Desi ‘Top-Gun’ with no ‘Jaan‘

Desi ‘Top-Gun’ with no ‘Jaan’ : My quick take on new movie ‘Gunjan Saxena - The Kargil girl’

What could have been a damn inspirational movie was reduced into an insipid drama. It’s once again proven that Bollywood is still taking baby steps in making a convincing biography (recently we saw it in Shakuntala Devi) It’s a classic case of missed golden opportunity.

It’s a first ever woman to join Indian Air Force who went on to play a heroic role in Kargil war when she flew her Cheeta chopper on rescue missions. Such a strong storyline line was unnecessarily fictionalized rather trivialized, and to make it worse the casting of Janhvi kapoor was grossly misfit. She definitely has a long way to go, as she neither has the charm of her mother nor her grace. It is rather unfair to compare her with great Sridevi but the comparisons are bound to happen especially when the topic of nepotism is hot and brewing in the industry.

The movie has its moments whenever Pankaj Tripathi is in the frame, this wonderful actor is a treat to watch. There are few emotional moments in the movie between the father (pankaj tripathi) and Gunjan, and you should watch the restraint on the face of Pankaj tripathi where his eyes swell up with tears but not a single drop of tear roll down. Take a bow Pankajbhai. His acting is as effortless as Sachin’s cover drive.

All other stars like Manav Vij, Angad Bedi and Vineet kumar have done justice to their roles, the photography(especially the top shots by drones) is simply awesome. Action sequences are bit childish, and makers have taken tons of creative liberty and converted the biographical tale into a typical Hindi masala movie.

Movie is made watchable by Pankaj Tripathi, else if you go with high expectations from sri Devi’s daughter then you will be disappointed ( she is just ok). Looks like Netflix is somehow not able to lay its hands on any sensible desi movies or a web series.