Film Review: WAR… CHHOD NA YAAR

Very credible premise, BUT…… 

Cast: Sharman Joshi, Jaaved Jaaferi, Soha Ali Khan, Dalip Tahil, Sanjay Mishra, Manoj Pahwa
Story Idea, Writer, Director: Faraz Haider

Venkat and I went for the film in Cinemax Sion on the day of its release. We were kind of dubious about it when we saw that there were less than 50 people watching the film with us.

THE STORY

The film begins with Captain Raj (Sharman Joshi) of the Indian Army and Captain Qureshi (Jaaved Jaaferi) of the Pakistan Army getting together with a couple of other colleagues to play a game of cards. They sit on the sides of the wire fence at the border and have a ball.

Suddenly, shooting breaks out and the story goes into flashback. At the Defence Minister’s (Dalip Tahil) insistence, GBC TV sends its correspondent Ruth Dutta (Soha Ali Khan) to the border to get information about an impending war between India and Pakistan. But what she finds there is something else altogether.

The Chinese Premier (also Dalip Tahil) has a video conference with the Indian Defence Minister as well as the Pakistan Minister (Dalip Tahil again), promising the sky. Then there is the Defence Minister of the USA (you guessed right that it is Dalip Tahil) wheeling and dealing with the defence heads of both India and Pakistan.

Watch the film for the hilarious turn of events.

MY PERCEPTION

The film runs for 119 minutes and is set in real time of less than 24 hours. The chemistry between Sharman Joshi and Jaaved Jaaferi (yeah, that’s the spelling in this film while the actor keeps changing it pretty often) is very good.

Soha Ali Khan’s role as a correspondent is quite simple and she could not but do it well. There is no scope for emoting or acting that was required.

Manoj Pahwa

The comedy is not too bad but then again it was not that good either. I have seen way better performances by Sharman Joshi, Jaaved Jaaferi and Sanjay Mishra. Despite having four roles, Dalip Tahil was not used up to his potential.

Manoj Pahwa is excellent at comedy and very expressive. He was totally wasted in the film. In fact, the film reminded me of an ad Manoj Pahwa had featured in where he plays an officer in the Indian Military. He is offered a drink by his equal from Pakistan across the wire fence at the border. He was just fantastic in it.

All I can say is that there is no depth to the dialogues and execution. I would blame the writer-director for this.

Having mentioned all the negative points, I must say that the Story Idea is brilliant – befitting the oncoming Golden Age. I just loved the message that the people of both the countries – India and Pakistan – are not interested in war. That’s so true! And I am sure that includes the military of both countries too. It’s quite possible that we have become puppets in the hands of the stronger countries and they are playing on our insecurities. Very credible!

I only wish that the film had been made more interesting.

VERDICT: Watchable! But not worth the 220 bucks we paid per ticket.

RATING: ** ½ (could have been smarter)

*Silly
**Shaky
***Smart
****Snazzy
*****Super