HYDERABAD : It’s hard to keep a count anymore, of Indian movies that have jumped on the patriotism bandwagon in the last few years, telling stories (real or fictional) that celebrate the bravery of our officers and the idea of loving your nation above everything else. While some of them have found success and others have failed, all of them have proved that there is only so much territory a film of this kind can chart when the sole goal is to pander to the spirit of nationalism that is all around us. From a filmmaking or craft perspective, what else can an artist bring to the table that isn’t already served? Not much, as Operation Valentine glaringly proves.
Directed by Shakti Pratap Singh, Operation Valentine is based on the true events of the Pulwama attack that occurred in February 2019 and the Balakot air strike retaliation that followed from the Indian air force. Arjun (Varun Tej) is a test pilot with a past trauma and the reputation that precedes him, while his wife and wing commander Ahana Gill (Manushi Chhillar) is his professional companion too. While the film primarily revolves around the said events, there is also substantial focus placed on how the two officers play a crucial role in the execution of the Balakot air strike and the subsequent combat.
After a slow takeoff, the film unexpectedly jumps into action around midpoint, diving into the central point of the story—the Balakot air strike. You are not even halfway into the film yet, so you wonder about the narrative structure that could possibly follow. Are they planning to centre their entire second half around aerial action sequences, with little else to tie it together? On a conceit level, it’s a huge risk.
Sadly, the makers make up for their risk-taking with the exaggerated portrayal of ‘the other side,’ which borders on caricature. You want to take Operation Valentine seriously, against the best of your intuitiveness, but it’s hard not to chuckle when the makers show a rival officer playing Candycrush on their phone...while being on air border patrol duty, or when the background score literally screams ‘jihaad’ in a parodically menacing tone every time an evil Pakistani character appears on screen. It’s not to say one expects diligent nuances from a film based on events whose authenticity remains ambiguous at best. But when an Indian senior rank official (Shataf Figar) refers to his officers as ‘Vaanar Sena’ who successfully put the metaphorical Lanka on fire, it’s hard not to wince at the religious connotations.
There is no subtlety on display here, which is a shame because there are a few fleeting moments when it feels like director Shakti Pratap Singh Hada is genuinely interested in the craftiness of his film. In the second half, some moments of aerial action hold your attention with their finesse and tension-creation ability. Earlier, when the catalyst attack on the Indian army takes place, the narrative impressively merges the sequence with the parallel track of Air Force combat between the two nations as they march ahead, trying to make sense of the events. In those few moments, Operation Valentine promises to be a separate film, not one among the countless of this type that have been churned out in the name of nationalism.
Part of Operation Valentine’s problem is that it just doesn’t have enough meat in the script to make for an engaging two-hour action affair. The makers try their best to make this into a full-fledged feature, but the writing doesn’t have the novelty or invention to grab our attention.
The tropes are mostly worn out: a rebellious yet genius outlier, a traumatic past that needs to be overcome, the stereotypical visual of native Kashmiris as these innocent flower-selling victims. There is the comic jester friend (Paresh Pahuja) who flirts with every woman on the radar. His comic interjection moments are so awkwardly punched in the narrative that it’s almost like the makers are consoling themselves of having enough fodder here to make for a wholesome entertainer, that it’s not just action and patriotism bombarding our senses (no pun intended). There is also a haggard attempt at establishing the personal relationship between our two protagonists Arjun and Ahana, but it leaves no emotional imprints either on the narrative or the audience.
A little sidenote: there’s something very discomforting about the way Varun Tej approaches this role. In the first few sequences, we are handed a promise of meeting a character who is consistently reminded of his past baggage, a reason why he hasn’t successfully moved on in life professionally. There is potential here to build a strong character, but after a point, Varun Tej decides to scowl and just rely on that sole expression to do all the work. Be it rage, curiosity, or disappointment, it’s hard to tell what’s going on in Arjun’s mind at any point. In contrast, Manushi Chhillar, despite a half-heartedly written character, adds a certain understated intensity to her character (if you can move past the airbrushed appearance, that is). For me, the most telling moment was when Arjun, in a moment of raging desperation, decides to attack the Pakistan air force jets. He is so uncontrollable that he cannot even listen to Ahana, who is relentlessly instructing him from the ground to not disobey any further instructions. Varun is that zoned out due to his intensity, we are told. At that point, as a regular filmgoer, you hope for the character to break out of the mould and do something unexpected. You want the narrative to surprise you; it’s high time already.
And yet, when a senior rank official takes charge and screams at him, Arjun gets a hold of his senses. In that one moment, Arjun’s character falls apart for us, as we realise there’s only so much rebelling he is capable of, only certain forces he can assert his dominance over. In that moment, Arjun becomes the perfect symbolic representation of the nation he is fighting for.
It’s hard here, to care for the personal, or root for the political — that’s Operation Valentine for you in a nutshell.
Movie: Operation Valentine
Cast: Varun Tej, Manushi Chhillar, Shataf Figar, Abhinav Gomatam, Mir Sarwar
Director: Shakti Pratap Singh Hada 2/5
Rating: 2/5