In the aftermath of the 2016 Kashmir unrest, a young local field agent, Zooni Haksar, is picked out by Rajeshwari Swaminathan from the Prime Minister’s Office for a top-secret mission. Their aim? Cracking down on terrorism and putting an end to the billion dollar conflict economy in the valley, by doing the absolute impossible – Abrogating the notorious Article 370. That too, without spilling a single drop of innocent blood – goes the official statement from Jio Studios. That kind of sums up the film in totality. Director Aditya Subhash Jambhale has made a 160 minute long explainer on why the government took the step of abrogating Article 370, with the government’s point of view firmly in place. There’s even a powerpoint presentation about the same highlighting the legal nitty gritties.
Aditya Dhar, who is one of the producers of the film, has married a proper action thriller with a political film, turning his wife, Yami Gautam Dhar, into an action hero in the process. She’s a fine actress indeed and has taken to doing action like a duck to water. She’s the only heroine perhaps who held a gun properly in films. Her stance is perfect and so are her movements as she takes cover and runs towards her target. But it’s not only doing action where she scores. She plays Zooni Haksar with the emotional depth the character deserves, investing lots of angst and sorrow in her character. It’s the anger of a common Kashmiri who is tired of the violence and the unrest and finds herself unable to take it any more. When she’s given a chance to become an agent for change, she takes to her assignment with full commitment. Be it her confrontation scenes with the militant supporters or her subdued romance with CRPF soldier Yash Chauhan (Vaibhav Tatwawadi), her expressions are bang on.
The film rests on her and Priyamani’s shoulders. The South actress plays a straight-laced bureaucrat who sorts out problems for her political bosses with a smile. Be it dealing with the red tape or with probing journalists, her smile never slips. Her Rajeshwari Swaminathan is the shield to Zooni’s sword and the two women support each other at every turn. It’s great that the director made two women as the protagonists. He could have easily cast two macho actors in the roles and the film would have become something that glorifies alpha males. Since two women have been cast, the narrative becomes more nuanced by default.
Arun Govil makes an entry as the PM but he doesn’t quite cut the same commanding figure as Modi is in real life. The same is true of Kiran Karmarkar, who plays the Home Minister.
The film is a cracker of an action film and if one doesn’t dwell on its political stance much, can be thoroughly enjoyed as an action thriller.
