Review - 1971: Wars in vain...

Don’t write it off as yet another war movie. For one, it is more an ‘escape’ movie than a war movie. Secondly, it is a warm movie. It makes you think of the futility of it all - the partition, the wars themselves, the retention of the prisoners of war. The beauty of the movie lies in how focused the story is. There is no dilly-dallying, no silly or non-silly sub-plots.

This is one of those rare scripts that can be appreciated without awesome or awe-inspiring dialogues. It has a gripping well-paced screenplay which surprises you, shocks you, and disturbs you. The dialogues are simple without being inane. In fact the restraint used in avoiding over-the-top heavy lines is simply admirable. The very expected “Pakistan-bashing” dialogues are conspicuous by their absence.

The background music is beautiful. However, my problem was with the over-use. The quality is ruined by the quantity. There was background music almost throughout the movie and it was loud – louder than the dialogue at times.

The acting by all the lead actors is not top-notch but is good enough not to distract you from the story. It’s the dialogue delivery of the supporting cast that is…weird. The actors playing roles in the Pakistani military brought laughs where none are warranted. And why-oh-why was the helicopter pilot doing a Dev Anand?

No single scene might jerk tears but it surely brings a lump in your throat when the credits roll – not with the names of the crew members but with names and pictures of the real prisoners of war - the men who put their lives on line so that we could live comfortably.