Code Name Tiranga Review: Avoid it like you avoid terrorism

Hyderabad: You need audacious gumption to make a spy thriller in its over-simplistic template as perceived by Ribhu Das Gupta. You also need amazing bad luck to be tempted into this adventure and tolerance to sit through this Afghan-Pak connect anti-terrorist story reduced to the simplicity of a chor-police game. Kids a couple of decades […]

Hyderabad: You need audacious gumption to make a spy thriller in its over-simplistic template as perceived by Ribhu Das Gupta. You also need amazing bad luck to be tempted into this adventure and tolerance to sit through this Afghan-Pak connect anti-terrorist story reduced to the simplicity of a chor-police game.

Kids a couple of decades ago on summer nights would join up, hide in obvious places and play a game of hide-and-seek. No strategy required, no planning, some luck and a lot of noise. Ribhu Das Gupta’s idea of arms smuggling and terror in Afghan terrain is akin to such juvenile indulgence.

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Shot brilliantly by Tribhuvan Babu Sadineni, the film is an ordeal to sit through, except that the locales in Afghanistan and Turkey are amazing to watch. RAW chief (Sabyasachi Chakrabarty) and his deputy (Deesh Mariwala) are engaged in ‘bringing home’ noted terrorist Khalid Omar (Sharad Kelkar). The only person who can get him is Durga (Parineeti Chopra). She is exported to the rough terrain of Afghanistan to apprehend the illusive Omar who anyway is seen all over the place and is a sitting duck for anyone with a modicum of common sense to attack.

Durga as Ismat is said to fall in love with Dr Mirza Ali (Harrdy Sandhu). The first attempt to apprehend Omar not only fails but also exposes Durga in her true colours to Mirza Ali.

On that side of the wall are Omar and Ifthekar Khan (Shishir Sharma) and on this side is the ever-fumbling yet ever-successful Durga. The lock jam makes for a two-hour-20-minute ordeal.

Given a major role, one would have thought that it was a great opportunity for Parineeti Chopra to move up the ladder. Far from it. In lines of Alia Bhatt (Raazi), one would have expected Parineeti to do the lady undercover with more life and conviction. In contrast, she not only looks tired but thanks to the large script she is victim to oversimplified operations that depict RAW as a bungling amateur agency.

None in the cast impress. Even more disappointing than the film, is its wafer-thin plot and insipid sub-plots. This certainly is not worth braving the weather forecast and picking your umbrella. Staying in the confines of your home is more than a safe bet, it is the sane call. Avoid it like you avoid terrorism.