Heroes hindi movie review

Credits

Movie rating: 3.25/5
Banner: Future Picture Company Pvt.Ltd & Mega Bollywood
Genre: Patriotic
Cast: Salman Khan, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Mithun Chakraborty, Preity Zinta, Sohail Khan, Vatsal Sheth & Dino Morea
Cinematography: Binod Pradhan & Gopal Shah
Music: Sajid - Wajid & Monty Sharma
Story - screenplay - dialogues: Samir Karnik & Aseem Arora
Direction: Samir Karnik
Producer: Samir Karnik, Bharat Shah & Vikas Kapoor
Release date: 24 October 2008

Review

Story
Saand (Sohail Khan) and Ali (Vatsal Seth) are bosom buddies who study in a film institute. They are wayward guys who do not attend the classes. Their principle puts a prerequisite that they should make a documentary film in order to graduate. They decided to make a film on why one should not join army. They meet a scribe to get some inputs. He gives them three letters to deliver. These letters are written by three martyrs who lost their lives while fighting for India in Kargil (1999). The rest of the story is all about how these guys deliver the letters to the family members of martyrs and in turn how they learn what patriotism is all about.

Actors:
Salman Khan is pretty good in the role of a sikh soldier. Preity Zinta gives one of her best performances. Sohail Khan impresses in the role of Saand, for a change. Vatsal Sheth is nice as Ali. Sunny Deol and Bobby Deol are good. Mithun Chakraborty did the role of an emotional father. Mohnish Behl is cool in a small yet vital role.

Technical departments:

Story: The story is all about two wayward guys realizing about what it takes to become a soldier and a martyr through a bike journey they take while delivering the last letters to the beleaguered families of martyrs. The story is different in the sense that it does not show Pakistan as villain in order to arouse patriotism. It tells that Pakistani soldiers too fight for their country just like Indian soldiers do. It also tells that you need not join Indian army to be a patriot. The concept of two guys traveling on a bike to discover something has been inspired by the ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ (2004).

Screenplay - direction: The director has made this film with good intentions and with lot of honesty. Among the three subplots, Preity Zinta’s stands out as an excellent episode. The Sunny Deol’s introduction is good, but director spoiled it a bit by unnecessarily putting a fight. The Mithun Chakraborty’s episode is OK, but it appears prolonged at the end. There are quite a few heart-touching moments in the film like

1. The kite falling in the lands of Pakistan
2. Sunny Deol repenting that he could have been there in the flight.
3. The audio tape of the last moments of Sahil Naqui.
4. The truck episode where the driver tells that he is carrying jawans.

Other technical departments: Music of the film is pretty average. Cinematography is superb. Dialogues are good. Locations are well-explored. Editing is neat.

Analysis: First half of the film is good. But the second half is slow and the latter part of the film is dragged a lot. Heroes is a film made with good intent and lot of honesty. Films like there should be encouraged because it touches the concept of patriotism from a different angle. ‘Heroes’ is worth a watch if you don’t mind the arty feel and a dragged second half.