Paltan Review: A decent war drama after a long time
India lost a war with the Chinese in 1962, but in 1967, India won a skirmish with China at the Sikkim border. The relations between the border patrols after 1967 have reportedly remained cordial. JP Dutta takes this as his new subject and gives us his latest war film, Paltan.
The film narrates the incident truthfully without attaching any strings to it and without any unnecessary stuffs. Both the Chinese and the Indian soldiers are shown to be professionals doing their duty. Surprisingly, at one point of time, you start feeling that the Chinese soldiers too are correct on their part as professionals. But at the end of the day, we are Indians.
The Indian jawans are shown to be more aggressive and bent on taking the revenge for what happened back in 1962.
Lt. Col. Rai Singh Yadav (Arjun Rampal) gets briefed on his new task by his commanding officer, Maj. Gen. Sagat Singh (Jackie Shroff). He then joins his command with strict instructions not to give in to the Chinese tactics. He meets his fellow officers, Maj. Bishen Singh (Sonu Sood), Capt. Prithvi Singh Dagar (Gurmeet Choudhary), and Maj. Harbhajan Singh (Harshvardhan Rane).
The other important members of the command include 2Lt. Attar Singh (Luv Sinha) and HAV Parashar (Siddhant Kapoor). Lt. Col. Rai Singh decides to fence down the border and is given a go ahead for the same by the high command. This scene reminds you of once such Video which was circulated some months back on WhatsApp, if you recollect.
No, JP Dutta hasn’t lost his midas touch and comes up with a yet-another gripping war-zone film which was desperately needed. The songs, camera work and production values are terrific.
Note this; Whenever you are watching a JP Dutta War film, be it Border, LOC Kargil or Paltan, the maker is smart and capable enough to take you back in that era.
Performance wise, every actor is mind-blowing with whatever character he or she has played. Definitely watch Paltan as this film will not disappoint you for sure.