Movie Review: War Chhod Na Yaar

Cast: Sharman Joshi, Javed Jaffrey, Soha Ali Khan, Dalip Tahil, Sanjay Mishra, Mukul Dev,Director: Faraz Haider,Rating: **

Published: Friday,Oct 11, 2013 17:07 PM GMT-06:00

India-Forums.com Bollywood Team

War Chhod Na Yaar is India's first war comedy with a satirical tone and a thought provoking concept. The film is written and directed by debutant Faraz Haider who has assisted Dibakar Banerjee on Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!

In a country where Indo-Pak relationship is a very sensitive topic, coming up with a topic like this requires a lot of guts. Every film that this country has seen with a backdrop of a war has been about the sacrifices of the soldiers, gunshots, exploding of tanks, weeping of families amongst other things. Never has a soft film been made on such a heavy topic. Well, Faraz deserves a pat on the back for atleast thinking to go out of the box. Inspite of this fresh concept, the film loses the plot in its execution. The screenplay of the film is lose and at some parts you might feel that it is a drag.

Dalip Tahil is seen playing 4 roles in the film. He plays the defence minister of India, Pakistan, China and America. Out of all 4, his portrayal of the defence minister of China is way over board. It looks childish many times.

Sharman Joshi plays the role of Captain Raj who is an Indian Army Officer who gets nicer with every passing scene. You would really want to have an army officer like him. Sharman Joshi is a great talent but somewhere a film like this is not able to extract everything that this wonderful actor is capable off.

Soha Ali Khan is a war correspondent and goes by the name of Rut Dutta. She is sent by the Indian Defence Minister to cover a story at the border which the minister wants to cook and sell. Something is off about her portrayal of a journalist in the first half of the film. Nevertheless lets move on.

Javed Jaffrey is Captain Qureshi, who is a Pakistani Army Officer. Well, inspite of everything that the film lacks, Jaffrey is the only string holding this plot together. Alot has been said about his comic timing and whatever that has been ever been said stands true. Jaffrey is the only reason why you will have a smile on your face while watching this film.

Sanjay Mishra plays Commander Khan and very honestly, he goes over the top at many places making comedy look forceful and not effortless.

Rut is sent by the defence minister of India to cover a story on the border and the moment she reaches there, she is surprised to see what actually happens there. Game of Antakshari, cards and pulling each other's leg is what she sees between the Indian and the Pakistani soldiers. Gags on bad Dal-Ghosht that the Pak soldiers are tired of eating and the dis-functional Chinese products, even bombs are there as well. Rather than making a heavy film to preach something, this is a very light film which tries to tell everyone that inspite of fighting for their respective countries, at the end of the day they are human and its humanity that is the biggest religion. Even though all these wonderful things are the backbone of the plot, the film doesn't hit the bulls eye. It doesn't deliver what it should.

Somewhere it gets preachy at the end and too random in the middle. You might just flip through your phone and not realise that you've actually missed something relevant. Somewhere a good concept seems a little wasted here.

The film more or less tells you about how armies are victims of government policies and nobody likes to kill people here and there. As shown in the film, the war is planted by the ministers and war is just a reason for human loss.

All in all, if you decide to miss this one, you wont lose on much. The film tries to touch the average mark but unfortunately it is not able to.