War films in Hindi
cinema are fueled by strong patriotic vehemence rather than an assemblage of true facts for a subtle edge of seat thriller. We have examples of excellent war
films which have stood the test of time; May it be Terrence Mallick’s Thin Red
Line or Oliver Stone’s Platoon. Films on armed forces are expected to plunge
into their psychological, emotional as well as physical realms of the men in uniform and keep
audiences psyche hooked to theirs. However in Indian cinema, patriotic dialogues
are thrown at higher decibels to create high spirits and sense of thrill. As
character Major Vikram Shergill asks his commandos in Uri: the Surgical Strike “How’s
the josh”. The answer is pretty much high for both the people on the screen as
well as the ones sitting in the audience. Uri: the Surgical Strike had all the ingredients for a
crisp procedural but it follows a more mainstream and a banal approach. Vicky
Kaushal is the strong muscle of the film and he fits in the role like an
electric plug to the socket. He is convincing as Major Vikram Shergill, tall
muscular man with guts of steel and having requisite tactical skills as we meet
him on his first mission on Indo Myanmar border as he leads the operation to
wipe off the terrorists. He is the character, audiences could strongly root
for.
Uri: the Surgical
Strike oscillates continuously from facts to fiction. There is a hunger for
revenge amongst the protagonist, the protagonist is given two fist fight scenes
(something which Bollywood is not ready to shed off) and punchy dialogues.
These are elements which make up almost every Hindi film and Uri was not an exception.
However, it could easily have been one taking into consideration the
inspirations it draws. Major Vihaan Shergill takes up a desk job so that he can
take care of his mother afflicted by Alzheimer’s. He realizes his true calling
back to the battlefield when a relative gets killed in a terrorist attack; a concept
of vengeance which has been twisted & turned and thrown back at audience
many times in past. The Pakistani terrorists enter the army barracks and shoot
the officers in their sleep; an attack which charges up the Ministry to resort
to extreme measures of a surgical strike. The film draws strong impressions
from Zero Dark Thirty and Hurt Locker (both helmed by Oscar winning director Kathryn
Bigelow). Paresh Rawal plays Govind sir whose character has resemblance to
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval. He leads the operation from the Ministry and he is completely convincing. Director of photography
Mithesh Mirchandani has done a fantastic job with scouting appropriate
locations to add visually to the film. However, film lacks immensely at the
scripting stage. The flow is unnecessarily divided into chapters which remain
far from being dichotomous. They share a similar tone which itself negates the
purpose of creating a chapter wise execution. The makers have done a terrific
job with action making it slick and ruthless. With predictable outcomes, there
is still a sense of dread as we see executions and explosions in night vision
as men on mission go systematically from one safe house to other gunning down the
terrorists.
Kirti Kulhari and Yami Gautam do not have much
of the heavy lifting to do as they serve to be mere cardboard characters. The factual
information is clearly distorted and at points even narrative feels a bit bizarre.
We see an intern in a DRDO who has a lion’s share to play in the surgical
strike when Govind sir discards the DRDO approved gadgets over his bird-like surveillance drone (something which is hard to digest if we take into account massive
planning that actually went in for the surgical strike). The film is a treat for
mainstream audience who wish to go in for another strong dose of patriotism.
However for someone who wants to actually delve into the specifics and facts of
surgical strike, a documentary would suffice.
2.5 on 5 stars
