Ground Zero is about hunt for a terrorist mastermind

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This year, which has seen a surfeit of films (seven, with two more to come in the next three weeks!) laced with patriotic fervor, we have had two stories of contemporary unsung heroes in Sky Force and The Diplomat. And Ground Zero joins them as a welcome addition.

The film explores the passionate zeal of Narendra Dubey (essayed here by Emraan Hashmi) of the Border Security Force (BSF) in Kashmir, as he relentlessly chases enemies of the nation in general and General Ghazi (Rockey Raina), the mastermind behind the 2001 Parliament Attack and many other terrorist activities, in particular.

In the process, Dubey must also rein in those misguided Kashmiri youth who are influenced by enemy infiltrators and other traitorous elements to foment trouble within by shooting BSF forces with the allure of both money and Jannat (heaven) if killed. Dube strongly believes that such young men must be reformed and not punished or shot. One such boy he chooses, Hussain (Mir Mehrooz), even begins to work for him by giving him information about the inimical forces.

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Dubey often comes in confrontation with his immediate boss (Mukesh Tiwari) and the Intelligence Chief (Rahul Vohra), who follow both protocol and their own egos more than what they should. Given the info that Ghazi Baba is now based in Srinagar, Dube and his loyal colleagues give it their all, unmindful of orders as well as their own safety, to eliminate the dreaded commander of Jaish-E-Mohammed. In real life, the elimination of this scourge put back this terrorist organization by a good many years.

The film spans till 2003 from a few years earlier and it is an eerie coincidence that it released two days after the real-life Pahalgam horror. Unsung heroes across the board (social, political, patriotic, sports and more) have been repeatedly highlighted in our movies and for that alone, I welcome this film—the more such deshbhakti movies the merrier! We do need these doses of awareness of people because of whom we all live in peace today in general.

Director Tejas Vijay Prabha Deoskar made his Hindi debut with the social satire Chhatriwali some years back and has a background in Marathi cinema. He triumphs in his relaxed, non-sensational and non-ornamented storytelling, but for the obvious minimum dramatizations needed for cinematic purposes.

The screenplay is devoid of sudden and solid dramatic highs and yet maintains its quota of twists and action. Again, after The Diplomat, we have the principal characters having their original names rather than fictionalized ones, and that is a welcome aspect.

The technical values are obviously upscale and Kamaljeet Singh Negi’s magical camerawork makes Kashmir looks as much ethereal as ominous as per the sequences. The songs, as per current norms, are eminently not durable, though within the movie, Rohan-Rohan’s Pehli dafa, with Irshad Kamil’s heartfelt lyrics, works well. Sunny Inder’s Fateh and Tanishk Bagchi’s So lene de also complement their visuals. However, John Stewart Eduri fares much better in the background score.

Emraan Hashmi, who played an ace agent called out of retirement in the web series, Bard of Blood, gives a very skilled account of himself as Dubey, and it is a very interesting coincidence that even in that series he had a conflict with his boss! Sai Tamhankar does not have much of a role as his wife but does well, scoring in her sequence with an obdurate media. Rahul Vohra is correctly obnoxious and looks the part eminently, while Zoya Hussain as Aadila is impressive. Mukesh Tiwari hams as Emraan’s immediate boss. The actors playing Emraan’s loyal colleagues do very well, especially Deepak Paramesh as Binu. As for Mir Mehrooz, he is excellent as Hussain. Rockey Raina as Ghazi Baba also scores in his brief role.

Rating: ***1/2

Excel Entertainment’s & Talisman Films’ Ground Zero  Produced by: Ritesh Sidhwani & Farhan Akhtar  Directed by: Tejas Vijay Prabha Deoskar Written by: Sanchit Gupta & Priyadarshee Srivastava Music: Rohan-Rohan, Tanishk Bagchi & Sunny Inder Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Sai Tamhankar, Zoya Hussain, Rockey Raina, Mir Mehrooz, Deepak Paramesh, Mukesh Tiwari, Rahul Vohra, Lalit Prabhakar & others

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