Bhuj: The Pride of India review: Ajay Devgn’s film is a lost opportunity at bringing a heroic tale to life

1.5/5

Story:

Produced by Ajay Devgn, Bhuj: The Pride of India stars an ensemble cast of Sonakshi Sinha, Sanjay Dutt, Sharad Kelkar, Nora Fatehi, Amy Virk and Pranitha Subhash alongside the leading man, Devgn himself. The plot of the film is inspired by real incidents surrounding the Indo-Pak war of 1971, when the Pakistan Air Force attacks the Bhuj airbase in Gujarat with the intent to capture it, so that their General Yahya Khan can negotiate terms with Indira Gandhi on Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) over a cup of tea. Post the attack, about 300 women from the neighbouring Madhapur village take up the seemingly impossible task of repairing the damaged airstrip at Bhuj in record time, so that the Indian troops can land and prevent the area from being captured by Pakistan.  

Review:

Bhuj: The Pride of India begins with a disclaimer that the film is inspired by true events but doesn’t claim to be an accurate representation of the same. This pretty much gives you an inkling of what you’re going to get if you decide to watch the film. Expect no less than over-the-top chest-thumping jingoism (frankly, the trailers were enough to warn about the same), melodramatic sequences with every character giving some gyaan on how their ancestors have given their blood and sweat to the country and drove the invaders away, pledges for the sake of their love for the country and Pakistan bashing (of course!) et al.  

Ajay Devgn as the narrator sets the premise and explains the backdrop of the Indo-Pak war of 1971 in an unimpressive, disinterested tone that fails to hook you. The first half is mainly dedicated to giving the background details about each of the characters in the film and to effectively highlight how barbaric the dushman Pakistanis are as they rejoice over the massacre in East Pakistan, with lines like, “Yeh wohi Hindustan hai na jaha humne 400 saal raaj kiya tha?” 

There’s a lot of action that director Abhishek Dudhaiya has tried to pack in the first half (apart from the preachy-disguised-as-poetic dialogues of course). You witness Pakistan Air Force bombing the Bhuj airbase and destroying the airstrip runway among other critical control rooms, a parallel air attack where IAF’s fighter pilot Vijay (Amy Virk) plunges into action to counter them, Heena (Nora Fatehi) an Indian spy who’s part of Operation Hoor to honeytrap a senior Pak official among others, but it all appears to be just a series of events that have been stitched together to make up for the first 50 odd minutes of this 110-minute-long film. It may take you some time to actually make sense of most of it.  

The action picks up pace in the second half though, when the REAL unsung heroes of Bhuj, the 300 women from Madhapur village led by Sundariben (Sonakshi Sinha) decide to help Squadron Leader Vijay Sreenivas Karnik (Ajay Devgn) from the Indian Air Force, to repair the damaged airstrip. While you expect that you’ll finally see these heroes in action and witness how they managed to do the seemingly impossible, only to be let down by extremely badly written and executed scenes. The real story which inspired the entire film barely gets any screen time. It begins only after the entire first half, and then gets wrapped up too quickly to make space for a dramatic song (more on that later). 

In parallel, there’s RK Nair (Sharad Kelkar) holding the fort at Vighakot post with about 120 odd soldiers and Pagi (Sanjay Dutt), in the hopes to stall the advancing Pakistani army for as long as possible. You do get to see the war sequences that you’d expect from a film like this but the manner in which these have been executed leave you cringing and questioning the makers. For instance, the way Sanjay Dutt’s Pagi goes on a killing spree while being surrounded by the Pak army will make you question whether the writers Abhishek Dudhaiya, Raman Kumar, Ritesh Shah, Pooja Bhavoria and the director consider the audience to be so lame that they’d digest just about anything, even if it defies logic, in the name of patriotism and valour.  

The final nail comes in the form of the last act of the film when the village women begin to sing bhajans and prayers with the beating of dhol nagaadas while there’s an actual war going on. The visual effects were supposed to be top-notch, especially because there are a lot of scenes involving aerial fight sequences and bombings but alas! Even the VFX fail to impress, with a lot of them even appearing like your video game screens at times. Not just the aerial combat scenes, even the part where Fighter Pilot Vikram (Amy Virk) emerges from the waters after his plane’s crashes look too caricaturish and far from believable. The overtly loud and melodramatic background score too does little to evoke any sentiments but ends up being jarring most of the time.  

Coming to the performances, Ajay Devgn, who is otherwise a fine actor and has previously shined in patriotic movies such as Tanhaji and The Legend of Bhagat Singh among others, doesn’t leave a lasting impression as Vijay Karnik. This came as a major shocker as even in the bad films that he’s been a part of, at least his act has been praiseworthy. Unfortunately, that is not the case in Bhuj. Sanjay Dutt tries to infuse some life in a poorly written part but in vain. Had the writers given half the attention to detail that they’ve given to his pagdis in the film, things may have been different for his character. Nora Fatehi as Heena excels in the action sequences but fails miserably when it comes to her dialogue delivery and acting chops. The only good thing to come out of her 15-something minute long screen time, is that we finally know that there’s more to Fatehi than just dance numbers. Speaking of dance numbers, it came as a welcome respite that the makers did not include the Zaalima Coca Cola song in the film (which would’ve made matters worse).  

Sharad Kelkar’s baritone does a decent job in the scenes that he’s a part of while Sonakshi Sinha tries too hard to portray her part with conviction. There’s a scene in the film where she tells Karnik that they’ll repair the runway again after their efforts went in vain the first time. She doesn’t seem to be convinced herself saying so, how would the viewers believe her is beyond us! While a lot of attention has been given to her ‘look’ in the film, we wish the same was done for her character too. Amy Virk as the fighter pilot Vikram does a fair job within the limited scope of his poorly written character. Pranitha Subhash who plays Devgn’s wife in the film doesn’t even have a single line in the film. She does get a brief song and dance routine and a chance to fill in for her onscreen husband to drive the road roller while the airstrip is being repaired. In the miserable climax sequence involving Devgn, she can be seen teary-eyed and praying for his life, even as her eyeliner remains bang-on-point! 

Verdict:

It’s one thing to make a patriotic movie or to take up the task of bringing the story of unsung war heroes to life, and it’s another to resort to formulaic, cliched tropes like bashing Pakistan to express your patriotism. While in the recent years, we’ve witnessed movies that don’t necessarily choose the latter route, Bhuj: The Pride of India definitely does. It’s an opportunity lost at giving a fitting tribute to the real heroes of the 1971 Indo-Pak war.