The Ghazi Attack

1971. The situation in East Pakistan is tightening and war is near. The Indian navy receives intelligence: a Pakistani submarine has sailed and its target is a large aircraft carrier. A submarine is sent; the mission is reconnaissance and firing is forbidden. There are three men aboard: a captain who follows the rules, a second who wants to fight, and an officer caught between them. Under water there is no communication and waiting for orders takes time. The sonar hears something. A decision has to be made and nobody can persuade anybody. Sankalp Reddy directs. Kay Kay Menon, Rana Daggubati, Atul Kulkarni and Taapsee Pannu are in the cast. The languages are Hindi and Telugu. The film was presented as the first submarine war film made in India. Its ground is a real event; the Pakistani submarine PNS Ghazi sank in 1971 and the reason is still argued over. The film ties the event to one version and that reading is contested. The narrative takes place in one location; the inside of the submarine carries the whole film. The matter it treats is the strain between orders and responsibility; the real conflict is inside the boat. The tension is built through sound; sonar signals and silence are the narrative's instruments. The film carries a nationalist register and leaves the other side one dimensional. Its limit is the production; the effects are uneven, the acting overblown, and the ending celebratory. Who it is for: viewers who like war films and tension in confined spaces. Who it is not for: it is argumentative, overblown, and the history contested.