Ground Zero

If there's one thing Ground Zero does right, then it's standing out from the rest of the militaristic films of Bollywood portraying the Indian Army with nuance rather than nationalistic jingoism. Ground Zero tells the story of Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey (Emraan Hashmi), who leads the mission to eliminate Ghazi Baba (Rockey Raina), the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist and the mastermind behind the Parliament Attack in 2001. Ground Zero is surprisingly grounded. Narendra is no super soldier. He makes many mistakes, as one would expect from a man heading a very complicated mission. It also doesn't shy away from showing maligned aspects of the Indian Army. Of course, it doesn't go deeper, but it's refreshing to see, nonetheless. They could've easily turned this into a dialogue-baazi affair with hype music playing in the background, but it takes a risk, and it works. They even make an active attempt to humanize Kashmiris, showcasing how awful conditions push people to work for these radicals. Emraan Hashmi is amazing as the rightful soldier. He plays the character with conviction, whether it is helping young Hussain (Mir Mehrooz) get out of extremist ideology or standing up to his superiors. It is a tad simplistic at times and sticks to genre tropes, sometimes even being predictable, but it still lands an impact.

decent. very decent.

If there's one thing Ground Zero does right, then it's standing out from the rest of the militaristic films of Bollywood portraying the Indian Army with nuance rather than nationalistic jingoism. Ground Zero tells the story of Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey (Emraan Hashmi), who leads the mission to eliminate Ghazi Baba (Rockey Raina), the Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist and the mastermind behind the Parliament Attack in 2001. Ground Zero is surprisingly grounded. Narendra is no super soldier. He makes many mistakes, as one would expect from a man heading a very complicated mission. It also doesn't shy away from showing maligned aspects of the Indian Army. Of course, it doesn't go deeper, but it's refreshing to see, nonetheless. They could've easily turned this into a dialogue-baazi affair with hype music playing in the background, but it takes a risk, and it works. They even make an active attempt to humanize Kashmiris, showcasing how awful conditions push people to work for these radicals. Emraan Hashmi is amazing as the rightful soldier. He plays the character with conviction, whether it is helping young Hussain (Mir Mehrooz) get out of extremist ideology or standing up to his superiors. It is a tad simplistic at times and sticks to genre tropes, sometimes even being predictable, but it still lands an impact.

decent. very decent.