A good offering from the stables of Sagar Creations (remember the makers of the almost ever-lasting 'Ramayana'). Ramanand Sagar's grandson, Amrit Sagar, makes his debut as a direction with 1971. The story revolves around 54 MIA (missing in action) Indian soldiers from the 1971 Bangladesh war with Pakistan.
The film begins six years after the end of the short war. The country has almost forgotten its heroes who lie in hope of freedom from the Pakistani jails. The film begins to pickup pace after the POWs (prisoner of war) are all herded in a camp near the border with Indian Kashmir. But the inmates soon detect the reason for their shift to the camp and the deadly game of deception played by the Pakistani authorities who have no plans to release the POWs, despite International pressure and the presence of Red Cross officials in Lahore.
They realise that they have been shifted to a camp only to fool the representatives of Red Cross and the families of Indian jawans who are on visit to the Pakistani jails in search of their kith and kin. From here on the film begins the descend into incredulity.
The inspiration of the film for this part appears to be from the Hollywood movie of yesteryear's: The Great Escape (starring Richard Attenborough) The role played by Attenborough also appears to be tailor-made for Manoj Bajpai.
The plot of preparing Pakistani uniforms by using dyes is pretty unbelievable. Some of them steal the belt, epaulets and other paraphernalia worn by a Pakistani major. In the Great Escape they attempt to flee by digging a tunnel. In 1971, they attempt to make good their escape by hijacking a military truck, which continues to make its journey undetected past a check post.
What strikes one is the blatant anachronism that is replete in the movie. The self-loading rifles and the vehicles used are from post-90's. Another sore point is that vehicles used, most of which are of Indian-make, unless the entire decimated Pakistani army is shown to operate on on captured Indian vehicles captured during the war. (mahindra jeeps, Toyota trucks, etc)
However, the most illogical point is the inability of the Pakistani forces to track the six escaped POWs, despite the advantage of operating in familiar terrain and ample air and ground troop support. It is perplexing why the Pakistani army which goes about firing openly, does not use sniffer dogs and search parties to track three of the POWs who are fleeing on foot.
Apart from several gaps in the storyline, the movie makers have introduced two irrelevant songs and sentimental dialogues that really drags the story towards the end. The movie also tries to bring about a religious balance by having a Muslim subedar, a Christian officer and Hindu soldiers showing solidarity in times of stress.
Manoj does justice to his role as being circumspect of the intentions of the Pakistani captors and their intentions. The film rests on Manoj's shoulders but with too many incongruous instances and discrepancies, if loses steam.
1971 - A journey to freedom that loses way towards the end.
