Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl
Ratings:3/5
Duration: 1 Hr 52 Mins
Director: Sharan Sharma
Genre: Biography. Drama
Language: Hindi
Releasing Date: 12th August 2020
Streaming On: Netflix
Cast: Jhanvi Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi, Manav Vij, Maneesh Verma, Vineet Kumar, Ayesha Raza Mishra, Riva Arora
Plot: The film ‘Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl’ is about a Lucknow girl Gunjan Saxena played by Janhvi Kapoor who became an Indian Airforce Pilot at the age of 24 - and became India's one of the first two woman pilot combat aviator to fly Cheetah helicopters in the Kargil war zone.
She has shattered the glass ceiling in the 90s by pulling away from the conventional route of ‘good girls getting a degree-and-getting married’ during a time when feminism wasn’t a vogue.
She was also known as the Kargil Girl, since she displayed exemplary courage during the Kargil war in 1999 and was honoured with the Shaurya Vir award.
The film depicts the incredible real-life story, gender-based discrimination and struggles faced by her - a former Indian Air Force pilot.
Review: Director Sharan Sharma makes a compelling directorial debut with this Indian biographical film and has managed to capture the gender dynamics with utmost honesty and poise.
While the film compels you to redefine patriotism and battle patriarchy, at heart, patriotism is not the central theme in Gunjan Saxena. It is more about the demoralising discrimination which she faced in the man’s world - both in her family and at her workplace.
It’s rare for a film to show people just the way they are! For instance - when Gunjan admits to her father, the night before she leaves home for her training, that she doesn’t want to be in the armed forces out of a desire to serve her country: she just wants to fly. To which her father assures her that her pursuit of excellence is all that the country needs. The depicts that the director has retained what makes her human and is definitely the biographical drama’s biggest achievement.
Moreover, with a wholly different, but equally thorny topic - ‘sexism at the workplace’ that was faced by Gunjan in the Armed Forces instead of hyper-nationalism that recent Indian war films have so proudly worn on their chest, the director has come up with a smart and ‘uncomfortable’ real look at what women experience in a man’s world, through an inspiring true story, which is refreshing.
When it comes to performances, the film was always going to be judged on whether Jhanvi Kapoor would be able to carry off the role. Jahnvi Kapoor as Gunjan falters in scenes requiring anger, anxiety or any kind of nuance. While she does well in sentimental scenes. The actor has shown vulnerability beautifully but her strong appeal as an IAF pilot lacked a display, which might have been a deliberate move. However, performance-wise, she is still clearly a work-in-progress.
Whereas Pankaj Tripathi who always has her back despite criticism from his wife and son shines as the doting, encouraging father. This father-daughter duo reminds of Ram Madhvani’s Neerja. Their respective roles fit like a glove as the ‘father-daughter moments’ will leave many teary-eyed.
The rest of the star cast - Vineet Kumar shown as someone who stands by the ‘man's world rule’ aces it perfectly. Angad Bedi gets one-dimensional characters with limited scope yet isn't forgettable. His part could have been written with more depth. While Manav Vij as the Commanding Officer, fierce and fair in his judgement, is impeccable - he is always a treat to watch when it comes to showing a tough man. Not to forget the effective Manish Verma as the SSB officer or Ayesha Raza Mishra as Gunjan's worried mother.
When it comes to the technical aspects of the movie, renowned American aerial coordinator Marc Wolff, known for his work in Hollywood blockbusters like Mission Impossible, Jason Bourne and Star Wars series has executed the pilot training, the helicopter sorties and the aerial combat scenes well. Additionally, the background score subtly and assuredly weaves its magic
But with ‘Kargil War’ as the crucial backdrop, the war comes later in the film than expected. That is, even though the film is centred on the 1999 war, there’s little of ‘Kargil’ in the ‘Kargil Girl’ film. As the war sequence that was filmed in Georgia, lasts only 8 minutes - a very small amount of time was dedicated to the film’s most dramatic incident and only war scene, hence feels hurried and not entirely convincing, especially with the fresh memories of Uri’s exceptional action scenes.
As far as the music is concerned it’s Kausar Munir's lyrics for the song 'Dhoom dhadaka’, sung by Sukhwinder Singh that has sets the mood of the film aptly - as it seemed like Munir has wrote by keeping every woman in mind who has fought great odds to make her own road.
Overall, the film Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl makes for an essential watch for reasons that go beyond story or its telling - it is heart-touching not for its patriotism but for its feminism.
