Starring: Rana Daggubati, Taapsee Pannu, Kay Kay Menon, Rahul Singh, Kunal Kaushik, Preyadarshi, Satyadev, Dr Bharath Reddy, Atul Kulkarni and others
Cinematographer: Madhie
Music: K
Editor: A Sreekar Prasad
Dialogues: Gangaraju Gunnam (Telugu) & Azad Alam (Hindi)
Screenplay by: Sankalp Reddy, Gangaraju Gunnam and Niranjan Reddy
Produced by: Anvesh Reddy, Venkatramana Reddy, Prasad V Potluri, NM Pasha and Jagan Mohan Vancha
Production Companies: PVP Cinema & Matinee Entertainments
Distributed by: Dharma Productions (Hindi)
Story & Direction: Sankalp Reddy
Ghazi Tag Line: India's Engaging Underwater GAME on Pakistan! "Must Watch"
Ghazi Plot: (the film unit said that they added a lot of fiction to the original story)
The plot entirely revolves around the mysterious sinking of Pakistan's submarine PNS Ghazi. The story was set during 1971 when the battle for the liberation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) is going on. Pakistan wanted to have control over the Bay of Bengal area but to achieve the same; they should destroy India's submarine INS Vikrant. After cooking up a strategy, Pakistan sends submarine PNS Ghazi to destroy INS Vikrant. At the same time, Indian Navy comes out with another plan of sending INS S21 to destroy Pakistan's plan. The commander RV Singh (Kay Kay Menon) along with Lt. Commander Arjun Varma (Rana Daggubati) starts off their journey into the sea with the chief naval executive officer Devaraj (Atul Kulkarni). The rest of the film's plot is all about how INS S21 commanders successfully destroyed Pakistan's submarine, PNS Ghazi.
Performances:
Three actors stand out as the best in the movie. Kay Kay Menon, Rana Daggubati and Atul Kulkarni prove the fact that they are among the best actors on Indian screen. Kay Kay Menon's stunning performance again reminds us that he is the most underrated actor. Atul Kulkarni delivers a simple yet impactful performance. And the hero of the film., Rana Daggubati meets us with a performance which makes us feel proud of him being our Telugu actor. Rana is always in the race, but he tries to attempt what every other person in the industry hates to. With a brilliant performance as Lt. Commander, he proves his worth.
Taapsee's was like an extended cameo. She plays a refugee in the film.
The additional/supporting cast Nasser, Om Puri, Priyadarshi, Kunal Kaushik, Akshay Mittal, Dr Bharath Reddy, Satyadev, Ravi Varma and others did their job perfectly in the given limited roles.
Analysis:
Before, we bring our some analysis on the movie, let us tell you that there are multiple versions on the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi. The India's version was that the Navy successfully destroyed PNS Ghazi but the Pakistan denied it saying Ghazi was destroyed due to an accident that happened under water because of mines explosion. The director Sankalp Reddy readied an interesting plot around these incidents with some fiction.
"Some heroes may ever remain unsung but not forgotten." Ghazi is a tribute to all those never introduced heroes.
There is a lot to praise the film's teamwork. In the first of its kind submarine drama, the film Ghazi turns out to be the best thrilling and breathtaking entertainer. Ghazi is a gripping tale of courage and emotions where the over emotions or over patriotism denied a chance to dominate the story-telling process. Sankalp Reddy's new dimensional approach to the story-telling craft impresses us. Without making us feel bored, he narrated an inspiring story in an engaging manner. It is, of course, tough to handle a subject that is already a big controversy, but Sankalp Reddy handled the topic in a smooth way.
From the beginning to the end, Sankalp Reddy stayed true to its genre without forcing any extra commercial elements to fit the plot. There is a lot of hard work went into the making of the movie. The unique set work and the research that went into making the movie is amazing. The detailing that went into making the viewers understand the mechanism of a submarine functioning is also brilliant. There won't be any deviation in those two hours of the film's runtime. Ghazi is thoroughly engrossing and engaging. The VFX team should be credited for the impressive work they brought in for the movie. The underwater scenes came out well, and it is because of the brilliance exhibited by the VFX team. The cinematography by Madhie is impressive. Editing by Sreekar Prasad is nice. The artwork deserves a special mention. In a fabulous way, the makers have re-created a submarine. The production designing of the film is exemplary. Technically, Ghazi is sound, and the grip Sankalp Reddy had over it proved to be worthy.
The producers of Matinee Entertainments were the first to come on board for the project. But after PVP Cinema too coming on board, a good buzz has been created on Ghazi movie. The producers are to be appreciated for taking such a bold decision of making a film that they had no vision on how it is going to shape up in the end. Believing a newcomer Sankalp Reddy, PVP and his team invested some decent money and recruited top class technicians for the movie. Ghazi proves that "It is just not the money that the producers put on the project, but they have also added their 'taste' of cinema to it by standing as a big support to a newcomer like Sankalp Reddy who wishes to raise the bar of Telugu film." One thing is sure that, Ghazi is surely a difficult film to make, but this movie producers made it easy by being passionate film lovers. These producers (Niranjan Reddy, PVP and team) have also given a ray of hope for all those newcomers who wish to prove their talent one day. Our Telugu film industry needs more and more producers like them.
On a concluding note, Rana Daggubati surely deserves some further appreciation for always choosing the films like Ghazi without bothering about Market, Success, Failure, Acceptance and every other obstacle that prevents him from moving forward. Content is all he believes in, and the same has been proven again with Ghazi.
"Some heroes may ever remain unsung but not forgotten."
Merits:
- Rana-KayKayMenon-Atul Kulkarni Trio Performances
- BGM
- Story
- Screenplay
Minus Points:
The film unit could have used the voices of non-regular dubbing artists for the Bollywood actors.
Music:
The background score by K is good. His score helped for the elevation of certain scenes in the movie.
Others:
The narration by Mega Star Chiranjeevi is good. Ghazi is a perfect and engaging submarine drama. The viewers in the theatre voluntarily stood up in the theatre when the National Anthem was played in the second half of the movie. The scenes of torpedoes attacking submarine were convincing and engaging. Not sure, if the movie Ghazi can dominate at the box office as well but it is every Telugu movie lover's responsibility to make sure that the film gets the required commercial appreciation along with the critical acclaims. After all, Good Cinema deserves the BEST.
Verdict:
Ghazi is a submarine war drama that balances humanity, compassion, patriotism and technical wizardry in fine blend. Rana, Kay Kay Menon and Atul Kulkarni packs a punch with their performances. With amazing technical aspects, Ghazi turns out to be A MUST WATCH FILM.
Reviewed by Rayarao Sriram (can be reached @ twitter.com/rayaraosreeram)
