Shakti Pratap Singh Hada directorial may not be ‘loud’ in its approach, but the jingoism still seeps through because of the way it treats its antagonists
It is possible that Operation Valentine will remind you of an untidy superhero film, or even your favourite cartoon series from the ’90s. There’s the ‘hero’, the central conflict and the epic battle that must ensue in the climax for things to be settled. Except that the conflict arises from a most evil source that happens to be an entire country in the case of this movie. It’s enough to gather from this that you may have watched a film such as this countless times before and to also realize that regardless of how different this said conflict is in definition, the beats shall remain the same. And that’s the problem with Shakti Pratap Singh Hada’s latest bilingual — it simply models itself on other films of the genre like Top Gun, The Fighters and whatnot, and never attempts to chase an idea of its own.
By the ‘idea’ I mean the way in which Operation Valentine is structured, the way it dispenses information and also the way it treats its subjects. Both a quick Google search and the opening credits reveal that the film is based on or inspired by true events — the 2019 Pulwama terrorist attack and the Balakot Air Strikes — and the narrative largely recounts these events with a bit of bombast. The Maverick archetype here is Varun Tej’s Wing Commander Arjun ‘Rudra’ Dev who carries a wound — both physical and psychological — from the past that saw his Goose die in action. Rudra is the classic non-complier who is pursuing an unorthodox project named ‘Vajra’, which essentially allows pilots such as himself to literally fly under the radar and avoid being detected by the enemy. But the project carries terrible risks of crashing head-first into the ground and much to our man’s chagrin, it never takes off.
Tussle between form and substance
Shakti Pratap Singh Hada and his co-writers (Aamir Nahid Khan & Siddharth Rajkumar) build their world with minimal inventiveness but to their credit, they manage to keep things simple and restrained. Arjun might be the pain in the neck for his seniors but they respect him nevertheless and so do his juniors, who don’t mind poking fun at him every time they get a chance. There’s fellow Wing Commander Aahna Gill (Manushi Chillar) in the mix as well who, needless to say, isn’t just there to serve the nation but also to play a specific role in the whole scheme of things. But what works is that she isn’t restricted to being the ‘love interest’. In fact, quite refreshingly, the whole romance angle between her and Arjun plays out matter-of-factly — the most we get is a montage song in the first half but beyond that, Operation Valentine does not make a huge fuss about the ‘frills’.
Varun Tej was an interesting choice for the role. He boasts the right physique for it and even sports a dashing moustache, another valid addition to the image of a commander. But his boyish charm, the one we saw in films like Fida, somehow doesn’t work fully because he is neither cocky nor happy-go-lucky. His chemistry (not a fan of this term, to be honest) with Manushi Chillar, however, oozes charm and the duo is pleasant to watch throughout. Presh Ahuja, as their colleague Yash Sharma — the loose version of real-life fighter pilot Abhinandan Varthaman — is adequate for the job and so are Ruhani Sharma, Sampath Raj, Abhinandan Varthaman, Shataf Figar and others. They are not great by any means, but good enough for the task.
Could the same be said about the villainy, the other important element of this story? The answer is a definite no and fittingly, as the narrative plods along, this bit becomes a major gripe area. There’s no doubt in saying that films vilifying Pakistan have grown in massive abundance over the last few years and Operation Valentine is whole-hearted to join this list. The problem isn’t only in pontification or stating the facts with a sense of pride. But it is mainly in completely foregoing nuance and perspective to make the point. Any sane mind wouldn’t back away from accepting that whatever happened in 2019 or other several instances is beyond reproach, and it surely doesn’t take much to do that. The ‘responsibility’ of a filmmaker, however, is to look beyond facts and add subtext to reality? Or is that too much to ask in the bargain?
And it’s in this self-imposed tussle between form and substance that Operation Valentine fails to soar high (another pun on flying, pardon me). There’s that template-like approach to guide us through these real-life events which works occasionally, that too only if you are someone who likes to geek out on stuff related to aviation. Hada puts together this part of his cinematic world with some efficiency and thankfully, the technical conversations among the characters are handled well. In other words, the characters don’t talk to us, the audience, as if it’s a knowledge-transfer session but organically converse among themselves, as normal people do. Also, the scenes involving flying and the combats are pulled off effectively and although the CGI isn’t exactly breathtaking, it gets the job done. The aerial action is entirely where the film lies and even if everything else — the emotional crux, the patriotism, the valour, etc. — fails to work, these sequences somehow salvage.
Bereft of subtlety, empathy
What doesn’t work at all, though, is the blatant act of drawing binaries. Pakistan, as an identity, is absolutely bereft of any subtlety here and even though Operation Valentine isn’t a ‘loud’ film, the jingoism somehow still seeps through with the way it deals with antagonism. In one scene, one of Pakistan’s wing commanders, code-named Shaheen, launches a modest attack on India with the help of two jets. The Indians wonder why only two, considering the delicateness of the moment, and soon enough, those two fighter planes spread out into many more like the tentacles of a huge creature. Except that the creature is purely vile and one-dimensional, only meant to exist as a source of moral contrast for the film.
A film of the same ilk that comes to mind is Kabir Khan’s Phantom which, although not perfect, was precise in its gaze. There we know that the bad guys are obviously bad but Khan exudes empathy towards both sides of the coin. Operation Valentine gets so caught in impressing us with its technique that it never bothers to dig deep into the ethos of terrorism and the grief it casts on every single thing it touches. Instead, it functions as the skeleton of an ‘airforce movie’ that only checks off the mandatory elements.
Consequently, it’s not a film that offers anything novel to us. Because of its clear bipartite stance, we know that there’s a definite winner and a loser in the end and none of the other small conceits — like Arjun Dev’s past, his troubled relationship with his squadron leader and so on — matter much to our experience. What matters, though, is the economy with which the makers operate and give us a decent action-thriller. Give it a chance if you are a fan of this subgenre.
