Rashtra Kavach Om, a meandering action–thriller that is bafflingly devoted and indifferent to its brawny hero-figure

It is a strange experience to watch an actor like Aditya Roy Kapur headline a project like Rashtra Kavach Om , a film quite eager to jump on the patriotism bandwagon that has usurped our mainstream narrative in recent years. Perhaps the Aashiqui-fame actor felt that he deserved a chest-thumping, brawn-worshipping vanity project of his own, after spending over a decade playing many variations of the goofy, vulnerable man-child in projects both big and small. That’s probably a marker these days of how far an actor has come, or how far an actor wants to go.

Roy Kapur’s intentions are clear here, for nothing else explains the involvement of the once-scrawny-now-chiseled star in this film that barely has any idea of where it is going. What largely renders Rashtra Kavach Om ineffective is how it meanders from one plot point to another, without any coherence. This here is a desperate action flick that never picks a lane - there is too much happening, and yet nothing happens enough to get you invested.

Directed by debutant Kapil Verma , Om jumps right in the middle of action, a high-stakes mission - and within a minute or two, we have the standard high-voltage intro of our beefy protagonist Om (Roy Kapur) whose biceps glisten their way to glory even in the dead of a moonless night. This opening stretch gives us the promise of an action-packed thriller. A little later, there are hints thrown around of delving into our protagonist’s childhood trauma and its repercussions - before they are abandoned in pursuit of an emotional sub-plot between an orphaned child and a forlorn mother figure, a track long enough to deviate us from the central plot, and yet ineffective in pulling the heartstrings. The film limps through a major chunk of its narrative on the back of two laborious flashbacks, informing us about the protagonist’s childhood, his incomplete mission, and the 20-year-old event that started it all - but very little of it keeps us engaged.

Om also warns us of a jingoism overdose early in its runtime, as one high-level official says to his senior, “it’s easy to lend commentary from AC rooms, it’s another thing to be a soldier on the field.” However, even though the narrative is littered later on with teary lines about patriotism and chants of ‘Jai Bhavani,’ coupled with an army man’s wife who bravely sermonizes on the lines of how the nation always comes first for a soldier, Om doesn’t end up bombarding us with its jingoism (unlike many other films of recent times), by design or accident.

That is anyway the least of its problems - my biggest grudge here remains how uninterested the film seems in its own protagonist. Roy Kapur’s well-bronzed biceps and ripped physique get ample showcase in the action scenes, but the hero is otherwise strangely inactive in his own story - and I am not referring to the screen-time here. Make no mistake, the story pretty much revolves around Om pursuing the long-unfinished mission while also dealing with his demons - and yet, somehow, Om barely seems interested enough in staging Om as a hero worth rooting for or exploring his inner conflicts beyond a superficial level (and no, an offhand line like “it’s equally important to save as to kill” doesn’t suffice). Om is probably too lightweight a film for such lofty ambitions - and Roy Kapoor too follows suit, merely going through the motions in the scenes that don’t require him to go all Rambo on us.

The narrative shows no attempt for a campy tone either, and yet we have secondary characters randomly chipping in with their puns and cheesy one-liners. At one point, a goofy doctor figure says, “Hope is Dope” - and mind you, he is talking to RAW officials talking about a fatally wounded commando. At another point, one of Om’s colleagues quips, “Jaadu?” upon hearing an old Armenian woman call out to Om. These additions only come across as desperate attempts to keep things ‘entertaining’ in the midst of all the heaviness, courtesy its action and thrills. The item song ‘Kala Sha Kala, which arrives abruptly after an action sequence, only serves to drive the point home.

In a movie-watching experience like this, I often find myself clutching out for minor accomplishments, moments that are not empirically embarrassing or dreary. So for all its air-headed logic, Om does offer a decent twist at the interval point. Earlier in the first half, Kavya (Sanjana Sanghi) springs up a surprise on us after being introduced to us in the most dainty of montages. Even in the film’s last act, there are some unexpected turns that do make things somewhat interesting, but they arrive too late.

Jackie Shroff and Prakash Raj are the only members among the cast who seem to be having any fun, playing their archetypal parts with a suitable glee. Ashutosh Rana is wasted, despite having the second most prominent part in the film. Sanjana Sanghi is barely given anything substantial to do besides a brief, though exciting, action sequence.

In the climax, our protagonist receives a phone call, followed by a smile as he determinedly says, “On my way”. The filmmakers are clearly confident of a sequel - and we, the audience, are equally sure that we do not need it.

And yet, that sequel will probably arrive against all odds, because going by the current national mood, it will perhaps take many many more misfires at this nationalism sub-genre before the filmmakers completely give up on it.

I wonder how many films we are away from that moment of peace.

BH Harsh is a film critic who spends most of his time watching movies and making notes, hoping to create, as Peggy Olsen put it, something of lasting value.

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