Vidyut Jammwal in the teaser of ‘IB 71’
One of the side effects of the current political scenario is that we are being bombarded with a number of films which trace the success stories of Indian intelligence agencies against Pakistan. While most of these spy thrillers push a ‘nationalist’ agenda, they also leave us with the feeling that even before 2014, our security apparatus was in tight hands. ‘Inspired’ by real events.
So, that mediocrity was hardly overcome Bell bottom And Mission Majnu Writer-director Sankalp Reddy decides to take us on another covert operation designed to thwart the evil designs of the neighbours.
IB 71 (no)
directorSankalp Reddy
mold: Vidyut Jammwal, Anupam Kher, Vishal Jethwa, Dalip Tahil, Faizan Khan, Niharica Raizada
Run-time: 117 minutes
Story: Agent Dev (Vidyut Jammwal) leads a top-secret mission to block Indian airspace for military movement to West Pakistan before the 1971 war.
Inspired by the January 1971 hijacking of a Fokker F27 aircraft named Ganga by Kashmiri extremists, the film tries to sell us the Pakistani theory that the hijacking was the handiwork of Indian intelligence agencies to find a reason to blockade the Indian side. The airfield for the movement of the Pakistani Army towards the then East Pakistan in the December 1971 war that led to the birth of Bangladesh. In terms of story, the writers have done a decent job of blending the available information with guesses and possibilities but the screenplay and execution limit the flight of imagination.
No story about the 1971 war is complete without a focus on the political will of Indira Gandhi, but her absence here is conspicuous. The makers ensure that Dalip Tahil appears as Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, but no such effort is made to cast a senior actor who looks like the then Defense Minister Jagjivan Ram.
It follows the formula where there’s a dashing officer (here we have Vidyut Jammwal as Agent Dev) whom we can spot from a distance but somehow the bumbling opponent fails to notice his antics. For a spy thriller, the build-up stretches on for a long time before hitting the right buttons. The characterizations are fictional and the performances a bit too dramatic for a spy thriller. With bunches of nervous energy, it looks like the actor is ready for a fancy dress show. With only one chase sequence, Vidyut hardly gets a chance to charge the scenario. The action hero might be trying something different, but for now it’s oscillating between not acting and overacting. Even a seasoned actor like Anupam Kher, who is expected to lend weight to the proceedings, looks out of touch as Awasthi, the head of the Indian intelligence apparatus. The young Kashmiri extremists (played by Vishal Jethwa and Faizan Khan) who hijack the plane come across as caricatures. If the idea was to make them look stupid, it doesn’t work.
In film after film, the versatile Ashwath Bhatt is being typecast as a slick Pakistani. Here again he undercuts the ISI boss with predictable distinction but unfortunately gets caught in a situation where exaggeration appears to be a virtue.
Like the rough Ganges, IB 71 Takes a long time to take off and picks up speed only in the last half an hour. But by then someone had given up on this ham-handed exercise.
IB 71 is currently running in theatres.