Always dreaming to fly planes as a young girl, Gunjan Saxena (Janhvi Kapoor) grows up to opportunities and with her determination and hardwork she gets into an IAF camp to get pilot training. She overcomes all the difficulties and discrimination she faces amidst a male dominated camp and becomes famous for her 40 rescue missions at the 1999 Kargil War.
Another biography, where you can't say what is truth and what is fiction. Its totally your pick, I went in with the narrative and was very satisfied.
My only complaint (a regular one with biographies) was would this be a perfect film if they kept 15 mins more for the war scenes or would that had ruined the excellent father-daughter narrative the film has? But didn't Neerja succeed at it too, did we need all the comedy about doing 12th/college and then the montage only to get rejected for the weight and height issues. I am not entirely sure because I can't deny those scenes were entertaining but at the cost of what more we could had seen about Gunjan Saxena's brilliant efforts at the Kargil War which we get so little to see.
The treatment Gunjan gets at IAF camp reminded me of Hollywood's 'Hidden Figures', no bathroom for women or been treated lower because the Flight Commander Dileep Singh (an excellent Vineet Kumar Singh) believes you need to be good at arm wrestling and defeat the guys, only then you can call yourself worthy of been a pilot along with the men. I did enjoy when he does the same arm wrestle with Gunjan himself at the end, indirectly conveying how wrong he was.
The war sequence was the major flaw, firstly its not filmed with great details, doesn't look convincing enough and its too little screen-time, I would had liked more of Gunjan's rescue missions shown.
There's Gunjan's brother, Anshuman Saxena (Angad Bedi) who is so protective of his sister that he often tries to stop her from achieving her dreams, at young age he mocks her telling women are made for air-hostess jobs, and later he tries convincing his father she won't be able to handle the harsh reality of the world dominated by men. While Gunjan's mother also ain't supportive and would rather love her daughter get married and lead a regular life until ofcourse she makes her proud. Both characters in their own rights work and are just following how the world works until someone dares to go against it.
Love the entry scene of Gunjan, heroic but not something most actresses get. Its fun watching young Gunjan with those black chasma saying 'pilot ki eyes kharab nahi honi chahiye', you know she would go to any extent to achieve her dream. Another great scene happens when a powercut at her home party for celebration of her topping 10th results, as she shouts she wants to become a pilot and not study further. Complete contrast to the way she dances on Anil Kapoors '1 2 ka 4' before that and later when her father agrees to her.
Gunjan's father, Colonel Anup Saxena (Pankaj Tripathi) just makes you smile everytime he is in frame because you not only love and adore him but also want to have such a father in real specially for a girl. He always listens to what Gunjan wants and never tries to tell her that she is thinking of something that would lead to struggles, rather motivates her with full support. He uses Rekha's magazine to help Gunjan get inspired for her new daily routine telling she must do what she can do and leave rest to the luck, rather than giving up hope and doing nothing. The best scene comes when he sarcastically tells her to boil potatoes and make paranthas, mocking her as he shows his restrained anger on Gunjan for trying to give up on her dreams.
Pankaj Tripathi just excels at every role these days and this one seems to be tailor-made for him. How he would with minimal dialogues emote everything out is always a key aspect of great actor, and his chemistry with Janhvi is amazing. Janhvi Kapoor has been a name taken often in the Nepotism debate, but my question to all those people is, do you guys even give someone a chance or have you already made up your mind that every Nepo kid can't act? I have from her first film felt she can act, just needs more films to grow up as an actor and Gunjan Saxena is her best performance so far, ofcourse its still far from perfect but she never gave me feel of 'Oh no, why did they cast her?' Infact I personally felt she matched some of great actors like Pankaj, Vineet and Manav Vij (love those 'Sorry and Joker' intereactions including the pilot test he makes her go through) very well in many scenes.
My Rating : 7.5/10
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