I had heard good things about this movie and I was expecting a tense submarine drama not unlike the Hunt for Red October.
Instead what I got was a poorly written movie that even an otherwise polished actor like KK Menon struggled with. The submarine captain KK plays comes across like a petulant school boy who's throwing tantrums because daddy (a paunchy Om Puri as Admiral) isn't letting him play his favorite game, war.
KK is whining and smug by turn, is required by the bizarre script to tolerate a subordinate who has been sent by the admiral to play nanny and who keeps contradicting his orders publicly, surely an act of insubordination that would be punished instantly in any reasonable military. It was intended, I suppose, to replicate the tension due to the dual power structure on a Soviet sub where the political officer has power rivaling the captain in some things, hence the need for Captin Ramius to bump him off early in Red October. In an Indian context, there is simply no creditable parallel so the only reason it was shoehorned in was so that Rana Daggubati, as all conquering hero needn't be made to look subordinate to a character actor. Coming to Daggubati, that body stuffed into a too tight naval uniform must cause concern for the safety of the uniform's buttons which performed courageously beyond the call of duty to keep that 56 inch chest from bursting through.
I was half expecting Daggubati to leap out of his sub, swim to the enemy sub, punch a hole in the hull, enter said sub and strangle the enemy captain with his bare hands, then beat up the rest of the crew by himself. That would perhaps have been a more entertaining movie and you wouldn't need to worry about script and credibility, it would just be a regular Telegu land gang-banger, just underwater.
I shouldn't forget to mention Atul Kulkarni as the sub's XO - this was miscasting on an epic scale. He was the most feminine character in the entire film, not excluding the pretty Bengali shipwrecked girl who conveniently washes up on to the sub so you don't have to look at only men for 2 hours.
Instead what I got was a poorly written movie that even an otherwise polished actor like KK Menon struggled with. The submarine captain KK plays comes across like a petulant school boy who's throwing tantrums because daddy (a paunchy Om Puri as Admiral) isn't letting him play his favorite game, war.
KK is whining and smug by turn, is required by the bizarre script to tolerate a subordinate who has been sent by the admiral to play nanny and who keeps contradicting his orders publicly, surely an act of insubordination that would be punished instantly in any reasonable military. It was intended, I suppose, to replicate the tension due to the dual power structure on a Soviet sub where the political officer has power rivaling the captain in some things, hence the need for Captin Ramius to bump him off early in Red October. In an Indian context, there is simply no creditable parallel so the only reason it was shoehorned in was so that Rana Daggubati, as all conquering hero needn't be made to look subordinate to a character actor. Coming to Daggubati, that body stuffed into a too tight naval uniform must cause concern for the safety of the uniform's buttons which performed courageously beyond the call of duty to keep that 56 inch chest from bursting through.
I was half expecting Daggubati to leap out of his sub, swim to the enemy sub, punch a hole in the hull, enter said sub and strangle the enemy captain with his bare hands, then beat up the rest of the crew by himself. That would perhaps have been a more entertaining movie and you wouldn't need to worry about script and credibility, it would just be a regular Telegu land gang-banger, just underwater.
I shouldn't forget to mention Atul Kulkarni as the sub's XO - this was miscasting on an epic scale. He was the most feminine character in the entire film, not excluding the pretty Bengali shipwrecked girl who conveniently washes up on to the sub so you don't have to look at only men for 2 hours.
Tell Your Friends