Shershaah: Jingoism-Less War Drama
Yogendra is freelance writer
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By Yogendra
First publised on 2021-08-19 23:34:27
About the Author
Yogendra is freelance writer
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Shershaah (named so because it was the soldier hero's codename during the Kargil war) is a biopic of Captain Vikram Batra and a war drama. It comes out trumps on the latter but falls short in doing full justice to the valiant and patriotic soldier as it traces his journey from a boy who never lets others take his things to a daredevil soldier sketchily and without substance. It also fails as it does not properly flesh out the other characters in the story.
The young Vikram fights a bigger boy to get back his ball as he tells his father, who thinks he will end up a ruffian, that "meri cheez mere se koi nahin cheen sakta". But the problem is that the writers fail to build up his character to show how the leadership qualities, the bravery and the will to sacrifice his life for others came into being in the son of a schoolteacher. The hero at one point tells his skeptical senior that the son of a school teacher can be an equally good soldier as one from a family with an army background. While that is absolutely true, the development should have been shown to make it a complete biopic.
But what goes well for Shershaah is that the focus is always on the soldier and the gentleman in him. There is no jingoism or chest thumping and the patriotism is reflected through the intense desire to protect the motherland from invaders. Batra makes it a point to ingratiate with everyone around him, including the local Kashmiris in Sopore, his first posting. He busts terror modules in his no-nonsense ways and is picked for recapturing a post during the Kargil war. The war scenes are well-done and the viewer is hooked. Batra makes the supreme sacrifice in destroying a camouflaged enemy bunker in order to recapture it and protect other soldiers in his team.
Siddarth Malhotra does a good job as Captain Batra. His body language, both as an awkward lover boy in college and as a soldier on the front, is spot on. But one was put off by his permanent smirk on his face when interacting with his seniors or colleagues. Kiara Advani as his love interest Dimple plays a good supporting part and is excellent in some scenes. The rest of the cast is done in by poor writing. A better script would have lifted the movie immensely.
