JioCinema's 'Ranneeti: Balakot & Beyond' review: Jimmy Shergill and Lara Dutta's show needed to be crisper

Cast: Jimmy Shergill, Lara Dutta, Prasanna Venkatesan, Ashutosh Rana, Ashish Vidyarthi, Akanksha Singh, Satyajeet Dubey, Elnaaz Norouzi

Director: Santosh Singh

Language: Hindi

Ranneeti: Balakot and Beyond, this is the name of the new web series on JioCinema that pays yet another homage and portrays yet another take on the Balakot air strike after the recent dud Operation Valentine. For patriotic angles, we already have titles like Fighter, Tejas, and URI in a span of just five years. Ironically, Ranneeti begins in 2019, a month after Vicky Kaushal’s blockbuster released. There’s much to see in the word beyond that makes its way into the tagline. Since it’s a 9-episode series with an average run time of 49 minutes for each one, the ‘beyond’ literally gets going right from the word go.

Finding humor, references, and irony

A close-up of Jimmy Shergill ’s tongue introduces us to his character who’s a former RAW agent who’s now reading film scripts after a failed mission due to a mole in the team. A tacky action sequence with jarring lines mercifully (and amusingly) turns out to be a scene from a film Shergill rejects right off the bat saying nobody talks like this. The irony here is his character himself almost falls into the same claws while interrogating a terrorist in Tihar jail few moments earlier, which also paves way for the introduction of Ashutosh Rana (who does a little less jingoistic version of his own Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon). Another scene where a man struggles to shoot a traitor evokes memories of Akshaye Khanna’s crippling fear in Border. There, it was an Indian solider ordered to shoot a Pakistani intruder, here, it’s the opposite. The first episode ends with an attack on the CRPF officers when one of them is on a video call with his wife. The episode ends and the moment the second one begins, the wife is still on her phone, oblivious to the catastrophe that has just unfolded.

Never Heard Before?

The dialogues are the kind of exchanges and emotional breakdowns that are now borderline cliched. Before the two nations can get down to the battlefield or surreptitious attacks, they derive a high by mouthing one liners about revenge and retaliation. The background music for us suggests courage, for them, it’s always evil. And Shergill, a fine actor with a solid screen presence, is shaky and somber as Kashyap. He’s haunted by a past and is unable to move on, which is used as a tool to provide rationale for his mostly one-note outing. Of course, there are scenes especially towards the end when he does crack a smile. He’s always been a fascinating actor to watch and it’s great to see him spearheading a title. Lara Dutta is actually the first character here to flash a lovely smile when she appears. She has a past too, but the actress brims with a certain sense of vibrancy, especially in her scene with Shergill. But, but, but…

Needed more thrill

Dutta devises a plan to deceive the neighbors that feels implausible at the service of the narrative. It involves posting a picture on social media from a farewell party and deleting it two minutes later. Rana smells the stench and yet succumbs to the attacks that lack both thrill and pulsating tension. A heightened sense of urgency is unable to lift the overall dullness of the entire execution of the montage. To compensate, this episode ends with another cliffhanger to perhaps spice up the blandness of the writing.

Only Black and White

The inspiration from real-life events often becomes an excuse for makers to legitimize the monotony of their characters, and after showing spurts of spark initially, Ranneeti slips into the rigmarole of painting its characters black and white. The narrative keeps oscillating between the earnest and the evil, and no prizes for guessing who has been painted how. The aerial action, most recently seen in Operation Valentine and Fighter , fail to ignite any sense of panic or patriotism. Now only if all this unfolded on the big screen with 3D glasses. And only if those 90% Indians went to the airport. Oops!

Rating: 2.5 (out of 5 stars)

Ranneti is now streaming on JioCinema