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LoC Kargil
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'LoC Kargil'

By ApunKaChoice Bureau
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

J.P. Dutta’s multi-starrer war drama ‘LoC’ is a tribute to those soldiers who fought and sacrificed their lives fighting the insurgents and Pak army in the battle of Kargil. The movie depicts the gruesome reality of a war with the authenticity that highlights the valor of those brave men who lay their lives on line for their motherland.

At the center of the movie are a number of characters who have been given the challenging task of driving the enemy out of the Indian territory in Kargil. There is Capt. Vikram Batra ( Abhishek Bachchan ) of J&K Rifles, a golden-hearted man with an iron will. Capt Vikram is a true leader who infuses in his men the fiery passion to fight the enemy to the very end.

There

is Lt. Manoj Pandey ( Ajay Devgan ) who believes that ‘some goals are so worthy it is glorious even to fail’.

There is Lt. Balwaan Singh ( Akshaye Khanna ) the tough jaat from Haryana. He is a man of few words and doesn’t flinch in looking his enemy straight in the eye.

Lt. Col Y. K Joshi ( Sanjay Dutt ) aka Y K Joe is a senior officer who doesn’t believe in just giving orders to his juniors but rather leads them standing first in the line of fire.

There is young Capt. Anuj Nayyar ( Saif Ali Khan ), a man who has promised his lover ( Kareena Kapoor ) that he will return from the battlefield to reunite with her. He is a brave man who sacrifices his life laughing in the face of death even though his promise to his beloved remains unfulfilled.

There is the hardy rifleman Sanjay Kumar ( Sunil Shetty ) who is inseparable from his guns and has the capacity to bump off many before even sustaining a scratch.

Another tough man in the battalion is Grenadier Yogender Singh Yadav ( Manoj Bajpai ) whose real strength lies inside his mind and soul rather than in his body. He is the man who takes 15 bullets in his flesh and bone and still survives the battle.

There is Major Deepak Rampal ( Sanjay Kapoor ) who was on the leave but rushed to the battlefield to join his soldier friends.

So the onus to fight the enemy falls on the shoulders of these men and their colleagues (played by Bikram Saluja , Ashutosh Rana , Nagarjuna and others).

The enemy is strong and has the advantage of being on the mountain peaks. But the determination of these men is no less strong. Their valor and their love for their country is much higher than the mountains where their enemy is perched.

J. P. Dutta authentically captures the harsh reality of a war without discounting the human values. The battle scenes are shot with feverish intensity that strikes a viewer straight in the mind and leaves an indelible impression. More than that, the movie makes a viewer aware of the invaluable contributions of our soldiers fighting in the battlefield. It makes a tacit statement that we, living in the security of our cities, have not yet fully acknowledged the sacrifices made by brave men in war.

Dutta also lends an emotional element to the movie by interspersing the story with flashback sequences of the loved ones of the soldiers (played by Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee , Esha Deol , Raveena Tandon and Namrata Shiodkar among others).

The sequence when Saif’s dead body is brought home before his disbelieving lover (Kareena) will bring tears into many eyes.

Other scenes that stand out are:

When wounded Abhishek dies fighting the enemy and gives them the message ‘From Madhuri with love’.

When Manoj Bajpai shows the never-giving-up spirit and continues to fight despite several bullet shots.

When Sunil Shetty holds two big barrel guns and walks straight in the face of his enemies.

As the 4-hour movie draws to a close, a viewer is left with a heavy heart and tear filled eyes. He realizes the value of life, and the survival instinct that keeps men fighting in the face of any adversity. The movie leaves a viewer with hard-hitting questions about the necessity of a war while making a subtle statement about its futility at the same time.

A must watch

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