바카라˜Pippa바카라™: Cast & Crew
Director: Raja Krishna Menon
Cast: Ishaan Khattar, Mrunal Thakur, Priyanshu Painyuli, Soni Razdan, Inaamulhaq, Kamal Sadanah, Chandrachoor Rai, Soham Majumdar, Leysan Karimova
Available On: Amazon Prime Video
Duration: 2 Hours 19 Minutes
바카라˜Pippa바카라™: Story
The film revolves around Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta () of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron who fought on the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 along with his siblings (, ). Will Balram Singh Mehta be able to win the war for the country? Will he be able to mend his ways? Will his siblings finally start respecting him? Or will the siblings lose their lives in order to learn Balram Singh Mehta바카라™s importance in their lives? Well, for all that you바카라™ll have to watch 바카라˜바카라™.
바카라˜Pippa바카라™: Performances
Priyanshu Painyuli is a perfect fit for an army personnel바카라™s character. He has played men in uniform quite a number of times in the recent past, and he has excelled in them almost always. Whether it바카라™s the way he grooms himself or his body language, everything looks so darn perfect. It can be credited to the fact that he was born and raised in an army family, and therefore discipline and body language are ingrained in him. The only complaint about his performance is that it was too small. It felt like an extended cameo rather than being one of the three leads.
Mrunal Thakur was absolutely wasted. An actress of her calibre was just given a few scenes here and there. The role could have been played by any character artiste as it didn바카라™t have much depth. While Mrunal Thakur manages to bring the necessary bubbliness to the performance, she isn바카라™t able to bring that hardcore pathos that바카라™s usually associated with a character that바카라™s so closely associated with active war.
Ishaan Khattar is the biggest letdown in the film. While it can be seen that he has put a lot of hard work into the performance, there doesn바카라™t seem to be a lot that바카라™s put into making the character look believable. While his character is supposed to have a brattish Delhi attitude 바카라“ a part that Ishaan Khattar manages to get really well, the character is also supposed to have the subservient attitude of an army household 바카라“ a part that Ishaan grossly underplays. Not just that, Khattar has made the character have an air about himself being the best, which sort of doesn바카라™t gel when you바카라™re being put in an army situation where everyone is supposed to be equal while fighting a war. Also, his boyish good looks, sort of, create a disconnect between his persona and the heavy dialogues that he바카라™s saying to pump up the others on the battlefield. Those kinds of little nuances made the character fall flat.
A worthy mention needs to be given to Inaamulhaq and Kamal Sadanah who don바카라™t have too much screen time, but absolutely own the space when they바카라™re onscreen. It was great to see Kamal Sadanah play Sam Manekshaw in a unique characteristic style of his. His comeback to the big screens shouldn바카라™t just get limited to this, and hopefully, we바카라™ll get to see more of him onscreen in the coming days.
바카라˜Pippa바카라™: Script, Direction & Technical Aspects
AR Rahman바카라™s music is pretty much the best part of the film. His background score encapsulates you, despite the fact that you바카라™re not in a dark cinema theatre and are watching on your phone or on your smart TV. That keen sense of music is what many of today바카라™s films end up missing. Rahman made you feel like you바카라™re sitting in between the shelling and the bombings. Even some of the songs like 바카라˜Mohabbatein Shukriya바카라™ and 바카라˜Main Parwaana바카라™ are sure to stick with you for long.
The writing by Ravinder Randhawa, Tanmay Mohan and Raja Krishna Menon starts off well, but very soon ends up being a damp squib. In war films, there is an element of predictability, which the audience accepts even before starting the film, but it바카라™s usually the journey of the characters that matters the most. The familial equations were built really well at the start. Also, the initial premise was built really well. However, once the actual war sequences start, everything sort of goes haywire. The writing feels amateurish and it feels that the entire second half has been rushed to complete and tried to pump up the patriotic feels. One good thing about the writing is that they바카라™ve not tried to make it sound jingoistic by adding in too many high-energy dialogues or war cries.
Raja Krishna Menon바카라™s direction isn바카라™t able to bring the kind of electric energy that 바카라˜Uri바카라™ did. The narrative is very bland with the story starting off at a great high and very soon falling into a deep abyss. When the direction doesn바카라™t uplift the characters and the plot, the story바카라™s predictability starts haunting you further. The characters needed to be given a lot more depth rather than maintaining a superficiality about them. Also, the entire film felt like it was a small episode in the big scheme of things amidst the 1971 Indi-Pak war. If Menon wanted this to stand out and have a separate voice of its own, he should have tried to bring in a bit more nationalistic fervour in pretty much every department. Like AR Rahman manages to pull you up with the BGM and the music, the writing and direction should have accentuated that feeling even further rather than bringing that high to a low and making you feel like you바카라™ve wasted your time. Lastly, in his attempt to keep the jingoism to a minimum, he hasn바카라™t shown absolutely anything from the side of the Pakistan army. There are just 1-2 scenes of an army general with Priyanshu Painyuli. If you really had to hook the audiences and get that patriotic feeling out of them, a lot more heart and soul needed to be there in the presentation.
Priya Seth바카라™s cinematography is another letdown. Showing a war in an open field is a good choice for maintaining authenticity, but the periodic nature of the film also needed to come out, which doesn바카라™t. There is not a single frame in the entire film where it feels like the backgrounds are from the 1970s and not from today바카라™s times. The colour scheme is also very dull and doesn바카라™t suit the 1970s, which is when the story is set.
The editing by Hemanti Sarkar could have been so much crisper. There is an entire scene where war tanks and other military personnel are just walking towards the battlefield. That thing could have been established in just one fleeting scene, rather than giving it almost 4-5 different frames and angles and extending it to almost a 3-4-minute-long sequence. This isn바카라™t the only time that happens. Had those elongated scenes been cut short, the film could have well been brought down to under 2 hours.
Lastly, why was the film called 바카라˜Pippa바카라™? If the 바카라˜Pippa바카라™ tanks were that important to the plot, they needed to have more screen time. The importance and the difference of these tanks from the usual tanks didn바카라™t come out that well in the minimal scenes where the tanks were actually onscreen. The fact that these tanks could float had barely two scenes in the entire film. That should have ideally been the main focus of the entire narration considering your film is called 바카라˜Pippa바카라™.
바카라˜Pippa바카라™: Can Kids Watch It?
Yes
Outlook바카라™s Verdict
바카라˜Pippa바카라™ is one of those films which fit the adage, 바카라˜Well begun is only half done바카라™. The film starts off brilliantly on a high note, but very soon takes such a sharp downfall that you바카라™re just left scratching your head. The film didn바카라™t manage to extort the necessary patriotic feel from you as an audience. You바카라™re eventually let down, and you바카라™re wondering whether this was the reason why the film didn바카라™t actually get takers in theatres and had to finally resort to an OTT release. For all lovers of war films, 바카라˜Pippa바카라™ is a massive letdown. Totally Avoid. I am going with 1 star.
