Shershaah - Mountain Lion

Shershaah

(Lion King)

2021, Hindi

Director Vishnuvardhan

Stars Siddharth Malhotra, Kiara Advani, Shiv Panditt, Anil Chiranjeet

Mohan's measure ⭐⭐

Arguably India's bloodiest war in recent history, the Kargil War has been the topic of several Bollywood films, some classics, others utter disasters.

Shershaah borrows from all of them, often times scene by scene, giving us a cinematographic masterpiece. 

However, there is an ingenuousness to it all. Mr. Malhotra is to blame for this. His portrayal as the real-life Captain Batra is like Tom Cruise in Top Gun. There is a childlike smirk on his face, exacerbated by a manscaped beard and overtly staged performance, giving us the impression that his battles and eventual death were childsplay.

There is something sad in the fact that with all the chest thumping bravado, a good soldier's actual life becomes irrelevant.