Movie Review: Batla House
Movie Review “Batla House”
Rating: 3/5
Director: Nikhil Advani
Cast: John Abraham, Mrunal Thakur, Ravi Kishan, Nora Fatehi
The fateful day of 13th September 2008, which shook the core of Delhi with five serial blasts killing dozens of people and injuring over 100 was followed by a shootout between the Delhi Special cell and an apartment where a few terrorists were hiding. The Batla House encounter as well all know resulted in the killing of two suspected terrorists, also college students from Delhi area and arrest of two other terrorists. In the open shootout, Delhi too lost one of its gallantry award wining officers, essayed by Ravi Kishan (KK).
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What followed was trials and tribulations suspecting the Delhi special cell. This was suspected to be an attack on the minority community as a response to the terror attacks. The Political parties, media and citizens were aggravated with innocent college going students being killed in this deliberate and fake encounter staged by Delhi Police cell.
Batla House essays an important story in the history of Delhi and India. A story where decorated Police Officers willing to give their lives to serve our nation had to justify their innocence. It also shows us how media can play a role in fabricating facts or rather building up their own theories for the sake of creating hype and gravitate viewers to watch their content.
The first half of the movie, while important is slow moving and focuses too much on the inner turmoil and failing Marriage of John Abraham (Inspector Sharma) who was the leading the team of Batla House Encounter. The second half however brings the movie back on track with enough attention being paid the trials and tribulations that occurred in the Saket Sessions court Delhi and the verdict that followed.
Mrunal Thakur of Super 30 fame, essays the role of John Abraham’s wife Nandita Kumar, an anchor with a news company, frustrated of being trapped in marriage to a cop for whom country and service to the Police force comes above everything else, even his family. She fares well in the role that is offered to her.
Ravi Kisan impresses in his small cameo and the film would have benefitted more with an extended presence of this character given the lack of dependable support cast they had.
Nora Fatehi is decent in her small role although O Saki Saki seems an irrelevant and forced addition to the narrative of the film.
John Abraham is yet again impressive as a cop. He plays a subdued role of a cop dealing with many situations, one of which was fighting his own people for justice and proving his and his teams innocence.
Overall, Batla House Encounter and his aftermath is a story that had to be told. With a better structured first half and a stronger support cast this would have been an even more enjoyable watch. A good watch nonetheless.
