THE ATTACKS OF 26/11 Movie Review: RGV needs a standing ovation : glamsham.com


Director :	Ram Gopal Varma
Music :	Rooshin Dalal, Kaizad Gherda, Amar Mohile, Vishal R. Khosla, Sushil R. Khosla and Sukhwinder Singh
Lyrics :	Kalgi Thakar, Rashid Iqbal and Liaqat Jafri
Starring :	Nana Patekar, Sanjeev Jaiswal and Ganesh Yadav

March 1, 2013 01:00:46 PM IST
By Martin D'Souza, Glamsham Editorial

A movie on the Attacks of 26/11 is bound to have the naysayers quip, ''What's new''? That exactly was my thought as well. We all know what happened on that fateful day. The images on television kept numbing our senses for two whole days as the distressing acts disturbed us all, leaving a pall of gloom over Mumbai city and other parts of the country as well.


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Any filmmaker who takes a real-life topic and keels it for a movie audience has to be gutsy. For Ram Gopal Varma, he had nothing to lose. His AAG and NOT A LOVE STORY (another film based on another real life incident) have been his nemesis along with the recent BHOOT RETURNS. With 26/11, he comes back into the limelight; 24x7 for at least the next one week.

CHECK OUT: Advani lauds Ram Gopal Varma's THE ATTACKS OF 26/11; calls it 'Brilliant'

He recreates the attacks on CST, The Taj Lobby, the blast at Santacruz, the killing of the then ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar and ACP Ashok Kamte as well as the shooting at Leopold Cafe Gripping is the manner in which he shows the terrorists calmly walk through the fishermen colony to hail cabs to their various destinations, backpack in tow. It was as if they were on a picnic.

The film helps one understand the complete crumbling of intelligence and the state of our policemen on beat, most with just laathis. One scene at the Leopold Cafe highlights this with two cops lobbing stones into the cafe after the terrorists have moved on. They have just their laathis with them. A stark display of how unarmed and vulnerable our policemen are.
But what really gets you to laud the director is the manner in which he has narrated the entire incident - through the central character, Joint Commissioner of Police (Nana Patekar). We see the terror that unfolded through his eyes.


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Kudos to the censors for not altering a single dialogue. The Fs and Bs impact keeping the entire situation in mind. What is truly enlightening is the manner in which the Commissioner of Police takes Kasab to meet his friends when the latter expresses his desire to be with his colleagues. The scene at the morgue is a chilling revelation to him of how he has been made a scapegoat by those who brainwashed him into this mindless, senseless act. Kasab turns from hyena to chicken. The entire sequence handled by RGV and delivered by Patekar needs a standing ovation. For those, who for long felt that films on terror target them will love the way in which a peace message has been sent.

CHECK OUT: RGV on 26/11 - For the first time, I am scared

''If only you had read the Quran once, you would know the meaning of peace,'' Nana Patekar's character tells Kasab.

RGV and Eros International should dub this film in as many languages as possible. Methinks it should have an international release.

Welcome back, RGV!

Rating :

4.0/5