Mission Raniganj review: Akshay Kumar saves the day in an over-the-top survival thriller

Akshay Kumar turns saviour once more this time for filmmaker Tinu Suresh Desai's new film Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Escape. Based on a real-life incident that took place in Raniganj, a coal mining area inWest Bengal, Mission Raniganj attempts to highlight the bravery of mining engineer and rescue specialist JaswantSingh and how he led a daunting rescue mission to save 65 trapped miners in a span of 48 hours in 1989.

Survival dramas have a separate fan base and while the end is mostly predictable it is how the makers treat the film that makes all the difference.

Pitched as the great Bharat Rescue (to align with the proposed name change of India) Bharat Akshay Kumar plays JaswantSingh who despite being a junior engineer leads a heroic and inspirational mission and rescues safely 65 trapped miners with the help of a makeshift capsule.

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What's the story of Mission Ranignaj: The Great Bharat Rescue?

In 1989, 65 miners got trapped inside a coalfield after a wall collapsed and water from level up flooded the area where miners were working. While a handful of them were able to escape on time, this group was unable to hear the emergency calls that their supervisor had made when the disaster struck.

The supervisor/manager of the site is a nervous man but summons his dependable aide Jaswant Singh (Akshay Kumar) to carry out an effective rescue operation.

The operation is not the easiest. Jaswant faces multiple hurdles. From jealous coworkers who want to sabotage his mission even before it begins to a lack of time as water levels rise dangerously high inside the coalfield to lack of information on how grave the situation is down there to structural problems related to lack of proper equipment drill holes for a rescue operation- Jaswanthas to fight several odds.

How he surpasses these and other hurdles establishes- first- contact with the miners and eventually rescues them forms the rest of the story.

What works

Written by Deepak Kingrani and Vipul K Rawal, Mission Raniganj wastes no time in establishing the plot. The film is a little over 2 hours long and the narrative solely concentrates on the daunting rescue mission that Jaswantand his team embark on. And while Jaswantis shown playing the unassuming hero, devising a rescue operation on land, the narrative also shows the plight of the miners down under who, unable to contact anyone on land are unsure if they would even survive or remain trapped forever there. Actors Sudhir Pandey, Jamil Khan, Ravi Kishan, and Varun Badola play miners in the film- each playing their part well- each rising up to the occasion when there is a need -helping their fellow miners to survive as they wait for help to arrive.

It is a pacy narrative and one that keeps you hooked mostly with makers keeping the parallel plots to the minimum. Of course, Jaswant's familial life is shown amid the rescue operation, how he keeps a check on his pregnant wife (Parineeti Chopra) amid the rescue operation, some of the miners'families too are shown, and the rivalry between the manager of the mines (Kumud Mishra) and his immediate subordinate too is highlighted, but all these stories are weaved into the main plot.

What does not

While the film is thrilling, it does have a very shoddy VFX and over-the-top background score. In fact, most of the characters seem very dramatic and the reactions and emotions of each of the characters are amplified to a great extent just to evoke emotions. Except for Akshay Kumar, most overdo their roles. And to have credible actors like Kumud Mishra, Arif Zakaria, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, and Rajesh Kumar play their roles in an exaggerated manner is no mean feat but filmmaker Desai does just that. The result is a screechy 2-hour film that is high on thrills as well as theatrics.

Akshay Kumar and director Tinu Suresh Desai have made a film based on a real-life incident before. Rustom was a fictional account of the Nanavati Scandal, and terribly melodramatic. The film though fetched Kumar a National Award that year ( a decision that is debatable). The good news is that Mission Raniganj is not a cringe-fest like Rustom was. The other good news is that if you liked Kumar in Rustom, then you will also like Mission Raniganj: The Great Bharat Rescue. It ticks mostly all the boxes that make for a good survival thriller, but I really wish they had toned down the theatrics a few decibels. It is ultimately an ode to JaswantSingh aka Capsule Singh and his heroic act that helped save so many miners. The film is truly inspirational and celebrates humanity.Mission Raniganjreleasesin theatres on October 6.

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