Bhuj: The Pride of India Movie Review: We will be celebrating 75th Independence Day on August 15th this year and two Bollywood films full of patriotic spirit have been released on such occasion. Karan Johar’s Dharma production ‘Sher Shah’ released a day ago on Amazon Prime and Ajay Devgn’s production multi-starrer film ‘Bhooj: The Pride of India’ (Bhooj the Pride of India) released on Disney Hotstar Plus. The film chronicles Pakistan’s failed attempt to annex Kutch to India in 1971. This story is not only the story of the army but also the courage and heroism of the citizens. All in all, how is this picture?
Story: During the 1971 war, the Pakistani Army attacked the Bhuj airbase of the Indian Air Force and completely destroyed it. Not only this, Pakistan also destroyed all the roads connecting Kutch with India to capture Kutch. Under such circumstances, 300 women of Madhpur, a village in Bhuj risked their lives to rebuild the airstrip of this air force base in just 72 hours. These women were prepared by Skordan leader Vijay Karnik (Ajay Devgn) to help him. This is a war story that will make your heart proud.
Sonakshi Sinha is playing an important role in this Ajay Devgan film.
Director Abhishek Dudhaiya’s film ‘Bhuj’ is a multi-starrer film, with stars ranging from Sanjay Dutt to Sharad Kelkar and Sonakshi Sinha, but this film is entirely centered around Ajay Devgan. There are heroes out there and that’s clear. The film is said at the very beginning, although it is based on a true story, it has taken ‘liberties in writing the screenplay based on entertainment’.
The story itself begins with a dialogue showing the Pakistani government’s intentions and the Pakistani army’s attack on the Bhuj Air Base. Unaware of this air strike, Indian Air Force personnel suddenly ran for their lives and some got involved in the fight. In the first half, the story is explained through voice over for a long time, which doesn’t make the connection.
In fact, the film’s biggest flaw is realism. Everything from the sets to the dialogues of the characters feels fake and artificial. Making a film about the army doesn’t mean you’re not a soldier unless you give a patriotic speech, which is clearly seen in this film. A lot of patriotic dialogue is coming from all around. Nora Fatehi’s sequence looks very artificial.
But despite all this, there is no denying that Ajay Devgan and Sharad Kelkar shine in their roles. Sharad Kelkar felt quite original and appealing. At the same time, there are heavy dialogues on the part of the rest of the characters, which they say in the same style.
Many events are happening simultaneously in the story, and that is why voice-overs are often used to convey the characters and events. That’s why you need to constantly understand what’s going on. Although the second half of the film is good, it clearly shows real fights and real events. The biggest shortcoming of this film is that it is a ‘masala film’ inspired by a true story, where the actual story is less and the masala itself dominates. At this time, the wave of patriotism is going strong in the country and in such a situation Bollywood is not behind to capitalize on it. ‘Bhooj’ is one such attempt, only this masala action drama has so little realism that you can’t feel ‘pride’.

A scene from Ajay Devgn’s ‘Bhooj’.
If you want to watch a patriotic story this Independence Day, then you must watch this movie. Also a must see story of 300 women’s spirit in 1971, this story of army heroism. Yes, this story would have been a great movie if it had not tried to make some connection between it and not just for entertainment. 2.5 stars for this movie from my point of view.
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Tags: Ajay Devgn, Eat the Pride of India, Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha
First Published: August 13, 2021, 21:56 IST