Ground Zero

For sure it’s a well-made film. It’s also well-intentioned as it tells the real-life story of BSF officer Narendra Dubey (played by Emraan Hashmi) who nabbed Ghazi Baba, India’s most wanted terrorist in the early 2000s. Between director Tejas Prabh Vijay Deoskar and camerawork by Kamaljeet Negi, the suddenness of a shot in the market that kills a BSF officer sipping tea, stuns the Force as much as the viewer. The rawness of the Kashmir valley in 2001 where stone pelting in the name of ‘azaadi’ and luring young boys to pick up pistols and shoot soldiers at random, is impactful. Writers Sanchit Gupta and Priyadarshee Srivastava equip Dubey with lines of zeal like, “Asli jeet” is not in taking the gun away from their hands, it’s in changing their thoughts, cleansing their minds of the hatred they harbour. Dubey also spouts ‘Aaj risk nahi liya toh kal sabke liye risky ho jayega’ every time he urges his men to act during a mission. It’s not the catchy line the writers probably intended it to be but it is expectedly thrown back at him at another time when his morale is low.

A soldier is posted in a communally sensitive region. It’s a thankless and dangerous job. Colleagues die every week. Insurgents and religious fundamentalists lure youngsters into a life of arms and suicide vests. Market places and tourist spots remain unsafe. Gunshots and violent chases are met with a mix of nonchalance and resignation by the locals. This well-respected soldier empathises with the locals because he believes they’re somewhat in the same boat — caught in the crossfire between countries, politicians, perceptions, and narratives. Following a spate of high-profile violence, he becomes an outsider with a conscience. His patriotism is personal: justice for fallen comrades and innocent civilians, a quest for peace, and a distrust for central intelligence agencies and their bureaucratic ways. His mission to nab the mastermind unfolds despite the system, not because of it.