative descends into the same old territory: Annu Kapoor being made to clunkily rant about ‘watan’, and ‘patriotism’, and Paresh Rawal being shown faintly risking his staunchness by dissing a ‘dhongi baba’ (Naseeruddin Shah hamming it up to the max).
