'IB 71' Movie Review: Slightly pakau Pak pic, phir se!

Film IB 71Cast Vidyut Jammwal Anupam Kher Vishal JethwaDirector Sankalp ReddyRating 25One of the filmrsquos opening slates if I read right is a dedicationtribute to all lsquoJammwaliansrsquo who arenrsquot some kind of aliens from another galaxy Irsquom guessing theyrsquore a vast network of fans of the lead actor Vidyut Jammwal whorsquos also produced this picture for theatrical release In the hope that his admirers suitably turn up and pay upHis production company is called Action Hero Which is the genre of movies he has perennially starred in mdash namely Commando I II III etc In its very bread butter plus cheesy form itrsquos not the film Irsquod particularly go gaga overBut this movie that is IB 71 mdash IB for Intelligence Bureau and not Imperial Blue in case yoursquore a lowdeck drinker mdash isnrsquot the sort of actioner made for socalled Jammwalians eitherWhatrsquos the payback theyrsquoll look for Basically HeMan ripping his shirt off to lift a motorbike on his head which is my only surviving memory from Jammwalrsquos debut Force 2010 mdash or was it the lead John Abraham who did thatWrought iron Jammwal 42 is anyway Bravo John of his generation mdash the latter in turn has similarly veered towards thrillers that donrsquot require him to trouble his muscles that much the likes of Madras Cafeacute Parmanu etcIB 71 is an attempt to scope out something similar Meaning a mix of hostage drama and espionage thriller where Jammwal isnrsquot James Bond mdash he plays a sarkari agent still who can wallop a fellow or two when no onersquos lookingThis then sadly requires all the more humanising elements mdash wit charm even humour if you may mdash to keep audiences adequately engaged once yoursquove drawn them in God knows Akshay Kumar has championed this space for a while Airlift Baby etc The hero here has little to show for The writers havenrsquot bothered enough eitherAbsolutely the only aspect that works for the film then is the storyline Which as per claims is based on true events Since that involves the countryrsquos spy agency mdash there is no way for us to verify any of it Besides what we do know mdash as any Google search will reveal mdash is an Indian Airlines passenger plane Ganga that was hijacked in January 1971This is recorded as the first such hijacking case The original target was meant to be the Indian Prime Ministerrsquos son Rajiv Gandhi an IA pilot then That didnrsquot occur But the plane that landed in Lahore instead of Jammu from Srinagar had hijackers demanding the release of 36 terrorists linked to Kashmir lodged in Indian jails The main guy was a 16yearold Bizarrely the weapon used was a frickinrsquo toy gunWhatrsquos the catch Again basic Internet scrolling suggests this entire drama was staged by RAW mdash not IB headed here by an allpowerful Anupam Kherrsquos character Net result India could legally close down its airspaces preventing any aerial attack by PakistanWhat you see in the film is a ChinesePakistani operation to fly fighter planes across the Indian mainland to wrest control of the NorthEast Only an expert or eyewitness can vet the facts But thatrsquos not why we watch fictionalised films anywayOr why I did Oh why did I Chiefly for the filmrsquos young director from Hyderabad Sankalp the guy to watch out for ever since his debut Ghazi Attack 2017 starring Rana Daggubati Kay Kay Menon That was literally an immersive experience inside submarines mdash surveying a blind battle between Indian and Pakistani ships similarly set in the 1971 WarIB 71 in terms of a wholly outdoor canvas mostly Kashmir is the opposite of Ghazi Attack To be fair there are a few filmmaking flourishes Consider the motorboat chase sequence in whatrsquos likely to be Dal Lake Or scenes involving the little hijacker boy mdash Vishal Jethwa from Mardaani 2 looks a bit like a young Uday Chopra mdash visiting a local cinema to exchange notes with his militant partnersAt the other end are of course the Pakistani Army blokes with zero backstory mdash introduced to us as slight nincompoops going ldquokhush khabrirdquo because ldquoaccording to one reportrdquo India is incapable of resisting Pak attackAlso Read Afwaah movie review Waah AFFrankly when the enemy seems so dumb whatrsquos the pleasure to derive from defeating it Meghna Gulzarrsquos Raazi 2018 is a case in point for a picture where you suitably feel something for the other side as wellMercifully they donrsquot seem as dumb in the movie by the end of it Even as everything takes place before their eyes and theyrsquore literally groping in the dark what with the lights that conveniently go off when they mustEventually the film descends into the usual IndoPak movie from India with shots of mosques for Pakistan where men go ldquoJanab Janab Janabhelliprdquo There is the sepia tone to suggest a period pic And planes landing and taking offSo what do you even say How do you tell one from the other Letrsquos see IB 71 gt bozolike Bhuj 2021 Hardly as entertaining as Bell Bottom 2021 Basically lsquodekhi hui hairsquo as the French write deacutejagrave vu Better still mdash slightly pakau Pak pic phir se in Hinglish

'IB 71' Movie Review: Slightly pakau Pak pic, phir se!

Film: IB 71

Cast: Vidyut Jammwal, Anupam Kher, Vishal Jethwa

Director: Sankalp Reddy

Rating: 2/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / 'IB 71' Movie Review: Slightly pakau Pak pic, phir se!

'IB 71' Movie Review: Slightly pakau Pak pic, phir se!

Film: IB 71

Cast: Vidyut Jammwal, Anupam Kher, Vishal Jethwa

Director: Sankalp Reddy

Rating: 2/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast