Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl ( A Review)

 

 

I'm back and with me I bring another review. This time its a BOLLYWOOD MOVIE review. Now, I am from India so watching a Bollywood movie shouldn't be that big of a deal. I am not an avid viewer of the Indian cinema but I do enjoy one, now and again. But that's not the surprising part, the surprising part is that unlike everyone else in the world, I did not spend my quarantine completing the Netflix catalog, on the contrary I haven't been able to watch a single new TV series or a movie. I did try but I couldn't make it past the title sequence before I would turn off my TV or leave the room. But this movie, for some reason did catch my attention and better yet, retain it.

 

If you check the reviews given by IMDB and google users, I feel like it is quite a bit underappreciated. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this movie is like an instant classic or a defining movie but its certainly a great watch. It is biopic, which is basically supposed to be a movie about a persons life or something important in it, which in this case was the 1999 Kargil War. The hero in question, is Gujjan Saxena who was one of, if not the first woman officer who was part of the Indian Air force and also the first and only in the Kargil war. A worthy individual who has definitely earned the love and respect of many Indians and many women around the world. She might be lesser known but this movie does attempt to showcase her.

I am not going to go in depth about each scene of the movie because I don't think I will be able to bring this performance justice with just my words. This movie starts with when she was young and showed why she fell in love with flying. With the help of her very supportive father and a lot of hard work she managed to get into the Air Force, regardless of what challenges came her way. She originally just wanted to be a pilot, but because she couldn't save up the money to get flying lessons she, with the help of her army vetran father, decided to get into the Air Force instead. After hard training she finally became an IAF officer. Being the only woman in her base she was treated very differently and rather unfairly, but because of her talent and the fact that a senior officer took her under his wing, she managed to find her stride. She did breakdown but managed to get back a winning mentality right before the war where she showcased her heroics. 

Like I have stated before, I do like the movie and it is a great watch. However, I know that a biopic has a fixed story but I feel that nothing unpredictable occurred. Everyone could guess the plot of the movie even if you didn't know about her. In my opinion, this would've been way better as a 1 season Netflix series. Also the performance put up by Janhvi Kapoor and Pankaj Tripathi really elevated this movie to new heights. 

With all the backlash Karan Johar has gotten recently since the death of Sushant Singh Rajput and the nonsense unleashed by Kangana Ranaut, this does not paint him in the greatest light. But in my opinion, it is his money and his movie so he should do as he pleases and what he finds right even if they could be somewhat questionable at times. 

Anyway, politics aside, with all the time you all still have in this lockdown, I would urge you all to check this movie out.