D Day

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 19th July, 2013
Time : 153 minutes
Director, Co-Writer : Nikhil Advani; Co-Writers : Ritesh Shah, Suresh Nair; Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Starring : Rishi Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Irrfan Khan, Huma Quereshi , Aakash Daahiya, Nassar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, KK Raina

A RAW mission to get Rishi Kapoor, the smuggler-terrorist- businessman, responsible for a lot of the blasts in India (Mumbai, Hyderabad). To capture him alive, bring him back to India. Four operatives (Arjun, Irrfan, Huma, Aakash), each with well thought out, succinctly narrated pasts, come together and plan to nab him while he, against ISI’s advice, plans to attend his son’s wedding…

An incredible, tight, gripping first half full of great one-liners, gallivants all over in the second, goes down the alley of turning its lead players into superheroes and then returns for a finale uplifted by a rousing speech.

The first half doesn’t put its feet wrong in too many places, staying focused on the main narrative, giving us enough about the four operatives to make us care but not get side-tracked. Its moves at a frenetic pace, merging different streams expertly – the impending retirement of the RAW Chief, Nassar, the politics in India (loved the way they kept showing the PM being summoned by Madam ji), the way the operatives planned the mission, the bravado of Rishi Kapoor and his elite status in Pakistan, the sets and the atmosphere, the camera angles (extreme close-ups of Rishi, his orange tinted glasses) and the excellent background score and songs. Everything works and works well…in fact the fact that there was an interval came as a surprise, had assumed there was none…

The second half proceeds a bit too much into unreal territory. Several things that couldn’t have been. Agents who decide to behave like filmy heroes (keeping the gun aside so that he can beat up the bad guy?), motivated by revenge, love etc rather than the cool, rational, mission-above-else operatives of the previous half. The excellently pictured song, Alvida for me was a highlight cinematically but the fact that it was there, a RAW agent going back to a previous hideout even though he was being hunted by the whole of Pakistan, shows where and why the movie slips in the second half.

I loved Arjun (one of his best performances), Shruti (plays a prostitute, with a scar that gives her a very authentic feel), Aakash (Chotta Aslam ko kagazi gulab soonghne ki aadat nahin hai) and the charismatic Rishi, who’s screen presence makes him tower over everyone else despite his height, a delight to watch. Everyone else is good, with a special mention of the music, populated by some excellent songs, and the grainy feel of the frames, which help give the film its biopic-like, tense feel

At the end of the day, good films make you want certain things for the film’s characters, be it the hero or the villain…here, despite its flaws, you are earnestly wishing for the right ending and hoping that the real Indian intelligence and political set-up showed some of the balls their screen version had, a sure sign that the film works overall…