What's worse than watching the Indian cricket team succumb to 36 not out in Australia? Watching #SanjayDutt bowling to the Afghan refugee camp kids in #Torbaaz I thought film-making had evolved from the days when you had to spell out A for apple and concomitantly show a ripe red of Kashmir’s best, lest you still mistake it for an orange. But #Torbaaz on #NetflixIndia insists that they will not just show you the apple but make you bite into one as well. If you throw up then that's clearly your problem!
Insomnia problems anyone? I suggest twenty minutes of this film. ASHOK’s FIVE reviews the new film that’s dropped on #Netflix. This one is a cross between a political drama and a sports film. #Torbaaz, directed by #GirishMalik and featuring #SanjayDutt, #NargisFakhri and #RahulDev has Dutt playing Nasser Khan, a military doctor. He has emerged from personal trauma having lost his wife and child in a suicide-bomber attack and has now returned to Afghanistan. He is here to make a difference and champions the cause of the children in the refugee camps. And yes, he is all set to replace the bombs in their hands with the cricket ball!
The drone shots of picturesque Afghanistan leave you captivated and the prospect of deep insights into the success of the Afghan cricket team had me rubbing my hands in glee. What I got instead, was two hours of Dutt in all machismo glory, the pot belly notwithstanding. That famous gait with the shoulders hunched over will get you for sure provided you stop asking what #NargisFakhri was doing in the film.
Just as I padded up to face the red cherry, I found #RahulDev hamming his way through in a fake Pathani accent as Qassaar the anti-hero. He represents the Taliban but loves his cricket apparently. The powerplay overs disappeared soon enough and it was time for the middle orders as Dutt manages to play #SardarPatel and unite the warring clans of children in the spirit of the game. He settles down into his coach avatar and very conveniently there is a table and laptop in the middle of the wilderness. As i wondered how he would manage wifi access in this remote location, the children started yelling blue murder at each other. But to be fair, watching the children trying to emote was one of the better parts of the film. Did I say one of the better…. I meant the one thing actually.
As the match moved to the death overs, the spectre of death loomed up in the form of children masquerading as suicide bombers. Just as I thought i should reflect on the immense tragedy of the loss of childhood, I found myself in a #lagaan style match played up north of Dharamshaala. Every attempt has been made to build up the suspense including a last minute no-ball that has the batsmen scampering across for the precious runs.
And then there is of course, a special treat in the form of the Super Over of the film where Dutt unleashes his rippling muscles and finishes off the villains and all is good. You get the general drift.
I think someone offered Dutt a holiday in Afghanistan and perhaps somewhere in Ukraine and agreed to potter around in some fancy flares in exchange for the tab. The guys then used the footage to create a film, threw in a bit of cricket and one or two shots and #Torbaaz was born.
Weak scripting, sloppy execution and one-track characters make for a very shoddy production. The makers do not know how to build up the drama quotient with the right shot division and it shows. Unfortunately, they also do not know if the off-stump is on or off!
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