The Ghazi Attack Review :
Director – Sankalp Reddy
Produced by Anvesh Reddy and Venkatramana Reddy
Studio – PVP Cinema & Matinee Entertainment
Written by Azad Alam
Star cast – Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon, Rahul Singh & Kunal Kaushik
Plot
The film is based on the real life incidence during the 1971 Liberation war of Bangladesh. However, it is still a mystery in what actually caused the PNS Ghazi to sink; while has been greatly disputed by both the countries – Pakistan and India. The Pakistani side has its own argument, which claims that the Submarine was sunk by accidental detonation whilst laying its own mine in order to sink Indian Aircraft Carrier INS Vikrant. As per experts, there’s has been a certain fog of war around this incident because subsequent investigations by our own navy found out that there had been internal explosions inside the submarine. So there’s a certain amount of uncertainty whether it sank because of our naval action or whether of internal explosions. The film is based on this incident with different characters have been played by a number of B Town and other film industry actors.
Review
The efforts of the debutant director Sankalp Reddy has to be appreciated as he has put his sincere efforts in making a film, which delves into the depths of the sea, to embark with a story that is based on a classified mission undertaken by the Indian Navy on the eve of the 1971 war with Pakistan. The film has its heart at the right place, but at times one can feel the over-dramatisation coming out as grey areas in the film giving a messy helmsmanship of the director. A large chunk of the film in the first half focuses more on Captain Singh’s determined hatred for the Pakistanis — as Singh’s young son die at the hands of the Pakistanis in the 1965 India-Pakistan war — and his one upmanship with Verma, which is where the film’s narrative slackens a bit with a lot of uncalled for histrionics, and Kay Kay Menon flounders as an actor, with Devaraj playing the peacenik between two warring commanders onboard a submarine whose sole purpose is to find out the enemy presence in the Bay of Bengal, the second frontier — the first being the India-Pakistan border along the western front — during the 1971 war that saw yet another story of valor unfold, unknown to the Indians because of the classified nature of the operation. However, in the second half of the film that is seen riveting you to your seat is seen giving you the feeling of being within the claustrophobic confines of a submarine.
The nail-biting tension gripping both the sides of the divide as the two submarine commanders strive to outwit and torpedo each other make for a thrilling experience. Most interestingly, director Reddy, backed by its producers one supposes, seems to have consciously decided not to explore any kind of romantic angle and force contrived songs on the viewers. The Ghazi Attack is a riveting telling of a war story and absence of any unwanted distraction is only justified, though one is literally at sea trying to make sense of Tapsee Pannu’s — yes she is a East Pakistani refugee onboard a merchant vessel that is sunk by the Pakistani submarine — presence in this war film. In other words, the film has seen some of the brilliant performances be it the lead actors or the supporting ones. They have worked hard to give the best over the silver screen.
The Ghazi Attack Last Word
Nevertheless, if you love watching a war movie like this, that too about a mission that is mired under the weight of being ‘classified’ and under the sea, the truth about which can surface only exploring the depth of the sea bed, then The Ghazi Attack is a must watch film. Thus it has a good rating to end up.
Rating – 4/5
