The Warrior (2001)

The warrior from the title is “Lafcadia” (Irrfan Khan), an enforcer for the local chieftain who deals with arbitrary brutality those who defy his lord. He also has a young son who is keen on a young girl from a nearby village. Told to crack down on that very village, he only just manages to save the girl - thanks to an amulet she was given by his son. Somehow her presence and the sight of her neighbours being raped and slaughtered causes him to take a long hard look at himself. He concludes that he has had enough of his job and determines to quit. His boss, however, does not agree with his plan and with him in hiding takes things out on his child “Katiba” (Puri Chibber). Now truly without purpose, “Lafcadia” sets off for the mountains of the Himalayas and his home village. Along the way he has to evade the pursuing and persistent henchman “Biswas” (Aino Annuddin); encounters a pensive young wanderer “Riaz” (Noor Mani) and also meets a blind lady (Damayanti Marfatia) who, upon touching his blood-soaked face, becomes suspicious that he may have been the man that killed her beloved father. What’s difficult for our traveller with this question is that he doesn’t actually know. It is quite possible that he might have slain the man. Increasingly conflicted and dejected, what hope for a man now devoid of family and friends as he approaches the snow-capped north? Now if you’re after an action adventure, then the first fifteen minutes or so might sate that appetite, but thereafter this becomes something of a beautifully shot guilt-trip without a great deal of dialogue. The lead character is so completely immersed in his introspection that it can be rather a dull watch and, rather than be called warrior, it might better be called pilgrim, or maybe even ashamed? It is, however, a gorgeous film to look at and serves as travelogue of an agrarian Rajastan where little had changed with it’s feudal and subsistence systems for generations. It doesn’t quite deliver what it says on the can, but Khan delivers quite a poignant performance and it is well worth a watch.