A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
Murtaza Ali Khan
Following
last year’s ‘Secrets of Sinauli: Discovery of the Century,’ Manoj Bajpayee reunites
with Neeraj Pandey for ‘Secrets of the Kohinoor’—the second installment of the
discovery+ ‘Secrets’ franchise. Directed by Raghav Jairath, the docuseries
features interviews of historians, diplomats, authors, diamond experts, etc.
such as Irfan Habib, Navtej Sarna, Shashi Tharoor, Danielle Kinsey, Miles
Taylor, Manvendra Kumar Pundhir, J Sai Deepak, and Polisher Pauline Willemse,
among others. Bajpayee yet again serves as the story’s narrator.
Koh-i-Noor or Kohinoor is a
Persian word which translates to Mountain of Light. When Nadir Shah, the
Afsharid Shah of Persia, looted the famous stone from the treasury of the
Mughal Empire he is said to have exclaimed, ‘Koh-i-Noor!,’ on seeing it for the
first time. It is believed that no one can buy Kohinoor as its value is
enormously high that makes it easily the most precious and sought after jewel
on the planet Earth, as evident from the following claim, "If a strong man
were to throw four stones – one north, one south, one east, one west, and a
fifth stone up into the air – and if the space between them were to be filled
with gold, all would not equal the value of the Koh-i-Noor." Evidently,
Kohinoor can change hands only in two ways. It can either be obtained by force
or its ownership can be transferred if it’s obtained in form of a gift. And
that’s how the stone has been passed from one hand to another over the course
of history.
For the longest time, Kohinoor,
one of the most beautiful and largest cut diamonds in the world, has been
shrouded in mysteries and secrets. The discovery+ docuseries ‘Secrets of the
Kohinoor’ retraces the story and controversies around what is perhaps India’s
most prized possession that was wrongfully snatched away from its rightful heir
during the British rule. The two part series also examines the very many
questions about its origins, ever changing ownership, weight and size, and look
and luminosity, among other things. Kohinoor is currently kept at the Tower of
London as part of the British Crown Jewels. The diamond is currently set in the
Crown of the Queen Mother.
The scope of the docuseries
is tremendous as it takes us though our rich history, uncovering the stories of
multiple rulers and their insatiable desire for the Kohinoor which led to destructive
and avoidable wars, triggered tantalizing mind games, and empowered rulers and
ruined dynasties. In doing so it also explores fascinating stories of powerful rulers
whose lives intertwined with the diamond. On one hand we have someone like the
Mughal Emperor Babur who manages to keep himself away from Kohinoor. One the
other, we have Sher-e-Punjab Maharaja Ranjit Singh who just can’t keep Kohinoor
away from his sight. We also come across those kings and queens who managed to
possess it briefly only to lose it eventually. There are also those who lost
everything but still couldn’t possess it.
‘Secrets of the Kohinoor’ is
a well made docuseries. It’s heartening to see one of country’s leading
filmmakers like Neeraj Pandey so heavily invested in stories such as Sinauli
and Kohinoor. And Major Bajpayee is just the perfect narrator and discovery+ is
just the ideal platform for something like this. One wishes the series would
have used live action re-enactments instead of animations. ‘Age of Samurai:
Battle for Japan,’ a somewhat similar series which came out on Netflix last
year, used the combination of graphic re-enactments, voiceover narration, and
interviews of historians to devastating effect in the epic retelling of the
bloodiest period in Japanese Feudal history. ‘Secrets of the Kohinoor’ had a
great opportunity to do achieve something similar but the unfortunately the
budgetary constraints once again come in the way, depriving us of something
truly wonderful.
A version of this review was first published in The Daily Guardian.
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