Akshay Kumar led Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue, directed by Tinu Suresh Desai, is a very gritty and engaging evacuation-drama. Before planning to watch the film, read our full review.
Plot:
Mission Raniganj is the story of how Additional Chief Mining Engineer Jaswant Singh Gill (Akshay Kumar) along with his team evacuates 65 mine workers from a flooded coal mine in Raniganj, West Bengal, in 1989. It is the story of how a braveheart rescues the miners when almost everyone has given up on the thought of their survival. Through the three days that the rescue operation goes on for, Gill and his team face numerous challenges and hurdles, but they eventually succeed in their mission, making it one of the greatest and grittiest rescue operations in the country.
What works:
Mission Raniganj is a very engaging and thrilling film that will keep you on the edge of your seats. At just over 2 hours, the biopic-drama is a very smooth sail. The film is high on emotions and by the end of it, one is sure to have chills through their spine. The scenes in the coal mine are very suffocating and that should be seen as a great win as it ensures that the audiences are able to feel even a fraction of what the mine workers went through, when they were stuck in the coal mine.
Mission Raniganj is able to successfully track down the moles in the entire system and also show how oppressed and surpressed the labour class still is in India. At numerous junctures, the life of mine workers is reduced to nothing by corrupt officials and it isn’t much different even in real life where a big fat paycheck suits their pockets more than human lives. Talking about the technical aspects, the film has been shot well, particularly the scenes in the mines. The background score is high on adrenaline. The song ‘Jeetega’ gives instant goosebumps. Editing is super sharp.
What doesn’t:
Mission Raniganj has multiple clichés through its course. The writing is convenient at a few instances, which if avoided, could have made the film even more compelling than it already is. The film gets unneccessarily loud in certains portions. Lastly, the antagonist feels poorly written. The writing of antagonists in Hindi films has become stereotypical now. Apart from that, there’s not much to complain about this well made film.
