120 Bahadur movie review: Farhan Akhtar-starrer is a well executed war drama

Director Razneesh GhaiActors Farhan Akhtar Sparsh WaliaRating 45The protagonist of this pictureleading the eponymous 120 Bahadur is Major Shaitan Singh That name obviously strikes a thought in the viewer As it does with the jawans hersquos leading in the IndoChina war that this film is set inThe soldiers round up around their boss in a scene guessing the etymologyIn the sense of why would parents name their newborn ShaitanDevil after all The guess work includes the fact that he mustrsquove been a naughty infant or that a teacher actually named him so etcThe hero still doesnrsquot tell you why hersquos named Shaitan The scene is left as is The curiosity continues Which is just the way as it should be rather than movies that explain everythingThis one in fact hardly burdens you with detailed contextbackdrop to the IndoChina relationswar itself besides an opening narration by Amitabh Bachchan with stock footage of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru suggesting that there was an expressed friendship between the two neighbouring nations once followed by fatal betrayalIndia indeed lost the expansionist 1962 China war 120 Bahadur is about a battle that she did win while heavily outnumbered against an estimated 3000 Chinese soldiers at a particular post in Ladakh Who were these 120 BahadursAs you can see they belonged to the Ahir community from the plains unused to subzero temperatures and the harshly Himalayan terrain This is widely knowncelebrated as the Battle of Rezang La of November 18 1962Itrsquos preserved in public memory enough that I find myself extensively ChatGPTGoogling as would youmdash on both the pastoral Ahir community that ascribes its lineage to the legend of Lord Krishna and the battle they fought as Charlie Company under 13 Kumaon RegimentThatrsquos what great movies do Including war films whether that be Dunkirk on WWII or Platoon for Vietnam War They ignite supreme interest 120 Bahadur is not an exceptionFarhan Akhtar plays the said Major Shaitan Singh He also made Lakshya 2004 on the 1999 IndoPak Kargil War similarly shot in Ladakh He was the director then Hersquos the lead actor now and has been a multihyphenate since including an onstage rockstarWhat you find inspiring about him as a performer regardless is how he confidently employs his uniqueness whether that be the husk in his voice or understated mannerisms to own his talent and simply put it out the best he can Working his way around without overthinking the receptionYou can tell that at least hersquos engrossed Yoursquore drawn to Major Shaitan Singh to whatever extent as an audience because hersquos feeling the role You sense it Hersquos had a decent run as an actor henceExcept for certain films especially those not produced by him the likes of Lucknow Central 2017 where he looks lost as a result 120 Bahadur is by itself a remarkable production mdash tightly edited handpicked ensemble cast firstrate sound design the works mdash by his own company ie Excel along with producer Amit ChandrraThis is essential for a movie of this genre since itrsquos all about the execution isnrsquot itThe idea is already known Take Lakshya It means goal In the very first shot you watch the lead Hrithik Roshan in the Army now so that goal has been visibly accomplishedLikewise 120 Bahadur opens with a wounded radiooperator Sparsh Walia mdash yoursquore sure so ahead of time that hersquos the sole survivor mdash narrating the story of CCompany at Rezang LaWhat happens next hence is not the point How it happens is wholly where the magic residesAlso as anybody on Instagram will tell you point the camera anywhere in the picturesque Ladakh the images speak to you anyway What they tell becomes crucial in this caseIn that vein while the soldiers are on a warpath the battle is viewed from one side alone the script steers clear of bombastic delulu for selfpridepatriotism You can equally gauge the price of war protecting the ldquosar zameenrdquo top plot of the national mapMore so an intense hate for the other mdash that professional armies rarely indulge in mdash is not the emotion you emerge from the theatre withMaybe wishing to join the Army as kids who watched Lakshya did or Vishnuvardhanrsquos underrated Shershaah 2021 or to be with the Air Force as for those from an earlier vintage who loved Govind Nihalanirsquos Vijeta 1982Yup Thatrsquos still a positive sentimentSpeaking of past films there are two I did watch as homework for 120 Bahadur if you may And this is way better than both although comparisons are absolutely unnecessaryThe first being Chetan Anandrsquos Haqeeqat 1964 with multiple Majors Captain Brigadier and soldiers along with local romance that provided a broader overview of the 1962 SinoIndian WarIt beats me still how the top actors Dharmendra Balraj Sahni etal along with Anand and his crew pulled off that wideangled war film in the inhospitable Ladakh back in the early rsquo60sThe other picture I speedwatched Dhaakad 2022 which is Razneesh Ghai the 120 Bahadur directorrsquos debut Now Dhaakad to be fair is snazzy looking but silly tonedeaf and dumbBut itrsquos a proper mainstreammadactioner which wouldrsquove probably landed Ghai besides the script Rajiv G Menon this jobBy now wersquove got as close to watching war as a lived experience as Sam Mendesrsquos 1917 2019 that itrsquos impossible to turn back from it Also if you recall actualYouTube footage of Indian and Chinese soldiers at it with their elbows legs and fists in Galwan Valley June 2020Given all that the last 2030 minutes of 120 Bahadur and I shouldrsquove clocked it involving shelling machineguns handtohand combat and the sheer mania of the moments that grip and jolt you simultaneously remain the most engagingly realistic liveaction scenes of war that Irsquove watched in a Hindi film And I mean ever