LOC- probably the biggest star cast ever, “A Bridge too far” of Bollywood, with stars falling over backwards to be part of Dutta’s tribute to the jawans who fought and won the battle of Kargil. Except that that’s exactly what it is, his tribute to the jawans and so caught up is he with his individual stories, that the film loses all perspective, going from one battalion to another, never concentrating on anything more than the fact that these jawans risked all for their country. We all know war is a dreadful thing. We should all know that it’s utterly preposterous that in this day and age, two neighbouring countries, in essence the same people, should have been on the verge of a nuclear war. But then again, you look at what’s within the countries and one realizes that when you cannot get your own house in order, you look elsewhere to deflect your own problems. India is as guilty of this as is Pakistan. However, does Dutta delve at all in the horrors of war, the consequences or even show one the path to possible redemption? Absolutely not. His film is a jingoistic and rabble rousing cheap shot at galvanizing the public to believe that he has delivered something which will make every Indian proud. I doubt that very much.

Dutta’s film in essence follows the stories of various soldiers…not fictional I believe but real life. But all these gung ho guys are intent on beating the “Bheryas and Kuttas” who have burst into and taken over the motherland. Their stories degenerate into stories of their loved ones…its song time and we have the likes of Esha Deol, Rani Mukherjee, Kareena Kapoor humming a ditty here and there as they bid farewell to these soon to be heroes. Each hero has a story and each hero therefore needs a slot of ten minutes. Calculate for yourself as to how much time is spent with these misty eyed babes shedding tears whilst our jawans go rushing off to serve their country. We need to deal with stories for Sanjay Dutt, Saif, Abhishek, Ajay Devgun, Sunil Shetty, Manoj Bajpai, Ashutosh Rana, Nagarjuna, Karan nath..the list is almost endless. We then follow the usual pattern and you can tell with a certain precision as to which of the boys is going to be a goner and which will make it. If you ponder long enough on the flashback, you know that fate isn’t smiling on that guy. After each story, there is a battle scene and with each victory that each battalion achieves, there is the trauma of the body bags going back. What should have raced to a rousing climax finally totters there with the limp “ek saathi aur bhi tha” bringing on the end titles rather abruptly.

I have to admit that I was not a fan of Border but did consider that to be a reasonably well made film, possibly because it concentrated on the one battle without a plethora of characters thrown in as Dutta has done in LOC. In LOC, Dutta tries the impossible by making a film on Kargil but it would have been impossible to make such a film even in the four hours that one is subjected to in this film without making one particular person the focus of attention. Saving Private Ryan is a tremendous war film, which focuses on the search for Private Ryan, and yet it depicts the horrors of war like few films have in the past. Dutta is trying to make a huge canvas and ultimately finds that he loses the plot completely…in fact, is there a plot at all?

Performances are good for the little screen time that each hero has for himself. People who stand out are Saif Ali Khan who shows that he is growing up as an actor, Abhishek Bachchan who puts in a genuinely sprightly performance and the ever dependable Ajay Devgun. Akshaye Khanna has the worst lines, the corniest but perhaps not quite as offensive as some of the others mouthed by Saif, Sanjay Dutt or Ajay Devgun. Out of the girls, Kareena bags the longest role but there’s very little for any of them to do except share a song or two, shed a few tears and well, in most cases, collect the body bags that are sent back. It’s certainly not a woman centric film. It is an offensive film for Pakistanis but also to Indians in as much as it tries to manipulate them into believing this film tells the true story of Kargil…in fact, it tells no story at all but manipulates the audience into believing that it is a film of consequence which it is not.

Anu Malik comes up with a couple of good songs but none that are going to last long in memory. Seemain bulaye tujhe chalna hi and main kahin bhi rahoon are beautifully written by Javed Akhtar and nicely moulded by Anu Malik into moving songs.

What is utterly reprehensible is the fact that this is a film which has nothing positive to say, is so incredibly one-sided that it could easily have been set in the cold war era, with the Russkies as the bad guys over the whiter than white Americans. It is surprising for Dutta as he did manage a message of peace in Refugee albeit rather crudely but seems to have abandoned any such notions for LOC. Dutta could have gained by showing the futility of war, the futility of animosity, make his film at least deliver a message of hope that could be born out of the gruesome reality of war. Yet, he remains silent on all those points and therein lies his greatest failing…He makes a film which is not quite fact nor fiction…clearly a wholly subjective and personal tribute but achieving nothing at the end of it. Was I the only one left yawning not long into the film?

What’s more deplorable that the film has now been marketed as the beginning of the “peace process” as a result of the cash counters not jingling the way they should have been. Hats off to Indian audiences for having recognized this for what it really is…a piece of jingoistic rubbish. I think Dutta was right when he added the caption…”Before we forget” because the likelihood is that we will forget this only too soon.