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Movie Review: ‘India’s Most Wanted’

Arjun Kapoor returns to the big screen in Raj Kumar Gupta directed ‘Indias’s Most Wanted’, based on the real-life event which saw the capture of terrorist Yasin Bhatkal in 2018. The film, from the first looks, gave the promise of a film which would make an interesting watch but is it really all it’s made out to be?

Prabhat (Kapoor) is a desh bhakt, always going out of his way making sure he is doing all he can to keep India safe. After a number of bomb blasts all over the sub-continent, he gets a lead which could lead him to one of the country’s most wanted terrorists who was known to be the mastermind of the bombings. With as good as no backing from his boss and the authorities, he and a small team embark to Kathmandu to try and track down Yusuf, who is the mn behind the Indian Mujhahideen. Will they be able to catch him without any resources to help?

Gupta captures a very patriotic feel in a rather clear-cut style in this film. He manages to un-romanticise the story which works in its favour and he delivers a rather engaging story which would make any Indian proud and in awe of the real men who put their lives on the line to make sure they made their country a safer place.

Kapoor as the protagonist is worthy of applause for his performance, making sure he’s a strong and sturdy leader of the pack. He does seem to lack emotion in the most part but one can tell his focus is real and this works well overall. The ensemble cast around him are all good to support his main character, including Rajesh Sharma who plays his boss. Sharma is known for his negative roles as well as the goodies but in this he is a good position as a character to show the difference between patriotism and authority. Sudev Nair as the baddie is great to see, after his legacy of movies in Malayalam cinema, sharing the screen with Kapoor and others – albeit in a small part.

The two things that can be seen as setbacks for this film is that there is no back-story as such for Prabhat which would’ve made it all the more easier for the audiences to identify with him. Apart from this, one would expect such a film to come with a pace that’s fast and which keeps at that speed to keep up the audience’s attention with any twists and turns. However, this film is at a noticably slow pace from the start and it therefore is a struggle sometimes to keep up with the story for the viewers.

In conclusion, after the many patriotic real to reel stories which have graced the screens of late, ‘India’s Most Wanted’ does live upto expectations in the most part. It is engaging enough to see how local authorities arrested the most wanted terrorist and that too without much support from the big men within the Indian government. Kapoors’s performance is very poker-faced which adds to the suspense a little which helps the film along. If you’re thinking of watching it, know that it will draw you in when you don’t expect it to.