Vande Bharat Save India Review: Reaction on ‘Jihad’ in the election environment

Telugu Vande Bharat Save India Movie Review: Despite 4 years of waiting and strong opposition, Modi government implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India at the last moment of Lok Sabha elections. Pakistan has suffered the most regarding CAA. Despite the partition of the country in 1947 and the coming into existence of Pakistan on the basis of religion, ‘anti-national elements’ have reportedly been active in India. Telugu film ‘Vande Bharat Seva India-Vande Bharat Save India’ raises this burning topic.

This action-drama film of about 2 hours 12 minutes is in the news because it has been released at a time when general elections-2024 are going to be held in India, a big democratic country of the world. ‘Communal polarization in the society’ is being considered a big issue in this general election. Recently, general elections have also been held in the neighboring country Pakistan. There were discussions about the working style of the Modi government even in the elections there.

In the last few years, many controversial and popular films have come out on the issue of ‘Jihad’ and ‘Hindu-Muslim’. Among these, ‘The Kashmir Files’ released in the year 2022 and ‘The Kerala Story’ released in the year 2023 are on the top of this list. Since these films were said to be based on real stories, debates started in the country and the world regarding them. After these films, many other films were released, but they were not discussed that much.

Indian cinema has been making films on terrorism since the time of liberation from British slavery and partition of the country. But in the last few years, along with terrorism, the themes of ‘Jihad’ and ‘Hindu-Muslim’ have also started being woven into filmmaking. ‘Vande Bharat Save India’ is an example of this. However, its making can be said to be limited only to the ‘entertainment category’. This film has proved to be an ordinary film in terms of story line, costing, dialogues, cinematography etc.

‘Vande Bharat Save India’ is a fusion of two titles, which call for patriotism and uniting India on the basis of caste and religion. Relations between India and Pakistan have not been good since partition. India has always been raising its voice against Pakistan, especially regarding Islamic terrorism. This film also shows an attempt to bring the youth following the path of terrorism on the right path.

Overall the film has turned out to be ordinary. The acting of the main actors of the film – Kaushik Mekala, Suman, Jenny, Sandhya Janak, Ankita Muller, Tarjan Lakshmi etc. is decent. Especially Suman was seen dominating the rest of the cast.

The film has been directed by Mallam Ramesh. He himself has produced it. In terms of direction, the film does not appear to be tight. Due to lack of anything new in the subject, it could not succeed in captivating the audience. The topic of brainwashing of educated youth by terrorist organizations and pushing them into jihad has been in the media headlines for the last few years. An attempt has been made to raise this issue in this film also. Although it could not be that effective. Cinematography is also not that effective. South cinema has its own style of stunting, nothing like that was seen in this film.

The attempt to woo the audience by adding a touch of comedy to a film based on a serious issue can be said to be successful to some extent. The background music of the film is also of ordinary category. The song is definitely worth listening to. More work had to be done on casting, so that the cinema could be made realistic. Although it did not appear so.

Hundreds of films have been released on issues like Jihad or terrorism. In view of the election season, the filmmaker has tried to capitalize on the public sentiments through ‘Vande Bharat Save India’. Terrorism is also an important issue in general elections.

However, those who enjoy watching films based on issues like terrorism can watch it. However, viewers who are interested in watching serious films on this subject may not like this film. It can be said that this film cannot be included in the special category.

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Tags: Film review, south cinema