Bhuj The Pride Of India: Ajay Devgn's film is more talk and less action, misses the point of the story that inspires it by a mile

Ajay Devgn starrer Bhuj: The Pride of India recreates the events of the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971 taking its own cinematic liberties that sometimes go too far. This dramatized version of the war which was released on Disney+ Hotstar focuses on the story of Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik who was tasked as the commanding officer of the Bhuj airbase during the war. How his efforts in repairing the destroyed airstrip with the help of 300 civilians led to India in warding off a big attack from Pakistan forms the crux of this patriotic drama.

While little says patriotism like a film based on a real war, Ajay Devgn’s Bhuj fails where it plays around too much with the story, overly dramatizing it. The Bhuj airfield was destroyed by the Pakistani Air Force on December 8, 1971 in a preemptive strike as a part of Operation Chengiz Khan. The events, as one word read them, are moving and speak volumes of the patriotism shown by 300 civilians in a life-threatening war and the Indian military forces who did not back down even when pushed against the wall. 

The movie, however, tries to bring out the patriotism packing it with heavy dialogues on ‘desh bhakti’ and lots of VFX that make the war sequences look picturesque even when war anything nothing but that. Abhishek Dudhaiya in his efforts to make a glamorous war film high on heroism seems to have lost the essence of the narrative which lies in the act.

Bhuj: The Pride of India branches off from reality in several places and tries to make room for emotion forcing through backstories of the war heroes that add nothing to the narrative. It passes off the 72 hours of efforts that went into repairing the airstrip in the real war to be an overnight act to boost the heroism of it all which was certainly did not pay off especially given how poorly the whole thing is executed.

It’s difficult to blame the performers in Bhuj given the missed-placed ideas of patriotism here. While Ajay Devgn seems to be stuck in a script that gives him little to do, the actor still stands out of the lot which is either overdoing it or either has nothing to do. Sonakshi Sinha who plays the braveheart Sunderben who leads civilian efforts of restoring the airstrip is given little to do after a daring introduction.

Sanjay Dutt as a RAW agent Pagi, on the other hand, is basically made to be a superhero of sorts on the war front as he takes on dozens of Pakistani soldiers with just an axe. Sharad Kelkar fails to work his charm even with his commanding voice and earnestness. Ammy Virk though substantially present in the narrative is tied up with a confusing narrative to count. Lastly, Nora Fatehi as an agent-based in Pakistan impresses as far as the action is concerned but her efforts are downed by the heavy dialogues she’s entrusted with.

The direction and editing are confusing as the film switches constantly from one place to another and the narration does little to help. The dialogues work over and over to reiterate the fact that the film is all about national pride and honour while very little attention is given to shaping the heroes that made it all happen.

Relying heavily on words and diluting the actions Bhuj: The Pride of India fails to do justice to a story that has patriotism written all over it.