- Direction
- Acting
- Music
- Screenplay
“Trigger kheench muamala mat kheench,” – the second Rishi Kapoor mouths these legendary lines, he sets the pace for “D-Day.” As the infamous terrorist “Goldman” fashioned on the lines of Dawood Ibrahim, Kapoor, in his character’s signature rose coloured tinted glasses, and a thick talwar-cut straight tache is every inch the face of terror - calm, composed, manipulative and unapologetic. In Karachi for the wedding of his son, he is the target of four Indian spies – the family man Wali (Irrfan), the lonely Zoya (Huma Qureshi), the mysterious Army man Rudra (Arjun Rampal) and the criminal Aslam (Aakash Dahiya). Bring him home are the orders, and thus begins the chase with all aboard – Pakistan’s ISI, India’s RAW, politicians, goons and Goldman’s men.
From a realistic standpoint, things are far more complicated than they look, but filmmaker Nikhil Advani manages to enhance this reality in the film – Rudra biding time in a brothel with Suraiya (Shruti Hasan), politicians signing off missions with “Madam’s” stamp of approval, bomb blasts that take place in “controlled environments” and stick to the numbers declared dead. So, it doesn’t have the twists and turns of double agents, or betrayal and other man made disasters, but what it does have is a plot, and a message – pull the trigger. There is no room for mercy for terrorists, for in the end, as Goldman puts it, “they become prime time subjects for Barkha, Rajdeep and Arnab who keeps shouting or a contestant on Bigg Boss.”
It’s the middle of the week, and a review for a film that released last Friday is, well, late. But “D-Day” deserves a mention and recommendation to be watched. No, it’s not really a brilliant piece of work, but a piece of work nonetheless. One of the primary reasons that’s swung me in a generous mood, and three is the star rating for this political spy thriller. That it’s losing out to a clichéd love story (“Ramaiya Vastavaiya”) and has fetched only Rs 11 crore in the opening weekend is a dampener, because the film deserves a dekho.
The film has Advani crawl out of his comfort zone (he made “Kal Ho Na Ho”) land into the battlezone, and he in his own way is making the average Indian flock in to watch for three things: honour, duty, and country.
