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Pooja Entertainment and Ajay Kapoor Productions (P.) Ltd.’s Mission Raniganj (UA) is based on a true-life incident. It is the story of the hair-raising rescue operation of 65 miners, conducted by Jaswant Singh Gill, a brave mining engineer, after the Raniganj Coalfields collapse in West Bengal in 1989. The chances of saving the trapped miners seemed almost nil but Gill made it possible due to his quick thinking, presence of mind and brave stand.
Deepak Kingrani has written the story based on the real-life story and on a story idea by Poonam Gill. By its very nature, the story is very engaging and keeps the audience on tenterhooks. Vipul K. Rawal’s screenplay is fast-paced and exciting but the drama tends to get dry after a point of time, probably because it is about miners trapped many feet below ground level. Also, the tension is so palpable that it may become difficult for a section of the viewers to digest the disaster first and the rescue operation thereafter. Besides, the emotional quotient is not as high as it ought to have been, maybe because there aren’t too many heart-wrenching dialogues and scenes. Even the tears of joy, that should’ve rolled down people’s cheeks, don’t roll down. This could partially be because Jaswant Gill exhibits no emotions throughout the rescue operation, but rather comes across as a determined mining engineer although, of course, he is super-emotional at heart. In other words, the viewers get to see the intelligent side of Jaswant Gill but they also wanted a peep into his human and emotional side, which peep they, unfortunately, don’t get. Some things need to be underlined for the Hindi film-going audience. Had the drama made people weep (and weep buckets), the impact would’ve been far, far more. Deepak Kingrani’s dialogues are very good at places but what was needed were a lot of sentimental and clap-worthy dialogues.
Akshay Kumar does a wonderful job as Jaswant Singh Gill. But how one wishes that his humane side was underlined more. Parineeti Chopra shines in a brief role. She plays Nirdosh Kaur Gill with all the conviction at her command. Kumud Mishra delivers a restrained performance in the role of R.K. Ujjwal. Dibyendu Bhattacharya lends excellent support as D. Sen. Ravi Kishan has his moments as Bhola. Pavan Raj Malhotra is wonderful as Bindal. Rajesh Sharma impresses as Goverdhan Roy. Jameel Khan leaves a fine mark as Pasu. Virendra Saxena is effective as Tapan Ghosh. Varun Badola makes an impact as Shaligram. Arif Zakaria is natural as DG Om Chakravarti. Shishir Sharma plays O.P. Dayal with confidence. Sudhir Pandey lends excellent support as Behra. Ananth Mahadevan is good in the role of P.M. Natarajan. Dinesh Lamba stands his own as Kaseem. Ishtiyak Khan (as Gopal Jha) entertains. Boloram Das (as Roy), Mukesh Bhatt (as Murli), Kamran Khan (as Birju), Anil Rastogi (as Bhola’s father), Jitendra Pathak (as Ramavtar), Vikas P. Somani (as Ramavtar’s father), Hima Singh (as Shaligram’s wife, Durga), Alisha Soni (as Murli’s wife, Imarti Devi), Onkar Das Manikpuri (as Bishu), Gargi Tripathi (as Bishu’s wife, Lakshmi), Khushboo Atre (as Saroj), Gaurav Prateek (as Diwakar), Narendra Khatri (as Gora Bose), Neeraj Negi (as Bankelal), Aparna Upadhyay (as Bankelal’s mother), Surbhi Dhyani (as Sunita), Geetanshi R. Lamba (as Rekha), Vageshwari Gupta (as Kajal), Sanjay Verma (as Pandit), Deepak Kingrani (as Jameel), Vipul K. Rawal (as the middle-aged officer), Amrish Patange (as Ganguly), Prashant Kargeti (as R.K. Ujjwal’s PA), Chandan Kumar Mandal (as D. Sen’s PA), Govind Pandey (as Dadan Pandey), Bachan Pachera (as Noor), Rohit Tiwari (as Gop), Akshay Verma (as Sudama) and the rest lend excellent support.
Tinu Suresh Desai’s direction is good, artistically speaking. His narration keeps the audience engrossed. But he should’ve added a good dose of emotions for them to become participative. Music (Prem-Hardeep, Vishal Mishra and Arko) is functional. Lyrics (Satinder Sartaaj, Vishal Mishra and B. Praak) are appropriate. Ganesh Acharya and Shabina Khan’s choreography is okay. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background music is impactful. Aseem Mishra’s cinematography is excellent. Parvez Shaikh’s action and stunt scenes afford thrill. Production designing (by Amrish Patange and Dayanidhi Patturajan) is fair. Aarif Sheikh’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Mission Raniganj is a well-made film but it doesn’t connect emotionally half as much as it should’ve. As such, it will not be able to realise its potential at the ticket windows. In fact, given the weak start, it will entail huge losses to all concerned.
Released on 6-10-’23 at Inox (daily 9 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PVR Inox Pictures. Publicity: dull. Opening: below the mark. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull almost everywhere.