Bhuj’s 300 : My quick take on Ajay Devgan’s “Bhuj – Pride of India”
We've always been moved by stories of bravery, especially when they come from unlikely places. During the Indo-Pak conflict in 1971, an enemy air force used US-made Napalm bombs (the same notorious weaponry used in the Vietnam War) to damage our frontline airfield at Bhuj, rendering the runway inoperable.
Due to the fleeing of contractors from the conflict zone, the Base commander was forced to request the assistance of 300 ladies from a nearby town to assist in the repair work. These unsung heroes and brave souls stepped forward and repaired the strip in less than 72 hours, making it operational, and the rest, as they say, is history albeit the glorious one.
Take a bow, Valbai Seghani (who should be called Valbai Sherni) and the other 299 viranganas who didn't wear military fatigues but whose participation was just as valuable as any of our military wins.
Just imagine a situation when the enemy is bombarding recklessly with likes of Napalm bomb which is known to cause more damage it causes by fire post-explosion wherein the temperature can rise to 1200 deg centigrade and with a fear of enemy tank platoon closing in, working in such hostile environment itself is a goosebump worthy plot.
Let us commend the efforts of the director (Abhishek Dudhaiya) and producer (Ajay Devgan) for choosing this valor tale to tell.
But were they able to tell this wonderful story effectively? Unfortunately, my answer is a big No.
This was the director’s maiden venture into movies (earlier he has directed few TV soaps) and his inexperience was visible in the final product, he has turned this beautiful plot into a typical Hindi masala movie with a multi-star cast. Packed with rhetorical dialogs, unwanted song and dance routines, and some creative liberties with characters of Noora Fathi and Sanju baba, no doubt it has many seeti podu moments, but it seems a bit misplaced for me. Main problem with screen play is that Director simultaneously starts many parallel plots of air attack, spies within the camp, Sonakshi’s village life, Sanju baba’s antics, Noora Fathi’s becoming Mata Hari, Sharad Kelkar’s heroics and ultimately the main plot of rebuilding of air strip somehow gets little time.
Few positives for me are, awesome storyline and efforts are taken to work on VFX are laudable (though it is not a Hollywood class VFX, but a much-improved work). On the performance front, Ajay Devgan with anti aircraft gun has repeated his Singham performance spouting jingoistic dialogs effortlessly, Sanju baba plays a local pagi with some Rajnikant like power who could kill hundreds of enemy soldiers with just a pickaxe, Sonakshi plays the leader of women folk who dances together and also re-builds the air strip.
In my view, we all should watch this movie, not that it is a masterpiece, but just get to know and relive the glorious history of our unsung warriors and own desi 300. In Zack Snyder directed 300, King Leonidas tell all his fellow soldiers “Tonight, we dine in Hell”, whereas in Bhuj our 300 viranganas made enemy dine in hell.
Comentários