Sunday evening, bored, nothing to do, went to the malls, decided to see a movie, the only one that was going to start in fifteen minutes was something called Tango Charlie.
Didn?t seem like an interesting choice, considering the name, but what the heck ? there were too many reasons to see this movie (all of them listed above!!!).
Was a li?l late entering the hall, but when we did enter, saw Sanjay Dutt and Sunil (or is it Suneil or Suniel these days?) cracking inane jokes, staring at their very high tech monitor and being able to identify enemy soldiers (who, incidentally, as it turned out later, were the Mujahideen in the Kargil wars, and therefore could not logically have been dressed in any sort of uniforms) and one Indian soldier (half buried in snow) at one glance. Very sharp chaps those, or extremely intelligent software, that.
Anyway, they pick up the Indian chappie disobeying orders (all by a very simple turning off of the communication system), load him into the copter, frisk the guy and immediately find a diary. The rest of the movie is spend in a series of flash backs and Sunil Shetty reads out the diary to (sometimes funny) comments from Sanjay Dutt.
Turns out the soldier is actually a jawan from the BSF, who has gone places. Bodo infested Manipur, then Naxal infested south, riot torn Ahmedabad and finally Kargil attacked by the Pakistani Mujahideen.
Ajay Devgan makes a dramatic entry when he traps the novice (and a very stupid looking, I must add) Bobby Deol in a trap. Deol joins a group of gung ho BSF soldiers to seek and kill Bodo militants. Kelly Dorjee as the leader of a group of Bodos is very menacing, but altogether there is too much blood and gore in that sequence. One of the Indian soldiers is made to shriek like a gutted pig for well over on hour (or so it seems, though its only for a few minutes) ? that scene would have better been avoided. In the end, all the soldiers except Devgan and Deol are killed.
There is a rather long interlude here, where Deol gets engaged to a feisty Tanisha, but the scenes seem contrived and long drawn. The songs would have best be left alone, they are not even hummable. Comments on Deol during the entire movie, but especially during this sequence, follow.
Both of them are next seen in action in Andhra Pradesh where they battle the Naxals. The only notable scene from this sequence is when Deol saves a Naxal from being raped by one of his fellow jawans. One hilarious moment ? Devgan asks a local fellow soldier about the most common name in the area, and by the simple expedient of calling out that name, manages to shoot and kill one more attacker, who was shown to be stupid enough to stand up tall as soon as he heard his name being called. Devgan also manages to learn the local dialect enough to fool the attackers by speaking complete sentences in their language. Aw, come on! God ? lets all pray that all the terrorists, the naxals, the bodos were as stupid as our poor dead friends here.
We next see our heroes battle the rioters in Ahmedabad, where Deol manages to kill an innocent person when aiming at a shooter from among the goons. He then goes to apologize to that person?s family, and gets beaten up in the process. Miraculously, Devgan comes in and rescues Deol, but there is no explanation for that miracle.
There is a flashback-in-a-flashback when Devgan reminisces about the time when he lost his head - when he fell in love with a very busty Nandana Sen, who?s marriage he was charged to oversee, since there were threats of its disruption by the locals. As expected, Nandana doesn?t have much to do in this sequence except thrust her breasts at Devgan at every opportunity, and in one scene bare a large part of one, while she is shown bare backed. Rest of the time, she tries too hard to speak in a very Bengali manner, but ends up pursing her lips way too much, ruining the effect.
Our heroes are then packed off to Kashmir where they are asked to guard a bridge with their lives. This they do, literally. Only Deol survives, and heroically, is able to kill an entire unit, and capture one of the chaps, slip a bomb into the man?s bag, force him to knock the doors of his outpost hut and enter. By the simple means of setting off that bomb, Deol is able to destroy the entire unit. But lo and behold ? the highest officer, who is shown to be closest to the blast, survives it, long enough to pump a few bullets into our intrepid hero, until our hero is able to return the favor, enough to kill him.
After which, the flashback is over, since he is rescued by the patrolling helicopter.
This movie starts out very promisingly, and the fights are very well shown. The storyline is very interesting, and the message very important. The message comes out very well.
Devgan, as always, manages to impress. His understated style of acting is very effective, and he has immense screen presence. Bobby Deol is good in the action sequences.
But again and again, it strikes me that the director does not think very much about his audiences? intelligence. The statements made by the rescuing copter pilots are very self-evident, the brilliant ideas that the protagonists have are not exactly brilliant. Contrived.
The first time I saw Bobby Deol in Barsaat, he seemed to be a little light in the head. At that time, I gave him the benefit of doubt ? the role probably demanded that. But every movie of his since then, he reinforces the sentiment. Here, he effortlessly manages to look like a simpleton in almost all scenes where he had to say something.
The editing of the movie, too, leaves a lot to be desired.
On the whole, a missable movie. Only recommended in case you are in the same situation as I was, that Sunday eve.