Reviews

The movie is absolutely rubbish right from the start with rescue mission. There's zero contextual relevance. The entire rank, orders, chain of command- throw all of the out of the window. Fraternizing with junior officers.

Of course nothing is Bollywood without irrelevant song and dance sequences.

If you want to see a movie about Air Force- there's top gun. And there's dunkirk. And there's Hurricanes.

Tejas is a trainee pilot and 30 minutes on, she's off on a rescue mission in a jet fighter plane no less. A very quick transition from a propeller training aircraft to a Mach 2 fighter.

This should be a constant reminder that the same person of nonexistent talent should not direct, write and develop screenplay.

Somehow, Ashish Vidyarti finds himself in the middle of BS like this.

Avoid it like a rash.

The premise- there's been a sexual assault. And a professor is sentenced to 7 years on basis of dna and testimony of a drunk witness.

So apparently this is a habitual offender which only comes up in the last 15 minutes.

Now if dna sampled are collected then this should have been revealed at the start. Unnecessary suspense. The idea that the prisoner Nishant would spin up an elaborate scheme to launder money, and entrap a dna testing facility and find someone to take a fall ... right out an Agatha Christie-esque fantasy.

The audio which sounds like it was recorded separately and then mixed in with the video gives it a decoupled feeling. Ambient sounds are missing and hence any feel for reality. At least the original track should be recorded live.

Seemed like dragged out soap with unnecessary slo-mo actions. Could be edited down to an hour or 90 minutes.

There's Sam Maneksaw whose ribbons look like a result of a middle school art project.

The main character Balram has no sense of discipline or leadership or awareness that he is leading men into war. But this is par for Indian movie heroes who find themselves in the role out of entitlement rather than any ability to act or even understand the character.

The character of captain Balram is poorly developed and the acting is very sub par. The first 40 minutes could have been edited down to 5. On top of that, as is expected of Bollywood, there's the romancing a Russian interpreter and song and dance numbers in the midst of an attempt at enactment of a historical event.

The lack of discipline portrayed is splattered all over including when a new major comes to takeover. The snide comments coming out of lieutenants within earshot of a captain should be an offense in peace time. More so on a front during hostilities.

All in all - rubbish.

Overall- it's a clever plot. To take down a criminal, set another criminal at him. However the plot is not developed with any amount of maturity or sophistication.

The two main characters - Raju (Dilquar Salman) and Kannan are also friends who have a falling out over drug trafficking. Even after Kannan becomes the kingpin in Kotha - his entire gang is still somehow grounded in knives and daggers. No guns. Convenient for our hero.

And the entire police force is what 5 guys?

The big issue with some movies these days seems to be the lack of natural background sounds in the track. Almost like dialogues are added afterwards. That makes the background soundtrack somewhat detached from the movie.

The idea that a lone wolf can be a terror in lucknow is very far fetched.

All in all - a good idea inadequately developed.

Still better than SRK movies!

The premise: there's elections in tribal region in bastar, chattisgarh. And they are in need of some security in addition to a fairly large contingent of ITBP (the indo-Tibetan border police). So a smaller contingent of about 30 men head of from the kerala armed police battalion.

The entire team seems to have never handled any firearm including the commanding officers.

The entire team seems to be incompetent and poorly trained. All of them are scared.

It is not even a coming of age exercise for them. They seem just as incompetent and incapable of making decisions when leaving.

The need ammunition having arrived there with 10 cartridges each. The additional ammunition being sent is accompanied by another two incompetent idiots. And the ammunition is promptly stolen in transit.

I don't understand how a state armed police force can be so poorly equipped, trained and motivated.

There's a minor thread about the Maoist insurgency and the local mafia/politicians which should have been explored better for this film to have any value.

Otherwise it is neither a good satire nor much of a comedy.

I know this is a rather old movie. From Bollywood I don't expect a lot. Mindless masala. Where I do expect quality is the NDA. I don't understand how the Indian Army or the NDA could let itself be associated and exploited with such drivel.

If there is a redeeming point to this movie - it is that Devgn got himself a haircut that looks like it belongs there. I didn't think that someone could just get up, dust his butt, and walk into NDA.

Some attention to technical details would have helped. But Bollywood doesn't believe in that. Misogyny, over the top dialogs and generally free of reason. It would have been better to send the dude to a policy academy. The level of dignity and respectability of police force in India wasn't as high as it might be today.

Looking forward to seeing Sam Bahadur and Tejas.

To top things of the major's uniform that Bachchan wears is more in line with a "major" of a local band.

Tejas dialogs promise to be quite uninspired.

The entire backdrop for the (coming of age of an entitled little brat) premise is factual - about Pakistani army regulars infiltrating Kargil sector disguised in civilian clothes. Early into the credits we see two consultants from the Army - a Lt Gen and a colonel.

Yes, I get the idea about "artistic liberties". But the glamorization from Bollywood and the myopic culture brings this down from what could have been a pretty decent movie.

Amitabh Bachchan who is 81 (in 2023) would have been 60 in 2004 when this movie was made - far too old for an active colonel in a combat-exposed post. But that explains why he needed to wear a winter jacket and gloves while everyone else seemed to be in regular summer/fall fatigues.

A colonel also commands a battalion - which according to Wiki - should have 300-1000 soldiers and about 15-20 officers. We barely see 30 people at the outpost. Where is the command chain - Lt colonels, majors, captains, 2nd lieutenants? The raid on the enemy post, the colonel sends 4 officers and 4 privates?? And they take off in a helicopter and land out of the blue in a valley with 3-4 foot tall grass. All the helicopter in-flight looked very CGI.

For the size the outpost might have been commanded by a major? But the Bollys decided Bachchan was too big to be "just a major".

The brigadier here - Amrish Puri (RIP) - was 71 at the time.

If only these directors and producers and casters can pick up actors based more on suitability for the role than name recognition...

And if you are getting advise from the army - can they not provide working choppers for flight scenes as well? And all of the combat soldiers just carried automatic rifles. No mortars, no bandages?

And of course song and dance... All in all a pretty sad effort.

Does this have spoilers? What spoilers??

This seems like an attempt at inspired by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. But just doesn't make an effort at either building up characters reasonably. There are unnecessary and irrelevant side show acts like the god-man and his song & dance sequences, the wife of a character breaking out in dance and lip-syncing, bring a husband's misogynistic disapproval of a career woman, and the all-too-familiar missing/being late to a school performance. If the kid were in elementary school, perhaps the kid would be disappointed.

The kid here is in high-school for goodness sakes.

The entire idea of a RAW agent, wanted to murder, getting out of the country is preposterous. And to South Dakota - protected by who at that point? CIA? Or FBI? Witness protection? Without money?

The use of kids in the movie is also completely irrelevant.

In all, the producers/directors seem very patronizing of the Indian audience like they cannot digest serious material. So they need to bring in childish sidetracks!

You could skip the full first 30 minutes of this brainless excuse. Unbelievable storyline and character build up. The dialog writing is all over the place.

The formula is similar to the mindless Bollywood attempts - need comedy, romance, action, item songs, blah blah. And the voice dialog seems so disjointed with the ambience like it were recorded inside a soundproof studio rather than during the shoot. There is no track from the actual shoot.

The constable is actually in charge at the police station. The CBI officer doesn't bother to carry identification.

The actors in this movie are so starved of good material that they have to show their poor acting along with a very weak story line.

Happens when the entire industry is a sparkling example of nepotism.