‘Shoorveer’ Review: Just as it is a crime to find novelty in the story of a sports biopic, it is a crime to expect innovation in any web series made on the army. Whether it is a film based on the story of the army or a web series, some elements are fixed in it. An officer who has lost his last mission, or whose conscience is burdened with a wrong decision. Suddenly, such a crisis comes on the country, to avoid which only that officer is needed. The government gives full freedom to that officer he can do whatever he wants, but he has to save the country.
The officer also sorts and finds such samples which save the country from the brink of destruction. In this, a few Muslim soldiers are also kept so that religious angles can be covered. The enemy is often Pakistan. The soldiers of the enemy country are often seen as foolish and without training because their job is to die from the bullets of the soldiers of India. If there is an Air Force, then there will be LoC and our soldiers will cross that border and carry out the operation and come back alive. It is only at the end that the hero is known to be alive. On the story of this mood, a very expensive show by Disney + Hotstar has been released named Shoorveer. The feeling of patriotism motivates one to watch such series or films, but in the end, a good story is the key to the success of the series. There are 8 episodes in the first season of Shoorveer and watching them in full means being a knight.
From Shahrukh Khan’s Fauji to the recently released blockade 2 on Sony Liv, the matter and formula have been similar. After the surgical strike, all the movies or web series that have come, start looking like a government advertisements. The same thing happens in Knights also. India’s National Security Adviser Milind Phanse (Makrand Deshpande) presents to the Prime Minister a report of a terrorist attack by Pakistan, asking that the proposal of Air Force Group Captain Ranjan Malik (Manish Choudhary) be allowed Operation Hawk. The best soldiers of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Special Forces will be included in the Hawk and they will be made the First Response Unit of the country. The proposal is approved and different candidates start coming.
A disobedient pilot, a Muslim comrade, a commando, a helicopter pilot and a few other soldiers come together to form a Hawk group. The story after this is completely seen. A former Pakistan general (Arif Zakaria) wants to attack India and a Pakistani spy steals the codes of missile systems by breaking into India’s security. A plethora of state-of-the-art and new fighter jets imported from abroad are given to the Hawk team when a technical glitch is detected. When the Hawk team sends its team to dash Pakistan’s plans, an airplane crashes and its pilot (who happens to be a Muslim) is caught. The surviving Hawk team shows courage and destroys Pakistan’s plans, Arif Zakaria is killed and the PW pilot is rescued by the Indian Hawk team.
Everything is predictable except one fact. A lot of money has been spent in making this series. The very first sequence is of a fighter pilot saving a plane from crashing. Very good opening sequence. Hope builds. You will remember many scenes and sequences from the English film “Top Gun”. But it is not Tom Cruise in the role of fighter pilot Viraj, but Armaan Ralhan (grandson of filmmaker OP Ralhan). Armaan seems to be a solid fighter pilot, his personality is also great and acting is also fine. The problem is with their role. In the second role, Adil Khan owns a very charming personality that we have seen earlier in Special Ops 1.5. His voice is also strong and his role is small but effective. The story of Shoorveer is written by Brijesh Jayaraman, whose web series Blockchain has been released some time back. Its screenplay is written by Sagar Pandya (Test Case) dialogues by Nisarg Mehta (Hostages, Caller Bomb). Brijesh and Sagar have written web series on the army before, so the repetition can be clearly seen in their writing.
The backstory to the characters is also almost the same. It is always inappropriate to forgive the writers for mistakes. Hawk team is formed in Shoorveer because there is no coordination between Army and Airforce but the entire Hawk team is mostly focused on the airplane. A little bit of Army and Navy has no role at all. There is also an angle like Rang De Basanti in which she is not related to Pilot’s father and father is a defense contractor. Famous actress Regina Cassandra has a backstory in which she tries to prove her late pilot boyfriend innocent in the plane crash case. A pilot has a younger daughter but does not have a wife, so he also has a romantic angle. The total accumulated formula is so much that the audience is duped.
Tanvi Patil’s production design is so crude that the ground combat scenes look fake. In Prateek Devra’s cinematography, only airplane shots are taken well. The seat ejection shot looks very fake. Seeing the urge of Pakistani soldiers to die from the bullets of the Indian Army, the cinematographer gets angry. Editor Shakti Hasija was busy handling this web series, so editing did not turn out to be anything special.
On one hand, productions like The Family Man, Siege, Special Ops or Uri are seen, then it seems that now perhaps India will also get to see international level work. It may happen at the technical level, but it is not known when the story will get rid of the formula. To see a warrior complete is an act of bravery. It can also be seen with family but its script is so convoluted and many more formulas have been added that the beholder knows everything before anything happens. If you have patience and bravery, then take a look. Even if you don’t see it, there will be no sorrow.