Bhuj Movie Review | Bhuj The Pride of India Review

Two war movies, releasing in two consecutive days one day before our Independence day, jaisey maan lo azaadi humein Pakistan se mili ho, angrezo se nahi.

Hey Guys, my name is Ashwin Mali, this is AshwinMali.in, you're watching Not A Movie Review and right now I’m not going to be reviewing Bhuj: The Pride Of India.

The story of the battle at Bhuj, is nestled in the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, which in turn is historically a part of the Bangladesh Liberation War.

I do not claim to understand it beyond cursory general knowledge, but even I realize how politically complicated this devastating chapter in Indian and Bangladeshi history was.

Writer- Director Abhishek Dudhaiya, who’s also a producer here, works with co-writers Raman Kumar, Ritesh Shah and Pooja Bhavoria, to simplify this tumultuous period of political churning into 2 hours of shapeless, flavorless, bland daliya.

It's not even khichdi, khichdi has some color, gajar matar type. Na, Bhuj: The Pride Of India, this movie, is daliya, it is, its porridge.

A very lengthy opening disclaimer in the voice of actor Sharad Kelkar tells you, that despite this being a movie inspired by true events, it is not an official account or depiction of any real events or actual battles, and then the disclaimer ends in a very loud Jai Hind, setting the tone of the film. It's loud, very very loud.

Ajay Devgn is IAF officer Vijay Srinivas Karnik, codename Maratha Bagh. After an airstrike on the Bhuj Airbase, its his responsibility to get the airstrip redone, kyunki additional soldiers ko Bhuj mein land karwana hai, kisi bhi tarah, battle chal rahi hai.

He enlists the help of local Gujarati women, who selflessly break down their own homes to provide raw material for the repair work.

It is such a great story of a brave community coming together under a focused official’s war-time leadership. But far from being an awe-inspiring and rousing movie, the screenplay is a Wikipedia entry come to life.

Sub-plots and events are stacked on top of each other, nary a thought spared for continuity or story structure. 

In one scene Ajay Devgn is walking away from the bombarded air strip looking disheveled, next time you see him, his face is covered in blood as he washes it, clearly splashing more actual fake blood from his palms on to his face, hoping the camera wouldn’t catch this trick, it is just so much blood, and we have no idea where it came from.

Honestly I had no idea where anything came from this film. I took some moments to appreciate how good Sonakshi Sinha looked in her mirrored and tasseled traditional Gujarati clothes, and how perfect Navni Parihar looked as Indira Gandhi. And also one can help, but be impressed by the movie’s sincerity towards depicting all Pakistanis as cigar smoking, l dialogue maaroing, Scooby-Doo waale villains.

An attempt is made to give Sharad Kelkar backstory, ki he was also a boxer who married a disabled muslim woman, information provided for no reason, considering right after his introduction, the character vanishes, just gone for a very long long time.

Pranitha Subhash who plays Mrs Vijay Srinivas Karnik is brought in the film for one song and dance sequence in the beginning and later, as she casually drives a road roller, sure.

The fact that she has nothing to do checks out, because her husband says things like “Kameez ke toote huye button se lekar, tooti hui himmat, aurat kuch bhi jod sakti hai”.

The dialogue is just amazing by the way, it's really hard to pick which one stands out. “Shoot karne se pehle aakhri baar bol do I love you, taaki main tumhe shoot kar sakoon”, ya “Agar Taj Mahal pyaar ki nishani hai, toh Hindustan terey baap ki kahaani hai”, just spitting rhymes at this point, or Pakistani General/ President Yahya Khan exclaiming “Hindustan ko 400 saal tak humne apne jootey ki nok par rakha”, there is such magnificence in the corny-ness.

If like me, yesterday you had a critique ki Shershaah takes too long to get to the actual battle, the war-story, fikar not, kyunki Bhuj: The Pride of India is all war, beginning to end, lots of yelling, chest thumping, face ke oopar blood splashing, 1000 bomb, 50 time bomb, sab.

I am feeling bad for all of Ammy Virk’s hard work. Constantly he's trying to rise above a screenplay, which refuses to support him in any way. Aur bechara Ammy hi nahi, Nora Fatehi ne bhi kitni fight ki hai iss role mein, really wanting to be taken seriously as an actor for a change, par ek dance-y song bhi karna pada, jisme lines hain “Zaalima Coca Cola pila de”, joh eventually film se gaana bhi nikaal diya.

This entire movie is terrible from start to finish, any way you slice it. Probably the biggest film to be shot, almost entirely on green-screen, if there was a point to this daliya, I failed to see it. Meri hi galti hai shayad maaf karein. Disney + Hotstar par stream ho rahi hai film, aap khud dekh kar bataa do.

So, on a scale of 1 to 10, Bhuj: The Pride Of India is, 0% of the respect this real story and the heroes behind it deserved, the film provides, it's so unfortunate.