Kurukshetra (Malayalam - 2008)

A 2008 Malayalam movie by Major Ravi starring Mohan Lal as Commanding Officier Col. Mahadevan. The film has been shot at Kargil and nearby areas in Kashmir. This has given the film a real militiary outlook. The story is about the Pakistan invasion in kargil during 1999. This is Major Ravi's third film, and this time also he didnt put much effort to move out of his favorite way of story tellling. An officer with a unit under him trying to fight against the enemies. He has got all the negative forces against him including not so friendly officers and seniors and also the journalists are there to give him much trouble.



The action starts when the Pakistan army violates an existing treaty which was signed after one of the previous wars. They captured some of the very important posts of the Indian Army and in the film its clearly mentioned that this action was carried after the direct instructions from the then Pakistan Army Chief Parvez Musharaff. India responds to this by sending a command under Col. Mahadevan who has been promoted from Major rank.
As Col Mahadevan takes control of the situation, there is heavy fighting between the two sides. And in the end, as the history says, Indian Army pushes the intruders back to their own land, and captures some of their land too. The last scenes of the film resembles the pictures we saw on the newspapers as India won the kargil war.

The fight sequences are really good, and puts the malayalam film industry above all other regional film industries in technical aspects. But the director has included a number of sentimental situations, which would've suited the course of the film if done in a more professional manner with some good dialogues and actors. An important thing to mention is that the casting of the actors was done well, but regarding the actress, the casting turned out to be tragic. Also we can see the officers talking to other people (including pakistan officers) in malayalam. Eventhough this was meant to give the audience a better understanding of the situation, it has taken away the between the troops of india and pakistan, there was an area where the soldiers at both the posts of India and Pakistan were friends. They shared their amneties with each other eventhough their countries were on war.

The movie lasts for about 2 hours, and during all the situations other than those showing the warfront, the film is boring. But the technical effort involved in this film is superb and the effort taken by the crew is really appreciable.


My Rating : Good (***)