Gunjan Saxena Review: Where no (Indian) woman's gone before

Gunjan Saxena The Kargil GirlUA DramaOn NetflixDirector Sharan SharmaCast Janhvi Kapoor Pankaj Tripathi Vineet Kumar Singh Angad BediRatingWait is this the first desi film ever centred on the female lead while there is no allusion let alone presence of a male loveinterest or significant other as they call it mdash all through Statisticians who keep score mdash and there should be such folk for cinema as there are in sport mdash should know betterI mean there is a moment where the young heroine as it were mentions something to the effect of wanting to get married But thats just a stray remark coming off her volition and something her dad vehemently opposesWatchGunjan Saxena The Kargil Girl TrailerPankaj Tripathi plays the fathers role In ways that only he can When he simply walks in with that beatific smile to the screen within the films first minute he radiates enough warmth for you to root for his little one already Because shes the daughter of such a lovely man This sort of presence is such a unique quality to have Makes the job of empathy so easy for an audienceAlso quite often the father as the persistent ally explains a lot about how patriarchy gets challenged in society among desis anyway Take the phenomenal story of Malala for instance Davis Guggenheims He Named Me Malala 2015Gunjan Saxenas of course a very different tale Shes a fighter pilot mdash from the first batch of female recruits in the history of Indian Air Force IAF An officer and a lady mdash she fought the Kargil War in 1999Oh another thing Is this the first Indian warmovie that at no scene dialogue casual or otherwise ever descends into bloodlustthirst to a point that I dont think Pakistan the enemy across the border is even mentioned once And its an IndoPak war filmThat is commendable alright For multiple reasons But more so because the jingoism bit on the battlefield has been done and dusted to death To the soldier in the actual frontline Im presuming what matters is the tacticsmechanics of war rather than emotions behind it mdash think 1917 2019No Im not comparing this to the Sam Mendes masterpiece The scale and conflict there was way too wideexpansive No knock on this films technical competence either It sits comfortably among the better ones of the lot mdash with a firsttime filmmaker Sharan Sharma at the helm which is a feat on its ownThe issue perhaps is that for a good portion there isnt quite a real conflict in the picture at all mdash introduced nonetheless for how else do you carry along a plot without an obstacle course to engage audiences withThe girl has a dream to fly The dad is there to see it fulfilled Its only when shes in the Air Force flying high having broken a real ceiling that shes up against an impenetrable wall These are men led confidently by actor Vineet Kumar Singh who cannot deal with a woman in their baseThere is also a brocode that the girl must honour Which anybody whos been to an allboys boarding school will recognise right away And Im guessing the armed forces work no differently She never rats on her seniors Shes hazed to the point of serious public humiliationTo what extent is this true Real life Gunjan Saxena on whom this script is based has evidently participated in its tellingwriting Either way the last thing Id want to know is the defense establishments reaction to this film This doesnt claim to be a piece of documentary or journalism eitherThe armed forces have recently asked for powers to precensor films set around their workingsprofession Which is a privilege that must then also be extended to the police judiciary bureaucrats politicianshellip Where does this end But thats a separate matterWhats undeniable about Gunjan Saxena only partly about the Kargil War is that it is the ultimate insideroutsider story About a phenomenon so universal mdash across all fields and spheres of life mdash that you can practically dub every film as being about the outsider becoming the insider or not Or as Tolstoy famously said All great literature is one of two stories A man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to townThis is a woman Jahnvi Kapoor 23 plays or rather wholly embodies Gunjan Saxena mdash through the 80s to the end of 90s She wears that perennial look on her face of someone to whom life simply happens while she casually passes the world by There is something so nonactor type about her presence Maybe the word Im looking for is instinct You stay with her throughout Is this film for young girls what Govind Nihalanis IAF film Vijeta 1982 was for kids that generationCould be Its certainly straight from the gut kinda stuff You know what I wouldve preferred though Watching this collectively with an audience mdash emotions further amplified in a dark hall before a massive screen mdash with people responding to every cue until the inevitable crescendo in the climax Impossible to simulate that experience alone at home noCatch up on all the latest entertainment news and gossip here Also download the new 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