Major Review: Adivi Sesh as a Sandeep Unnikrishnan the hero from the 26/11 attack.

Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, AC was an officer in the Indian Army serving in the elite 51 Special Action Group of the National Security Guards. He was martyred in action during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

  South Cinema   Jun 2, 2022   0   585  Add to Reading List
Major Review: Adivi Sesh as a Sandeep Unnikrishnan the hero from the 26/11 attack.

The story of the haunting nights of 26/11 was so cinematic that it h

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as been told through films multiple times in the last 15 years. Multiple documentaries and feature films on different aspects of those days have covered almost every element of the story. One that was left was of course about Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and his bravery. Written by Adivi Sesh, the story has been with him for the past 15 years. The obsession with the source material gave him the idea of telling the story of the man rather than just those 2 days in which he died. Like MS Dhoni, Unnikrishnan also lived a life that was perfectly fit for a cinematic telling of it. Rejections, love that bloomed unconventionally, the longing and the stress of it. So when Sesh got on board, there was enough fodder to shape a film that spoke about a man than just an incident.

But while the thought of telling the story of the man other than just the incident is a noble idea, it gets a confusing mix at the writing stage. Take for example the opening sequence, it is divided into three parts. A glimpse from the attack, another from his home, and the last about his love life. And then takes off the story that graduates through all these stages of his life. But what it ends up being for a long time is a confused broth. Because there is no one hook that you put yourself on and watch the entire narrative. It’s kind of episodic and that doesn’t help in a feature-length movie.

For example, in Shershaah, the tension of the Kargil emergence was always around even while the two were blooming as a fresh couple in love. The tension in Major enters pretty late and altogether. And this is how the second half becomes the best part of the movie.

The second half takes place majorly inside the Taj Hotel where the terrorist have hijacked many civilians and Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan comes to the rescue. The screenplay here gets so interesting in terms of the spacing of the scenes that bring you on the edge of your seats. Because even his personal life is on the edge and that gives everything an extra layer.

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