Mission Raniganj – The Great Bharat Rescue is based on an inspirational story which celebrates the heroics of Jaswant Singh Gill. Mission Raniganj could have been a very powerful film, but the director’s narrow vision ruined it.
Mission Raniganj is a story which needed to be made. The film is hurt by ordinary execution, simple frameworks, poor VFX and melodramatic writing. The director should have given Mission Raniganj a realistic touch with proper proportion of thrills, but goes over the top in many scenes making it look like a mass film.
Neeraj Pandey has always made smart films and has understood the subject well. He tries to engage the audience by using realistic elements, be it A Wednesday, Special 26 or Baby. A visionary director would have surely given justice to the story of Jaswant Singh Gill.
The film is based on Jaswant Singh Gill (Akshay Kumar), a brave and diligent mining engineer who rescued 65 miners trapped in a flooded coal mine at the Raniganj Coalfields in 1989.
Mission Raniganj may remind us of Kaala Patthar. Despite Mission Raniganj being a true story, Kaala Patthar looks better than it. Mission Raniganj has a slightly outdated presentation.
Tinu Suresh Desai who collaborated with Akshay on Rustom, made a decent film. Rustom was not extraordinary but made a decent watch by having commercial elements. Director Tinu could have even made Rustom a sensational film, but he wanted to play safe and ended up making a commercial potboiler.
Mission Raniganj is a film which needed to be handled with care. Presenting a real life hero on-screen is different from presenting a reel hero and Tinu got this thing wrong.
Akshay Kumar is ordinary while portraying the role of an extraordinary man on-screen. Akshay’s artificial beard and mustache are clearly visible. The look could have been more natural, only if there would have been some dedication from Akshay’s end. Akshay steps into the shoes of Jaswant Singh Gill and does an ordinary job. He looks the same in every scene, be it an emotional or intense one. Parineeti Chopra hardly gets any screen presence to shine. She is decent in her part and does nothing great. This role will go down as a forgettable one from Parineeti’s filmography. The supporting cast is full of talented actors like Kumud Mishra, Ravi Kishan, Jameel Khan, Pawan Malhotra, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Rajesh Sharma, Inaamulhaq, Varun Badola, Shishir Sharma, Virendra Saxena, Ananth Mahadevan, Sudhi Pandey, etc. All these actors are decent in their parts and do justice to their roles.
Mission Raniganj has a low production value. This was a film which should have been presented on a big scale. The makers paid no attention to technical aspects. The visual effects look very poor on-screen and even the content is not that solid enough to overlook these flaws.
The first half of the film offers nothing exciting. Things start to build up in the second half but the narrative is not that engaging enough. A survival thriller must keep the audience hooked to their seats. Mission Raniganj with unnecessary added commercial elements spoil the fun. The climax part where Akshay is the last person to rescue is badly written with an unnecessary dose of jingoism added to it.
The writers have taken disadvantage of cinematic liberty and failed to understand the subject properly.
Akshay Kumar is ordinary while portraying the role of an extraordinary man on-screen. Akshay’s artificial beard and mustache are clearly visible. The look could have been more natural, only if there would have been some dedication from Akshay’s end. Akshay steps into the shoes of Jaswant Singh Gill and does an ordinary job. He looks the same in every scene, be it an emotional or intense one. Parineeti Chopra hardly gets any screen presence to shine. She is decent in her part and does nothing great. This role will go down as a forgettable one from Parineeti’s filmography. The supporting cast is full of talented actors like Kumud Mishra, Ravi Kishan, Jameel Khan, Pawan Malhotra, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Rajesh Sharma, Inaamulhaq, Varun Badola, Shishir Sharma, Virendra Saxena, Ananth Mahadevan, Sudhi Pandey, etc. All these actors are decent in their parts and do justice to their roles.
Mission Raniganj has a low production value. This was a film which should have been presented on a big scale. The makers paid no attention to technical aspects. The visual effects look very poor on-screen and even the content is not that solid enough to overlook these flaws.
The first half of the film offers nothing exciting. Things start to build up in the second half but the narrative is not that engaging enough. A survival thriller must keep the audience hooked to their seats. Mission Raniganj with unnecessary added commercial elements spoil the fun. The climax part where Akshay is the last person to rescue is badly written with an unnecessary dose of jingoism added to it.
The writers have taken disadvantage of cinematic liberty and failed to understand the subject properly. There are very few gripping and thrilling scenes which can keep the audience invested in this story. The talented actors who were trapped in the mines deserved better writing and dialogues. The screenplay lacked the pace needed for a survival thriller.
The music of Mission Raniganj is situational. Not a single song is impressive. Akshay and B Praak’s combo has given many memorable songs in the past, but in Mission Raniganj they deliver a dull track.
Some scenes may appeal to a mass audience, but the overall product is strictly average for the movie lovers.
The makers failed to create an atmosphere which a survival thriller should have. Poor technical effects and outdated presentation spoiled Mission Raniganj. This is a film which can be witnessed on a small screen and it will make no difference. People can save their time and money and wait for an OTT release.
Akshay Kumar had made many moderate budget films in the past and delivered solid content. OMG, Special 26, Holiday, Baby, Gabbar Is Back, Airlift, Rustom, Jolly LLB 2, Toilet Ek Prem Katha, Padman and Mission Mangal were loved by the audience. Mission Raniganj was a perfect film for Akshay which could have got him back into his zone.
Mission Raniganj could have been a solid inspiring and hard-hitting survival thriller, but the director’s narrow vision brought it down. Mission Raniganj can be watched to celebrate Jaswant Singh Gill’s heroics, but with low expectations.
Rating – 2.5/5*
