Parineeti Chopra and Harrdy Sandhu's Code Name: Tiranga cleverly changes the gender inflexions

In recent times, Hindi cinema has seen a very interesting process of gender reversal whereby actresses like Taapsee Pannu and Kangana Ranaut play the hero, while talented intelligent actors like Pavail Gulati, Vijay Verma and Vikrant Massey effortlessly fit into the roles traditionally allotted to the leading lady.

It was Parambrata Chatterjee, who way, back in 2013, said he was playing Vidya Balan ’s heroine in Kahaani, and he said it with pride. Punjabi actor Harrdy Sandhu leaps smoothly into this role-reversal trend in Ribhu Dasgupta’s Code Name: Tiranga . He plays an incredibly goodhearted doctor from an Islamic country where the RAW agent Durga Singh shamelessly uses him as a decoy. This is Raazi without the earlier film’s dangerously subtle pro-Pakistani slant.

It is the role of hapless lover, ensnared into terribly compromised situation. Harrdy’s role lacks the heroic dimensions of Vicky Kaushal’s part in Raazi, that other notable film where the Indian spy makes an ullu of a man in an enemy country.

Parineeti Chopra gets the second role-of-a-lifetime in writer-director Ribhu Dasgupta’s cinema. She conducts herself here with a better understanding of her complex role than she did in Dasgupta’s shaky remake of The Girl On The Train. Chopra is on firmer ground this time, and not surprisingly so, as her director too is more surefooted in his take on the RAW agent and the raw cult of terrorism.

To begin with, Code Name: Tiranga is visually striking. The Turkish landscape is shot by cinematographer Tribhuvan Babu Sadineni as a character and not a prop. In every action sequence, the rugged landscape is an insistent reminder of how closely violence is related to the outer landscape, as much as the inner world of those who want to rule the world by the barrel of the gun.

In the dexterously shot action sequences, Parineeti Chopra executes herself well. Clearly, a great deal of preparation has gone into the fireworks that put her in the vortex of male adversaries. I especially like the lengthy sequence where Parineeti, disguised as a Turkish tutor, infiltrates the main terrorist Khalid Omar(Sharad Kelkar)’s home.

The sequence is edited with a brutal elegance, designed to keep us on the edge of the seat, and yet rogue enough to follow none of the rules of the suspense genre.

The climactic extraction of the villain has the protagonist Durga shooting her way through the gauntlet with only her hand holding the weapon visible on camera, like in a video game. The entire sequence has been done in one shot with ‘Vande Mataram’ playing in the background.

This is a highly stylized action film. Curiously the stunts do not convey a choreographed mood. The shootouts are staged with a rigorous candour. This is a film that means business. It is brusque and to-the-point and avoids the clichés of the anti-terror genre. It doesn’t have the budget of The Grey Man. But it has something more vital to offer.

A determination and grit to tell a story that holds the audience.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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