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Join UsStar Cast: Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Harshvardhan Rane, Gurmeet Choudhary, Luv Sinha, Siddhanth Kapoor, Jackie Shroff
Director: J.P. Dutta
What’s Good: The intention of telling a brave story that was untold but that’s about it, nothing else can be termed as good for the film.
What’s Bad: Every actor, be it Indian or Chinese, has acted like they’re starring a in spoof directed by AIB & not a war drama, Shaky camerawork & how abruptly the zooming is used, lousy narration.
Loo Break: The movie is over two & a half hours; more than the loo break you’ll need a running break to avoid the sleep.
Watch or Not?: Watch Border & keep the respect intact for J.P. Dutta.
User Rating:
Paltan, if you’re lucky enough not to watch the trailer, you should know it is about a war based on Nathu La and Cho La clashes that happened in 1967. Movie starts with showing a flashback of 1962 war and how the Chinese army destroyed Indian army and killed many of ours. Cut to present, we see Major General Sagat Singh (Jackie Shroff) and Lieutenant Colonel Rai Singh Yadav (Arjun Rampal) discussing about the new platoon & delivering dialogues which Dutta sahab received on his WhatsApp like “More you sweat in peace, less you bleed in war.”
Joining his new platoon, Colonel Rai meets a bunch of over-soldiers (soldiers who overact) – Major Bishen Singh (Sonu Sood), Captain Prithvi Singh Dagar (Gurmeet Choudhary), Major Harbhajan Singh (Harshwardhan Rane), Luv Sinha (Attar Singh) and an interpreter in Siddhanth Kapoor. The story, at a snail’s pace, moves forward portraying some really absurd clashes between the Chinese and Indian army. Yes, there’s a war sequence in the end and you can enjoy that if you aren’t asleep by then.
Paltan Movie Review: Script Analysis
If this would’ve come from any director apart from J.P. Dutta, disappointment would’ve been less. But this man has gifted Bollywood one of its best war-drama movies & he delivering such weak product is the reason of my heartbreak. The intent is pure but the movie fails at various technical departments. From shaky camerawork to a huge miscast of actors, Paltan suffers from many negatives.
We know soldiers need to be energetic but why make them shout so much? After a point of time, it starts annoying you. Even the Chinese portions of the story are very poorly written hence failing to evoke patriotism at any level. You feel heavy hearted and annoyed at the same time in the last 15 minutes. Because of emotions & wasting the first 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Paltan Movie Review: Star Performance
Arjun Rampal leads the team and has some cringe-worthy scenes at time. But he has some good scenes too, can’t be bashed entirely. Sonu Sood, too, is decent at places & bad at some. Harshvardhan Rane is the best of the lot. He gets over-enthusiastic at places but that’s how his character was written so no complaints.
Gurmeet Choudhary is good too, he has various shades to his character which makes it interesting than others. Luv Sinha and Siddhanth Kapoor are almost negligible. Both don’t get enough scope to put out their notable work. Jackie Shroff is totally wasted! He has given some of the worst dialogues & that too in English. Less I say better for the women of the film because they hardly get in screen time to leave a mark.
Paltan Movie Review: Direction, Music
J.P. Dutta – Sir, “War chhodo na yaar!” He has reached the diminishing marginal utility point of war-dramas where he can’t just better his previous work. What started with Border, went downhill with LOC Kargil and officially (Read: Thankfully) is ending with Paltan. I so wish he should’ve ended this on brilliant note but alas!
Anu Malik has delivered a good song in Main Zinda Hoon which is heavily inspired by Sandese Aate Hai. It creates the desired impact in the climax. Sanjoy Chowdhury’s background score comes on your face at places. It’s forces and sounds unpleasant at times.
Paltan Movie Review: The Last Word
All said and done, Paltan carries a very brave story but is very shabbily told. It fails technically and hence the narration is unconvincing. Skip this and save yourself from a patriotic torture.
One star!
Paltan Trailer
Paltan releases on 07th September, 2018.
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