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Film: War Chhod Na YaarStarring: Sharman Joshi,Soha Ali Khan,Javeed Jaaferi
Director: Faraz Haider
Producer: AOPL Entertainment
Banner: AOPL Entertainment
Music: Aslam Keyi
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Political satires are easily the
most difficult genre of comedy in cinema. They have to serve up a
telling lesson to self-serving politicians while providing audiences
with a good laugh. We had Kunal Roy Kapur attempting one of 'dose' in
"The President Is Coming".
But that's it. Full credit to
writer-director Faraz Haider for going into the war zone and emerging
from the battle-scarred scenario with his sense of humour intact.
War satires are extinct in a country
that takes cross-border matters dead seriously. Though "War Chhod Na
Yaar" is a very one-sided view of barbed-wire offences, it does
nevertheless fire some mirthful missiles at politicians on both sides
who make mileage out of the mythical animosity between the two
countries. In the middle of the crackling tension of Indo-Pak
differences, there suddenly comes the cackling sound of loud laughter
breaking the eerie silence of the desertscape where ammunition is aimed
at both ends.
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Sitting in No Man's Land across the
barbed fence are the two squadron leaders from both ends played smartly
by Sharman Joshi and Jaaved Jaffrey playing cards, exchanging jokes and
making light of one another's country's ongoing burden of being
border-line belligerent. That the film is shot in the Rajashtan deserts
serves the film's locational purpose creating a battle-ground
realistically, if not opulently.
Faraz Haider has scripted a plot that
tickles border-line tension. There are passages of breezy bantering
between Joshi and Jaffrey. Both actors possess subtle acting skills that
they put here to potent use as two army-men who bond across the border
even as war escalates overnight. The soldierly bonding over the barbed
wires is a heartening thought, not quite executed with the finesse that,
say, J.P. Dutta would have invested into his border-line satire.
"War Chhod Na Yaar" is a film with a
large heart. 'Hate war, not the warrior' seems to be the subtitled
slogan of this anti-war satire. Rather than taking long shots of
battleground images mercifully, the debutant director goes easy on the
gunshots and preaches to focus more on the personal interaction between
soldiers from both sides. The cross-border antakshari culminating in the
Pakistanis crooning "Yeh mera India, I love my India" is a cleverly
designed episode, though much too obvious an effort at taming the enemy.
Then there is a sequence where Indian soldiers unleash a poultry of roosters across the barbed fence to trap their opponents.
Barb re barb!
The problem creeps into the blithe
narrative when the Pakistani army men and politicians are shown largely
as bumbling imbeciles, if not outright jokers. Dalip Tahil's triple role
as the Pakistani president, the Chinese premiere (whose native tongue
is translated into Punjabi in Navjot Singh Sidhu'S voice) and the
American President's yankee-accented aide, ceases to be funny beyond a
point.
Not that this sort of standup comedy
material renders itself effectively to cinematic laughter in the first
place. Nonetheless, credit must go to the writer-director for attempting
to show the utter futility and the underlining farce that define
cross-border aggression.
Some episodes in the film are neatly
written. The actors add a layer of conviction to the satire. The
underrated underused Sharman Joshi puts up a convincing show as an
Indian soldier trying to keep his and his army's spirits high in the
face of violence. Why don't we see more of him?Jaaved Jaffery, who was
effective as a snarling villain in last week's "Besharam", puts up
another bravura act as Sharman's colleague from the other side of the
firing line. Soha Ali Khan as a television journalist modelled on Barkha
Dutta (not again!) gets into the satirical spirit with ease.
The film has a vast cast of comic
performers. But I must make special mention of Mukul Dev as an Afghani
infiltrator, who gets it wrong each time. Mukul's accent and comic
timing are fodder for the funny bones.
Very rarely do we get a chance to smile
about the grim reality of war. This film gives a nimble twinkle-eyed
satirical slant to the scourge of war. Warm and well-packaged with
intelligent performances, "War Chhod Na Yaar" flounders when it abandons
the human aspect to get into the nuclear zone.
Then it's time to groan.
