Thursday, February 23, 2017

Ghazi Attack - Movie Review

Highly watchable. Get on the net immediately and book your tickets. The Ghazi Attack is an edge of the seat underwater war thriller based on a real life incident - the sinking of the Pakistani submarine Ghazi off the Vishakhapatnam coast in 1971. For a first time director to pull off this movie and credibly so is highly commendable when we watch so many loosely made movies with star actors and directors - all of which appear as if they are having an internal joke at our expense. Ghazi Attack is honest, sincere and it shows.

Kay Kay Menon as Captain Ranvijay Singh of submarine S 21 ( which was conceptualised in place of INS Rajput the original destroyer ship involved in the Ghazi attack) keeps the first half afloat with his trigger happy ways and his desire to bury the enemy. Atul Kulkarni holds the movie together as the XO and Rana Daggubati brings conviction and sincerity to his role as Lt. Commander Arjun Varma.

Fantastic stuff. Well done Sankalp Reddy. In fact the story of how it was made itself is worth reading about. How Sankalp saw the submarine museum in Vizag five years ago, researched about the Ghazi, got inspired to make a film about it, thought of a youtube film at a 10 lakh budget, making his own set, having no stars to finally shooting it with an array of fine actors like Om Puri, Kay Kay Menon, Rana, Atul Kulkarni and making the film in three languages. I read one story about how Rain Man got made - despite changing three directors who did not believe in the story - mainly because the person behind the movie believed in it and continued making it. This is a bit like that.

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