Prelude : ( FYI)
The 2016 Uri attack was an attack by four heavily armed militants on 18 September 2016, near the town of Uri in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was reported as “the deadliest attack on security forces in Kashmir in two decades”.
The militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed was blamed by India of being involved in the planning and execution of the attack.
At the time of the attack, the Kashmir Valley region was at the center of unrest
At around 5:30 a.m. on 18 September, four militants attacked an Indian Army brigade headquarters in Uri, near the Line of Control in a pre-dawn ambush. They were said to have lobbed 17 grenades in three minutes.19 army personnel were killed during the attack. An additional 80-100 soldiers were reported to have been injured. A gun battle ensued lasting six hours, in which all four militants were killed.
Combing operations continued to flush out additional terrorists thought to be alive.
Most of the soldiers killed were from the 10th battalion, Dogra Regiment (10 Dogra) and 6th battalion, Bihar Regiment (6 Bihar).
One of the injured soldiers succumbed to his injuries on 19 September at R&R Hospital in New Delhi, followed by another soldier on 24 September, bringing the death toll to 18.
The casualties were primarily believed to have occurred as a result of non-fire retardant transition tents.
This was the time of a troops shift, whereby troops from 6 Bihar were replacing troops from 10 Dogra. The incoming troops were housed in tents, which are normally avoided in sensitive areas around the LOC like Uri. The attackers snuck into the camp, breaching heavy security and seemed to know exactly where to strike.
Seven of the personnel killed were support staff, including cooks and barbers.
Synopsis :
Uri : ‘The Surgical Strikes recounts the dramatic story of the secret Indian Army’s surgical strikes on Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as a retaliation for the Uri attack and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who leads it.
Technical :
It’s a film about the danger of knee-jerk emotional responses by apparently ‘responsible’ states in times of crisis, about a cycle of violence propagated by a refusal to explore options beyond taking an eye-for-an-eye-style approach.
It’s about how applying a good vs evil narrative to a difficult story, and treating a severely complicated situation like it’s a straightforward one, necessarily only complicates the picture further. How very timely.
Uri: The Surgical Strike isn’t a film you’d have expected a director like Aditya Dhar to make keeping his previous works into consideration. But, I must say that Aditya Dhar has done a great job in recreating the horrific event taken place 3 years ago.
With his latest film, “Uri: The Surgical Strike,” Director Aditya Dhar forgoes the emotional bullying and pop thrills that come so easily to him to tell the story of a campaign of vengeance that the Indian Army purportedly brought against Pakistani terrorists in the wake of the 2016 Uri Attacks.
It also showcases as unsparingly brutal look at a couple of dead bodies stacked on top oif each other.
“Uri” is by far the toughest film of the director’s career and the most anguished.
The film’s title suggests that this is the story of what happened at URI on September 2016, and it is, though only in part. Most of the action — and if nothing else, this nail-biter is a full-on action movie — takes place in the immediate aftermath of Uri, after 19 Indian army soldiers were murdered by members of a Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist group.
The film has deep love for India, and contains a heartfelt moment when a young female child is shown crying before her father’s dead body.
The film’s most exciting moments are in the details of the planned attacks by the Indian Attack.
Eagle shaped drones are used to spy on the terrorists are planted…there is a moment of Hitchcockian suspense when the team waits for the enemies to come out from their hideout.
Cinematography and the sound design are top notch and will keep you glued till the end.
Performances :
Vicky Kaushal is bloody convincing as an army officer and does a swell job. Yami Gautam and Kirti Kulhari are simply brilliant in their respective roles.
Paresh Rawal as the National Security Adviser is bang on.
All other performances by the supporting star cast Mohit Raina, Manasi Parekh, Rakesh Bedi etc are well cast.
As a thriller, ”Uri is an efficient, absorbing, effective. As an ethical argument, it is haunting. And its questions are not only for Indian or any nation that believes it must compromise its values to defend them.
Verdict :
Overall, Uri the film, offers a clear, simple warning: that responding with violence alone only leads to further violence. A Must Watch.
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