He has acted with Hindi film Aago many times before. Those with long memories will recall films such as the 1980s adventure film ‘The Burning Train’, which may have taken inspiration from the earlier Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Towering Inferno’, but those fighting fire at the risk of their lives. Never been in the limelight.
Rahul Dholakia’s ‘Agni’ tries to correct this. The film wastes no time in placing its bets with the head of the Mumbai fire station, Vitthalrao Surve (Gandhi), who leads his band of brave men from the front as they go to put out fires in crowded buildings.
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That firefighters are unsung heroes that civilians never acknowledge, let alone recognize, is a fact at the heart of the film. Serious health risks are part of their job description, which seems to be nobody’s problem except their own families who are forced to make peace with the constant insecurity they have to live with. This comes though the way writers Dholakia and Vijay Maurya (the latter also penned the dialogues, spewing one-liners on the characters) sometimes interfere with the film’s realistic feel. .
Divyendu Plays a movie cop that has seen a lot of movie cops talking swag, including his Samit Sawant surrounded by appreciative sticks who seem there to appreciate his jokes instead of getting into it. There’s also a leader more interested in getting his photos in the paper than solving the many cases that set the city on fire: we’ve seen this type of character many times.
Both the women, Sai Tamhankar as Vitthalrao’s faithful wife who lives in fear every time he calls, along with Saiyami Kher as a strong female firefighter do their job well. The former also has to deal with a young son who is a man who emulates his police uncle Samit, not his father: Nice touch, but again you know how it ends, especially when the plot turns into a whodunit. Terrain, chasing the mystery arsonist. This is the weakness, the compulsion to add unnecessary drama to make the narrative compelling, otherwise as welcome as life.
What works is when the film focuses on its main objective. The reenactment of the deadly fire is effective in scenes filled with smoke and screams. When some characters lose their lives in the line of duty, we see how high the stakes are: there’s nothing romantic about third-degree burns. We see the commitment of these heroes to their jobs, even as they rail against the ‘system’ that doesn’t give them the support they need: the iconic Gandhi makes you believe in his Vitthal who has fought fire all his life, and will continue to do so.
fire
Director – Rahul Dholakia
Cast – Prateek Gandhi, Divyendu, Sai Tamhankar, Saiami Kher, Jitendra Joshi, Udit Arora, Kabir Shah
Evaluation – 2.5/5