Rating – *** (3/5)
Pulawama attack. Balakot air strike. These occurrences, now in popular culture has a dominated presence where more and more projects are centered and planned around them. From commercial treatment to a detailed analysis and much more, we now have several films and shows trying to tap into a phenomenon that shook the entire nation. You might have flashes of the surgical strike as well, where we saw several films and shows being made just when the topic was more prominent until this took over.
We now have Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond, which has now released on JioCinema. Unlike the others, this series, as the name suggests delves deeper into what went behind-the-scenes along with the pre-attack scenario and the post-attack consequences as well. One thing you cannot fault Ranneeti for – is being technically sound and its scale. Apart from a few understandably shoddy CGI work in the air battles, the production design, canvas and editing of the series is top-notch and done with precision. There is a constant urgency with every sequence which keeps you on hooked with biting nails – especially in the set piece that leads to the attack, and the aftermath of it.
It also helps that you have some of the finest performers doing justice to their characters as one would expect. Jimmy Shergill plays Kashyap Sinha with just the right amount of passion, while being a tired soldier of the country, who isn’t on the field but is the key to everything. Lara Dutta, who continues to have a great innings on OTT, once again plays Manisha Sehgal with panache, precision as she is the only woman in this male-dominated setting that has authority and control over the situation, just as much as Shergill. Seasoned veterans like Ashish Vidyarthi, Ashutosh Rana, fresh blood like Elnaaz Norouzi and Satyajeet Dubey among others understood the assignment and lend good aid to the leads thus making for a gripping chain of events.
However, Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond fails to ‘go beyond’ the technicalities so much so much that it barely invests in the emotional arcs of its characters. And while that would have been understandable otherwise, when you create a series that clocks nine episodes averaging around 40 minutes each, there is only a certain extent till which you would be enamored and invested in the chaos going on with the back and forth between India and Pakistan. There are plenty instances where you see the potential to take a step back, allow the viewer to breathe but somehow, it doesn’t even scratch the surface. The moments that do arrive in an attempt to get you emotional feel fabricated and forced.
Ranneeti: Balakat & Beyond also suffers with the convoluted sequence of events in the screenplay, and thus becoming too overwhelming after a point of time. Sure, there is obvious nationalism in a concept like this but owing to an overdose of changing timelines, and the lack of a thread that joins the hyper-fast moving storyline.
In the end, Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond might be a tough and arduous watch but is a winner with its technical prowess and detailed look into a topic that is easily fatiguing otherwise.
