The Ghazi Attack

When was the last time Bollywood thought of not going by the winning formula of Song-dance-revenge formula or following the way of being over intellectual? The Ghazi Attack marks the beginning of a new era, heralded by the young directors like Sankalp Reddy. Tense from the word go, the movie is a captivating tale of patriotism,one's duty to his nation and victory at the cost of sacrifice.Throughout the movie you root for the Indian forces and for the tri-colour. Unfortunately this movie has not minted money like the way Bahubali or other movies have done.But for a connoisseur of movie, it is a wonderful gift. go and enjoy with your family.This is going to stay in your heart for long.

First review of the year, second month of the year and probably the most celebrated movie of the year not in terms of financial budget, but in terms of story line up. Since years, I saw lots of Hollywood movies on War on all three wings of Defense Forces. Famous Bollywood movies were, Border, Lakshya, LOC Kargil and many more (I don't remember much). All these years I was thinking why there is no movie based on Indian Navy and today I got the answer to this question. First thing first, few key points to be noted: 1. Well scripted story. 2. True patriotic movie, would have released on 26th Jan or 15th Aug. 3. Technicality of submarine is well explained on screen. 4. Hats off to VFX director who made look things utmost real. 5. Please appreciate the people who were involved in the development of submarine prototype.

Now not in detail, but overview on movie. The Ghazi Attack starrer Famous Kay Kay Menon (S21 submarine Capt. Rann Vijay Singh), Rana Daggubati (Lt. Commander Arjun), Atul Kulkarni (Exe. Officer Devraj) and Tapsee Pannu (Bangladeshi refugee). This movie is battling with two other simultaneous releases Running Shaadi & Iraada. This is the first Indian War film at Sea.

Movie starts with the ongoing civil war between East (Now, Bangladesh) and West Pakistan in 1971. As Pakistan wants to put firm hold on Bangladesh, they launch an offensive confidential mission to eliminate INS Vikrant. Few of the intercepts are decode which clearly indicated that Indian Navy will go for search operation only, not on attack mode. So S21 Indian Navy submarine was deployed to monitor the location at Bay of Bengal covering East coast of India. Hence during several search operations they detect nothing but yet they find PNS Ghazi is on some mission to Chittagong even though war wasn't declared from both the sides. So there was a tense situation of ethics, rule book theories and orders.

All characters, dialects, interior were so well crafted that there is mere possibility of finding mistakes. And yes audience of India, they take lots of time in accepting these kind of movies. Kay Kay Menon - superb, Rana Daggubati - making a mark, Atul Kulkarni - support to both mentioned characters, Tapsee Pannu - mere role but justifiable.

Defence forces implies on Leadership skills, Team work, Ethics, Valor, Confidence, Decision taker, Discipline and Patriotic. Because of these warriors only we could spend our day peacefully. Must watch movie for everyone. Movie making is an art, not a joke so respect it and appreciate it if possible. See it on big screen only not on your laptop or mobile devices. STOP PIRACY.

"Bold" "Motivating" "Patriotic" "Must watch" Rating: 4/5

Seldom do we have amazing war dramas made in India. The Ghazi Attack breaks the mould to give us an edge of seat, gripping movie. Not many know about this war and I'm among them. Though the movie is a work of fiction and the events have been dramatized, the premise is the same.

The movie has an ensemble cast consisting of Kay Kay Menon, Atul Kulkarni, Rana Duggabati. All 3 deliver power packed performance which add to the amazingness of the movie. We also get to see how a submarine works with detailed sets of the interiors of a submarine. Most of the other underwater scenes are courtesy special effects which are mildly average to be very frank. The movie is very tight with just a little over 120 minutes and does not feel stretched even a bit.

The movie beautifully shows the internal conflict in between the indian naval officers. It adds to depth of the film . Sankalp Reddy does a fine job considering this is his directorial debut. He lets the movie stay in its genre and does not indulge in mainstream elements to try and sell the movie. Patriotism and nationalism is high in the film as expected. The unique experience the movie offers being an underwater film is reason enough to watch it.

You don't get bored any time. You can enjoy more if you don't know the actual story. The movie builds up good till interval and runs parallel to history, but towards the later half, in process of adding thrill to the original story, the depiction becomes a bit unrealistic and hard to digest and ends up being over-dramatised! Nevertheless, the cast is great. KK Menon is once again phenomenal. Tapsee takes mannequin challenge into the movie. Rana plays fine. Conclusively, the movie can be called a one-time watch for the sake of portraying the pivotal mission triggering 1971 war.

The buzz around the movie was unmistakable. The attempt was first of its kind, and for once, everybody expected a tightly woven tale with worthy gfx in tow. But if one thought that even after a rich history and experience of producing movies since decades + advancements in affordable gfx will finally deliver a tout all time hit, those people need to think again.

The movie starts off nicely. First the baritone of Mr Bachchan, and subsequently the scene involving (Late) Om Puri and Nasser looked like the harbingers of a successful venture. The movie looked en route to a successful journey from the word go. Even after a few minutes had lapsed, one could sense that this is not going let up, as there was very less margin to do so. It had a dash of history, backing of good actors, and tech advancements on its side. But things started to nose dive soon.

While KK Menon looked set to deliver a powerful performance, and ditto for Mr Kulkarni as well, the talent available at hand was not utilized fully. Tapsee Pannu's role could have been managed via an anecdote. The direction just was not able to pull off a nerve wracking thriller expected out of it. Add to it the penchant to include queasy melodrama, and reluctance to learn from existing epic projects, all these became the undoing of a potential hit. There were moments where the direction could have been tighter, and some slick editing would have at least saved the day, but it seemed as if the movie tried hard to include the forced antics. The graphics are good, but do not hold a candle to the ones people are now accustomed to. The maker(s) must have been counting on the emotional + 'its one of a kind' sentiment to see the movie pull itself over the line.

Rana Daggubati does well in bit n pieces, but lacked the aura expected from a defense personnel. Making matters worse, the predictable nature of some of the key scenes stuck out like a sore thumb. They just had to bring in some clichéd stuff and forced suspense.

The audience is now much more mature, and the movie makers have repeatedly failed to acknowledge this fact. The dangerous trend of declaring a movie 'hit' based on box office collection and paid reviews may give such films a fake certificate of success, but unfortunately for the team, such movies will not morph quality-wise in the future and will be panned even more.

I expected a natural progression from the days of 'Lakshya', which was a brilliant movie, but was left sorely disappointed. The Ghazi Attack goes down not mainly due to the weight of a debutante director, but due to the act of pandering to the lowest common denominator.