Flight of fancy, filled with hate
Although there is nothing new there, but some of us might like to explore the petty, hate-filled world of Bollywood film-makers. We have lived with the Indian filmmakers’ compulsive attitude of belittling and ridiculing Pakistan in their films to garner talk-ability and business for their films, which are not always worthy of the applause they manage to get through such cheap gimmicks. And ofcourse we continue to watch Bollywood as per our allegiance to good work and our favourite stars.
After all, defaming a country that your extremists are against can get you good mileage; and Indian filmmakers know this art quite well. This abashed commentary has been a norm for many decades. Films like Maachis, Border, LOC Kargil, Uri - The Surgical Strike, Phantom, The Hero, Gadar series, YRF’s spy-verse including Tiger series, Pathaan and War etc. are all, in one way or the other, best examples of hate-mongering films that guarantee box office success, that too with earth shattering numbers.
Why? It is because weak minds like to invest time in movies that give their fragile egos an adrenaline rush, so facts have nothing to do with these movies.
After Pathaan and War, Siddharth Anand’s latest venture Fighter paints Pakistanis and Muslims in shades of black. The film’s climax, laden with hate speech and controversies, exposes the film's disconnect from reality and its futile attempt to soar high at the box office. So, are we surprised that Fighter had extensive hate-speech against Pakistanis, but as they say, no matter how bad you talk about Pakistanis, we have the tendency to serve everyone with tea to which they cannot resist but respond “The tea was fantastic”.
The premise
In Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, a dangerous terrorist group, led by Azhar Akhtar (Rishabh Sawhney), is plotting an attack on India, specifically targeting the Srinagar Air Force Station of the Indian Air Force.
To counter this looming threat, Group Captain Rakesh "Rocky" Jai Singh (Anil Kapoor) takes charge and forms a team of skilled fighter pilots called the "Air Dragons." This elite squad includes Squadron Leaders Shamsher "Patty" Pathania (Hrithik Roshan), Minal "Minni" Rathore (Deepika Padukone), Sartaj "Taj" Gill (Karan Singh Grover), Basheer "Bash" Khan (Akshay Oberoi), and Sukhdeep "Sukhi" Singh (Baveen Singh).
Through rigorous training, the team not only honed their skills but also built strong bonds among themselves. Meanwhile, Minni finds herself inevitably drawn to Patty, but he grapples with personal demons from a past mission where he lost his fiancé.
As tension rises, news of a terrorist attack in Pulwama further escalates the situation. In response, the Indian Air Force, in collaboration with RAW agent Zarina Begum (funnily, a Pakistani man under the veil), devises a plan to strike back at Akhtar's base in Balakot. Though the mission succeeds, it sparks a dangerous conflict between India and Pakistan, leading to a retaliatory attack from the Pakistani Air Force.
In the midst of chaos, Patty, Taj, and Bash defy orders and cross the Indo-Pakistan border, leading to capture and suspension from the Air Dragons. Rocky's resentment towards Patty deepens when it's revealed that Patty's actions led to the death of Rocky's younger sister in a previous mission.
When news surfaces that Bash has been brutally murdered and Taj is badly injured and imprisoned, Patty's resolve is strengthened. Ignoring orders once more, he embarks on a covert mission to rescue Taj and take down Akhtar. With the help of his team, Patty successfully infiltrates enemy territory, rescues Taj, and eliminates Akhtar, bringing justice and closure to their mission.
In the aftermath, as celebrations ensue, Minni and Patty share a heartfelt embrace, marking not only their victory but also the strength of their bond amidst adversity. Filmy, very filmy! Isn’t it?
Aspiring heights, crashing lows
Usually, films that are based on patriotism, involving fighter jets, dogfights and a star cast that has a fan-base loaded with some top-notch performances. Hrithik Roshan is a seasoned actor, but it takes an able director to get the best out of him (like Pushkar, Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Vikas Bahl). Unfortunately, Siddharth believed in Hrithik’s looks more than his performance. This is what the film reflects.
Hrithik looks more of a model out for being featured as a thirst trap rather than a genuine pilot. There are scenes which could have been executed way better but the main lead of the movie is seen performing timidly. Roshan deserves better films specially after proving his mettle in Guzaarish, Super 30, Vikram Vedha and Kaabil.
Anil Kapoor is another actor who doesn’t need dialogue to prove himself, in films like Animal where his character was mostly an observant one, he managed to stand tall but in this film despite being given many lines and that too pretty aggressive ones, yet the imbalance in writing killed his intensity. Dialogue is so poorly written that an actor of Kapoor’s calibre could not manage to get noticed. In three simple words his performance can be defined as loud, over the top and mannequin-like. A great actor is wasted as a stern-faced Rocky.
The lacklustre script leaves audiences unimpressed, and Deepika Padukone's fighter pilot character falls flat in a love-driven subplot. Deepika Padukone as Minni is what a fighter pilot is not. Her character has more to do with finding her love-interest’s interest and her fathers’ validation. There are scenes where one would wonder why a fighter pilot is acting like a high school girl trying to woo a man who is not initially interested in her yet she is not ready to take a ‘no’. Lines such as “Ex toh nahin per next” gives an impression of how desperate a female fighter pilot can become. This is not just one, there are many other lines in this league loaded in the film.
Sad to see Karan Singh Grover and Akshay Oberoi in characters which don't have any back-stories. At one point it feels like they are there in the film to make Hrithik Roshan look cooler. Rishabh Sawhney reminds of Ashmit Patel from ‘Fight Club’. His character could have been stronger if the climax fight would be a little realistic for the kind of personality he is depicted as in the movie.
A blast of blunders
No matter how earnest your attempt is but if it lacks common sense, realistic touch and basic norms it is bound to fall flat on its face. Sadly, the same happened with Fighter too. There are scenes which are hard to swallow and they look so weird. For instance, the entry sequence of Patty is a great example of a show-off pilot on whose stature ‘disobedience’ is written all over. Every guy, despite being quite good pilots, drools over him as if he is Ursula Andress of the 60s. The buildup for the ‘hero’ is quite lame. Similarly, the verbal spat between Patty and the Pakistani Pilot, who wears Kohl while flying a fighter jet, is very funny. The scene is loaded with wrong Urdu, overly hard to understand way of talking, and with zero understanding of how people in Pakistan talk. Instead of being intense or high-octane drama as intended, the scenes actually make you laugh as in ROTF!
The entire ‘bonding’ part is so forced and unrealistic that those who have slightest exposure to the lives of pilots will feel bad about depicting them in such an exaggerated and ridiculous manner.
In the climax where Anil Kapoor takes Hrithik Roshan along with him on a fighter jet reassures the audiences that it is indeed a Bollywood movie that has no connectivity with the real world and the way life really is on a military base. The full-on drama sequence and emotional looks on their faces make it even worse because at point it feels like they are fighting their inner demons rather than for their motherland. May be that’s what they are doing if you really want to give credit to Siddhart Anand. One guy beating up the entire base with his ‘Jai Hind’ chants is nothing else but funny.
The climax fight is full of bad-mouthing Pakistan, specially the ‘India Occupied Pakistan’. This shows how filmmakers use controversy to attract more viewers and a grand box office business but sadly, irrespective of piling in all the hatred and demeaning Pakistan, the movie could not do well at the box office.
The kissing scene in the climax, where both Hrithik and Deepika are dressed in their military attire, got a legal notice by an Indian Air Force officer objectifying it all and they felt it's disrespectful to the uniform. So again, Anand is floating away from reality. That’s not all, the film also got banned in multiple parts of the world because of many reasons, and hate speech is one of them. There is news online that highlights the same.
The final word
If we believe what the film’s director has to say about the failure of his new movie, before the figures of corporate shows, i.e. “Fighter failed because 90% Indians haven’t flown in a plane” then one can believe that either 90% of Indians are Pathaan or Animal, since these are amongst the most successful films of last year.
On the whole, Fighter is filled with hatred towards Pakistan. The movie showcases made up stories that can only be celebrated by those who don’t know anything about the facts and reality. They perhaps have conveniently forgotten Abhinandan’s episode and many other responses that Pakistan has actually given them in the field. All they can do is keep churning out films based on fantasies that they think are reality or by generously adding their favourite Pakistan-India masala — and that’s what they love to do to make quick dough. Fighter is just one such fantasy venture.
Shafiq Ul Hasan Siddiqui is an avid movie buff, and film and drama critic and a digital inbound marketer. He tweets @shafiqulhasan81
All information and facts are the responsibility of the writer