Code Name: Tiranga review: Parineeti Chopra's film is a revived version of Dhaakad nobody asked for

1.5/5

Story:

Ismat aka Durga Singh is on a mission. She falls in love with and gets close to Dr. Mirza Ali in order to succeed in her mission. However, there comes a time when she has to choose between the mission and her husband. Who will Ismat choose?

Review:

It has been a while since Parineeti Chopra made her comeback to Bollywood but has she truly come back? That is a question that many ask, for obvious reasons. While she had a good role in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar, even then Arjun Kapoor stole the limelight from her. The actress' latest release Code Name: Tiranga could have presented her with a great opportunity but it missed the bull's eye by a great distance. Instead, we have a version of Dhaakad that we still don't want to believe can exist.

Code Name: Tiranga commences with Parineeti Chopra's vocie and a beautiful backdrop. She talks about war and soldiers. Some time after that, she is actually seen on the screen but barely leaves an impact.

Harrdy Sandhu makes his appearance and both he and Parineeti as Dr. Mirza Ali and Ismat barely make an impression. Their chemistry does develop but little-by-little.

Dibyendu Bhattacharya plays a better part than the leads themselves. Of course, he adds his flavours to the character which takes it a notch above.

Pankaj Kapur is great in his brief role too. Similarly, Shishir Sharma in a cameo does his job well. Their face-to-face interaction, however, is only mediocre which is followed by unnecessarily hyped-up music.

Parineeti gets in action when you least expect it. It is a good surprise not because of the character but the actor.

Sharad Khelkar as Khalid Omar is introduced in the most cliched way possible - through a wanted picture. His look, however, is notable. While his attitude as a gangster is great, it is the music which enhances his villainous character.

The story is cliched and moves in that way too. There's barely anything new here. It is almost on the lines of Kangana Ranaut's Dhaakad.

As the movie progresses, it is nothing but a deja vu of that film. Literally everything in that film plays out once again, only a little differently. Here, you have Sharad Khelkar instead of Arjun Rampal for a villain. Another difference is that in Dhaakad, Kangana was all about a woman's power without her man but here, there is a love angle too.

There is no continuation from before and after the interval. The filmmaker is almost in a rush between scenes and thus, the dialogues are in a lower tone and before the actor even completes it, the scene shifts.

Just when you think some scenes cannot get more stupid, they do. Durga (Parineeti's real name in the film) does not realize Omar's presence even when cars approach her. And this is just example of what is wrong with the film.

The mystery builds in the film and furthers the complication. However, the ones who have seen Dhaakad know the suspense and thus, Code Name: Tiranga has literally nothing new to offer.

Another problem with this film are the songs. They play at random for no particular reason. For the same reason, the scenes keep stretching for 10-15 minutes straight. Stretching such scenes, the whole film was made.

The fight scenes towards the end are straight out of PubG. Only instead of the loud noises, here you have Vande Mataram playing, almost forcing a patriotistic feeling in a scene which should be more about action.

And just like that, we get a newer version of Dhaakad in the same year. Where the women have a story to tell but the filmmakers do not know how to say them without repeating the content.

Verdict:

Stay miles away from Code Name: Tiranga, for your own mental sanity. Dhaakad was enough of a lesson for the year and you do not need more of it. While Parineeti is great with her action scenes, Ribhu Dasgupta has not backed the story well. The fact that there isn't a novel story tells you much about where action heroines in Bollywood are currently. I wait for the day when the scenario changes and there's a powerful story to back actresses who want to show true women power. Alas, Hindi cinema is missing that currently.