'Shershaah' Movie Review: In tears man!

ShershaahOn Amazon Prime VideoDir Vishnu VaradhanCast Sidharth Malhotra Kiara AdvaniRating 355Perhaps Ive realised this only while watching Shershaah But theres something to a film which isnt burdened by what the audience must expect at the end They already know it This is the story of Param Vir Chakra Indian Army Captain Vikram Batra who lost his life fighting the 1999 Kargil WarThe knowledge or inevitable anticipation of that moment though mdash manipulative as that might well be and which movie is not mdash lends a certain visceralemotional quality to at least a couple of scenes in this picture that I found myself completely tearyeyedWatch VideoThe last time Capt Batra calls his fianceacutee on a satellite phone from the battlefield mdash having successfully led a key campaign to wrest back a mountaintop Pt 5140 mdash hes jubilant of course While you know this is not the end This review should end here though What more should you expect from a film of this nature mdash that it moves you to tears after allThe first time in fact was when I had seen the trailer of this film in Drass itself not too far from Tiger Hill among soldiers and officers of 13 JAK Rifles that Batra himself belonged to with his commanding officer now Lt Gen YK Joshi in attendanceAlso Read Sidharth Malhotra Batra familys is the only review Im nervous aboutThis disclaimer is essential Otherwise the distance between Army and indeed those on behalf of whom they fight wars citizens I guess is such that whether we like it or not soldiers do turn into dehumanised statistics before theyre forgotten eventually This film considerably bridges that distanceAllowing you immense access into the mannermechanics of counterinsurgency operations when nation states arent formally at war and soldiers are patrolling still Further focusing equally on the size of casualties in the armed forces when at war This isnt simply a chestthumping piece on valour alone What doesnt change regardless of the flag you march behind is that a war will always be about old men talking and young men dying Why should Kargil have been an exception To be fair this film on that subject doesnt come across as particularly prowar eitherAnd thats probably because the patriotism on screen isnt so exceedingly loud and misdirected that you wanna go thrash the lsquoenemies yourself You just know that these men had toAlthough frankly none of the above were my chief worries before clicking on Shershaah Ill tell you what was mdash the lead character himself If youve heardread about him enough the first thing youll realise about Capt Batra is mdashbesides that he had an identical twin brother Vishal a girlfriend he loved deeply Dimple CheemaKiara Advani and both are around mdash he was a fullon lsquofilmy man Or what in films theyll call a very theatrical sort of personalitySome of the ldquofilmiestrdquo moments in this film titled after Capt Batras codename are actually the most factual moments from his life Whether that be him drawing blood from his finger to place as sindoor on his girlfriends forehead Him telling his friend ldquoIll come back with a flag mdash whether flying or draped in itrdquo Im guessing even the dialogue about how you ldquolive by chance love by choice and kill by professionrdquo He was a dildaar Punjabi boy in his early 20s for Gods sake what do you expectNow imagine transposing such a character into whats already a fullon attempt at a mainstreamBollywood war biopic To be fair its all there but hardly underlined in such a way that you cringe for a sec The credit for that clearly belongs to the writer Sandeep Shrivastava but obviously way more the director Vishnu Varadhan who makes his tonally consistent Hindi film debut with this battle cry which is lsquoJai Maa Durge for 13 JAK by the way Actor Sidharth Malhotra plays Capt Batra Partly dressed like DarrAnjaams Shah Rukh Khan in his college days which makes sense for the 90s setting mdash hes wholly a reckless yet vulnerable lieutenant when out on the warzone He looks a fair combination of both And very different from Hrithik Roshan in Lakshya who was also partly based on the same characterMuch as the film is centred on Malhotra alone which helps with a tight running time unlike say Border or LoC this is still a war movie out and out That youve got to foremost judge for its action Stefan Richter Sunil Rodrigues Which is naturalexhilarating enoughBut as much in this case for the location Shershaah is set and shot in Kargil where the war took place and that has no geographical parallel in a real sense The authenticity shows And we indeed saw it back then as well since Kargil was also Indias first televised war Which is how in 1999 we actually heard Capt Batra go ldquoYeh dil maange morerdquoThis is unlike Indias most commercially successful lsquowar film yet Uri 2019 about a covert 2016 military operation that Indians still have no clue about and so the filmmakers could easily pull off a fantasy recreation with the IndoPak border placed in Siberia Shershaah feels way more real Earthy even Thats probably why hurts more I guessAlso Read Sidharth Malhotra Knew of Captain Vikram only from afar as a teenager

'Shershaah' Movie Review: In tears man!

Shershaah
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Vishnu Varadhan
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Kiara Advani
Rating: 3.5/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / 'Shershaah' Movie Review: In tears man!

'Shershaah' Movie Review: In tears man!

ShershaahOn: Amazon Prime VideoDir: Vishnu VaradhanCast: Sidharth Malhotra, Kiara AdvaniRating: 3.5/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Shershaah
On: Amazon Prime Video
Dir: Vishnu Varadhan
Cast: Sidharth Malhotra, Kiara Advani
Rating: 3.5/5