So last month I watched Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh (2025) with friends (after like a month of bad puns, likening it to my advisor) and it was great, minus it being like almost fully fictional. I liked the performance of Simon Paisley Day as General Dyer. So I went ahead and downloaded another of his films- Born a King (2021).
He plays a small but still kinda -ve role as some kind of secretary to Lord Curzon who favours Lawrence of Arabia (Fun coincidence, the actor playing him is named Laurence.) The film is based on the then Prince Faisal of the Emirate of Nejd. The third and somewhat neglected son gains some prominence after the death of his eldest brother. He, as a 14-year-old and second in line to the throne, is sent to London to negotiate. The film is mainly based on that maiden Saudi diplomatic tour. Overall, the film is great but I fear toes the official Saudi line. Blood and Oil: Mohammed bin Salman's Ruthless Quest for Global Power by Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck (I write a one quote review here) notes how MBS is using Cinema et al to change the image of Saudi worldwide. While at books, the other book on Saudi Arabia I read is Vision or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads by David Rundell extensively refers to Lawrence of Arabia in the subject material as well as in its bibliography. Now Lawrence is on team Hussein as the King of Arabia comes out somewhat anti Ibn Saud from this film and that needs to be factored out while reading Rundell's book. Simon Paisley Day (Kesari's General Dyer)'s character is I-forgot-this-name who works for Lord Curzon and seems to be on Lawrence of Arabia's side. He is the nemesis of Philby (I don't recall that name in either of the books but he seems important, ergo Cinema too is a medium of learning). Both Philby and Lawrence of Arabia turned out to be Arab versions of our own Naboobs, Philby even converting to Islam.
Leading from Naboobs to our India, the phrase Divide and Rule seems to be not just a uniquely Indian anti-colonial line but also used a lot in the film. Some reference is made to the British trying to divide and rule the House of Saud, examples being between Prince Faisal and the advisor from Constantinople and inducing maltreatment of what is totally-not-a-slave-as-he-is-once-referred-to-as-a-brother by Faisal, an African. But in both cases, the division plays out to Faisal's favous, so its all good I suppose? Should have put more effort into showing this. But then Arabs are not victims of colonization in the same sense we are. Or in fact they are not liberated from its clutches in the sense we are. The Emris and Sultans they have are but equivalent to our class of collaborating "Princes". On this as well as the slave thing, but views are coloured by a recent viewing of Aadujeevitham (2024) (Nice Malayalam film, do watch).
Anyway, nice film, should watch.
