Rating: 3.5/5 stars (Three-and-half-star)
Star cast: Atul Kulkarni, Nana Patekar, Sanjeev Jaiswal, Ganesh Yadav
What’s Good: The cinematography, the lucid flow of the narration, all performances.
What’s Bad: The style of narration suits the news-mode more than the movie-mode.
Loo break: None.
Watch or Not?: For reliving the intensity of the attacks and this well retold narration, boasting of power packed performances by all, especially Nana Patekar, this one is definitely worth a watch.
It is not a story being told. Not an accident either. The Attacks Of 26/11 is the set of terror attacks that hit Mumbai on November 26, 2008 being produced into reel with some really appreciable cinematography and mentionable performances.
Some native fishermen trek in to the Arabian looking for a rare fish that is found only in deep water. After a while they realize they might have entered international waters, in this case, that of Pakistan. In the mean time they see a Pakistani trawler in distress. While the Indian fishermen try to find out what is wrong, they’re faced with the terrorists coercing them into helping the 10 terrorists to reach Mumbai. All fishermen are killed and dumped at sea by the time they reach a shabby Mumbai port.
Here on begins the communication between the terrorists and the commoners. The 10 break into smaller groups and attack pre designed areas. The back grounds of the terrorists are not focused upon much as are the little details of the victims. There is often shown some moments of sanity and human considerations on the part of Ajmal Kasab, played by Sanjeev Jaiswal, which were suppressed without delay by his companion in the ruthless strikes.
The climax shows Kasab’s sentence to be hanged till death in action. Crude scenes of violence make the movie unsuitable for the feeble hearted. By the end of the movie the Joint Commissioner of Police, played by Nana Patekar, Mumbai, passes with distinction in the departmental scrutiny and goes to head the Anti Terrorism Squad.
The whole movie sees the Police in a very glorious light. And the attacks are being narrated by Nana Patekar, giving a concrete feel to the content. For the viewer, it is reliving the shame of religious extremism, the pain of loss and the rise of bravery from amongst the common.
The Attacks of 26/11 Review: Script Analysis
It is not much of a script. If you have been watching the news during and post- 26/11 attacks, you probably know it all. Even the case updates with regards to Ajmal Kasab will provide you much of the information that Nana Patekar goes on the reveal. So may be for a movie based on a highly spoken-about terrorist attack, The Attacks Of 26/11 fails to break any ice with the script. But keeping that in mind, the movie has a fresh feel that makes you want to sit through and view the very well sequenced script. Sunil Wadhwani does commendable work at editing.
The Attacks of 26/11 Review: Star Performances
We miss Atul Kulkarni, though it makes sense to say his performance was critically well placed. Nana Patekar, if we can ignore, at times, unwanted voice modulation, does an amazing job of playing the Joint Commissioner of Police to a city that did not even have time to recover from an attack before having to face another one of similar or higher magnitudes. About Sanjeev Jaiswal, his expressions are commendable though his lines only match them up pretty late into the film.
The Attacks of 26/11 Review: Direction, Music & Technical Aspects
Director Ram Gopal Verma went to the scenes in November 2008 to do some 1st hand research. Well, we can see the effect. The film is well directed keeping in mind it put together a massive number of abstract characters. Cinematography however wins over anything else. Harshraj Shroff and M. Ravichandran Thevar liven up the shades of the sky and the cityscape to explain the pathos in vivid visuals. Vikram Biswas worked pretty well keeping in mind the sound score of the movie set the theme of a psychological thriller (from the terrorists’ point of view ), in combination with that of an incidental narration.
The Attacks of 26/11 Review: The Last Word
We have seen it too many times, the quotes from the Holy religious texts being explained to the wrongdoer after the deed is done. We see it here again. That said, in the aftermath of the recent Hyderabad blasts; see this just to know the larger picture.
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