A hero of the 2008 Mumbai hotel siege gets a relentlessly entertaining biopic, going all-out with the hagiographic bells and whistles<\/p>\n
As unstintingly jingoistic as it is relentlessly entertaining, this Bollywood blockbuster celebrates a fictionalised version of the life and \u2013 as most of its audience will already know – death of heroic soldier Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan<\/a>, who was killed fighting terrorists during the 2008 siege at Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai.<\/p>\n Sandeep\u2019s story is already the stuff of legend, so this lavish production goes all-out with all the hagiographic bells and whistles, turning him into a noble, fearless warrior (played by Adivi Sesh, also the film\u2019s screenwriter). Sesh and director Sashi Kiran Tikka turn Sandeep into a very old-school sort of hero: part godlike being, part 1980s-style Hollywood action man, capable of hitting a target with a semi-automatic while sliding for metres on his knees, in slow-motion no less. He also possesses an unswerving moral compass that makes him a natural leader and compels him to honour his duty as a soldier above all else, even if that means neglecting his beautiful architect wife Isha (Saiee Manjrekar, utterly magnetic) and sometimes failing to return calls from his parents (Prakash Raj, Revathi).<\/p>\n