Kandahar
By Cine Critic | Dec20th, 2010|21:30:45

kandahar is not as impressive as Major Ravi's first films like Keerthi Chakra, Kurukshetra  but is better than his second venture Mission 90 Days. Major Ravi has used his experience in the army to re-create the atmosphere of Army, and the hijack-sequences have been shot rather well. But as a director he should have paid more attention to some seemingly less significant scenes too. Scripted and directed by Army officer turned filmmaker Major Ravi, Kandahar is mainly about the emotional conflicts in the minds of a few characters. Of course there are moments when every Indian would feel proud about being born in this great land, but the shaky script, ordinary action sequences and a faulty climax lets the film down. 

The entire first half is about the build up to the hijack with an idealistic teacher named Lokanath Sharma (Amitabh Bachchan) supporting his son Soorya (Ganesh Venkitaraman), to become a brave Army commando. There is a parallel track happening where a Muslim woman (played by KPAC Lalitha) painfully realizes that her only son has fallen into the charm of some terrorist outfits.Both the stories move on parallel lines as Soorya trains in the Indian Military Academy at Dehradoon, while the other guy gets trained to become a ‘Jihadi terrorist’ in Afghanistan! The story takes some time before the hijack happens, almost all of a sudden. A few terrorists get into an Air India aircraft and force the hapless pilots to fly the plane with passengers on board, to Kandahar in Afghanistan. They demand the release of three dreaded terrorists in order to free those in the plane. Major Mahadevan and his team are now designated to take on the terrorists.

The absence of a genuine script is evident as the main aspect in the film gets too little time compared to the melodramatic events which are aplenty. The climax of the film is its biggest weakness and sticks out like a sore thumb. The way Mohanlal and co enter the hijacked aircraft and overcome the well trained terrorists is done in a very amateur manner. The visuals are generally fine, but the highlight of the film perhaps could be the performances of the lead actors. 

Mohanlal is great as the mild mannered Major Mahadevan. The actor expresses in a subtle way, which is in fact a trademark nature of his character as well. Amitabh Bachchan's character speaks only in Hindi and is obviously doing the film so that there will be some scenes with Mohanlal.The scenes between the two are highly contrived. Still Bachchan shines and shows why he is regarded as an evergreen icon. Ganesh Venkitaraman has the right looks, but his character doesn't connect well with the viewers. Major Ravi's performance as a tough training officer is impressive.

The rest of the cast including Sumalatha, Ragini Dwivedi and Ananya among others have nothing much to perform in their limited roles. The music by Shamir Tandon is pretty fine. Kandahar may not appeal to those who have seen well made hijack movies, but to the average film-viewer it could well be a treat. With nothing great happening at the box office it might even turn out to be a financial success.

Verdict: Average

Reviewed By KN

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