The Successors
 | This article is incomplete because it is pending further input from participants, or it is a work-in-progress by one author. Please comment on this article's talk page to share your input, comments and questions. Note: To contribute to this article, you may need to seek help from the author(s) of this page. |
| The Successors Stylised as: the successors Himavantan: Anugāmī'ō અનુગામીઓ Gaullican: les successeurs | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Zebi Husan |
| Written by | Ikleen Behl |
| Screenplay by | Harman Saroha |
| Produced by | Janav Patel |
| Starring | Keerat Naga Ikmhan Jhutti Ishya Savalia Sanjog Rawala |
| Cinematography | Kul Sivia |
| Edited by | Sadhu Singh |
| Music by | Dharam Mandeer |
Production company | ZH Films |
| Distributed by | Hala Studios |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 107 Minutes |
| Country | Ajahadya |
| Languages | Gaullican Himavantan Estmerish |
The Successors, stylised as the successors (Gaullican: les successeurs, Himavantan: Anugāmī'ō અનુગામીઓ) is a 2020 Ajahadya satiric black comedy, directed by Zebi Husan, written by Ikleen Behl and starring Keerat Naga, Ikmhan Jhutti, Ishya Savalia and Sanjog Rawala. The film depicts the end of the Great War in Ajahadya and the attempts to prevent the country's surrender. Depicting the events as a farce, the film has been controversial within Satria, and has been banned in Subarna for its portrayal of Muhammed Jahangir Sarkar, the first president of the country.
The film is notable for featuring large parts spoken in Gaullican, Himavantan and Estmerish, and smaller parts in Etrurian, Togot and Zubadi, making it one of the most multilingual films produced in Ajahadya. When asked for why she chose to structure the film with multiple languages, the director, Zebi Husan, said that "to have everyone speak one language would be to whitewash history. All the figures featured were polyglots, and what languages they did and did not share with one another were significant to how events unfolded according to records and memoirs and the unfolding farce of events. I also appreciated the irony of anti-colonial leaders being forced to use the languages of colonists to communicate in some specific cases."
Plot
In 1934, the last Raja of Ajahadya, Shahu II (Ikmhan Jhutti), informs his inner circle of advisors, F.M Zalim Kumar (Keerat Naga), the Minister of War Srijan Chadda (Navjot Agre) and the Raja's wife, Rani Paravi Hathiwala (Ishya Savalia) of his intent to surrender to the Grand Alliance to avert further loss of life. The four bicker over the need to surrender against the consequences for doing so for the fate of the monarchy. Against the advice of his advisors to continue the fight, the Raja resolves to announce Ajahadya's unconditional surrender over the radio the next day.
Zalim Kumar, Srijan Chadda and the Rani separate to carry out their own plans as the Raja struggles to record a message of surrender for broadcast. Kumar has loyal troops moved to arrest everyone at and guard the main radio station in the capital to prevent the broadcast. Chadda approaches the commander of the Raja's bodyguard, Jalander Sarai (Sanjog Rawala) and has him confine the Raja and the Rani to their quarters in fear of an assassination plot and prevent the broadcast. The Rani before her confinement instructs her bodyguard to have a tape created from the Raja's previous speeches announcing Ajahadya's intent to fight to the last man.
The Raja passes the surrender tape to Sarai and, claiming that it is a declaration to fight on, passes it to Sarai. The tape, which is recorded in Zubadi, is not understood by the Himavantan-speaking Sarai, and so he takes the tape to the radio station. The Rani's fabricated tape is likewise taken to the radio station. Kumar's troops order neither tape be broadcast, as they are both unlabelled they cannot tell which is from the Rani and which is from the Raja.
Sarai returns to the palace to gather troops to storm the radio station to broadcast the tape, but is ordered not to by Kumar who asks to listen to the tape first. Kumar, who does speak Zubadi, informs Sarai that the tape is an order to surrender from the Raja and orders him to destroy it. Sarai refuses, and keeps the tape, saying it would be treason to destroy it even if he disagrees with the contents. The Raja orders Sarai to escort him and the Rani to the radio station, which Sarai does, and Kumar's soldiers do not block Sarai and the Raja from entering. The Raja sits down to give a live broadcast, but the Rani hands a radioman her tape to play over the Raja's speech instead.
The Rani's fake tape is a garbled mess of static, and the radio operators blame the weather for jamming the transmission. The Raja orders Sarai to give the radiomen his recorded tape to broadcast the next day. Sarai does so. After the Raja leaves, Kumar orders his soldiers to find the unlabelled tape and destroy it, but due to the disorganised and chaotic nature of the radio station's collection of tapes, misidentify a different tape as it and destroy that instead. The next morning, the radiomen take the tape out from where it was hidden and broadcast the Raja's message, announcing the country's unconditional surrender to the Grand Alliance over the radio.
The film ends with Kumar, Chadda and Hathiwala discussing something, before walking into the throne room.