A challenge with telling a truelife biopic is that it has already been told. But this one - about a freedom fighter's 30-year-long struggle to procure a certificate that validates his past - had a larger contention: will the hardships of getting the freedom fighter's certificate undermine those that he endured to seek independence? On that count, the film manages well by breaking into flashbacks whenever a word or a phrase triggers memories of the past.

'Courage does not always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, I will try again tomorrow'. And the film's protagonist Gour Hari Das (Vinay Pathak, commendable) embodies this spirit. Filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan brings to life an extraordinary tale (yet again after making Mee Sindhutai Sapkal) of a man's determination and uncompromising pursuit of truth that provokes our conscience and releases us from the shackles of rising apathy, that's spread like a pandemic.

A man's struggle for identity can be an absorbing story. Uplifting even, if it is connected with a country's freedom struggle. Gour Hari's 'dastaan', based on the quest of a real-life character, has all the elements that could have made it all this and more, but it comes off flat and dull.

Gour Hari Dastaan - The Freedom File is the kind of film that one would have gladly fallen in love with had it been more engaging. Count the film's inherent strengths: its story is drawn from real life, its protagonist is a unique figure on a remarkable quest, and his plight lays bare the mess we have ended up in as a nation over the 60-odd years that India has been independent.

In a scene towards the end of Gour Hari Dastaan: The Freedom File, there is a silent exchange between a chief minister (Vikram Gokhale) and our hero, Gour Hari Das (Vinay Pathak). It's awkward - for the CM, who is squirming in discomfort - and painful for Das, who has waited 32 years for this moment.