Film review: War Chhod Na Yaar

War Chhod Na Yaar UA Comedy Director Faraz Haider Cast Sharman Joshi Soha Ali Khan Jaaved Jaaferi Sanjai Mishra Dalip Tahil Given the number of heads that roll war and humour donrsquot really make great bedfellows However there have been cinematic attempts to marry the two Not many of them have succeeded due to the overbearing dearth of background details War Chhod Na Yaar is the latest entry to the list The only thing that works in its favour is the fact that it is Bollywoodrsquos first war comedy so the lack of precedent actually helps What doesnrsquot help though is a remarkably halfbaked script punctuated by stereotypes really old jokes and rather long instances of predictable bonhomie in the climax Set on the northwestern border between India and Pakistan the armies on both sides of the fence get along very well They donrsquot seem to harbour any sort of malice towards each other That is until their respective governments decide to attack each other mdash thanks to the lsquohistoricrsquo influence of foreign hands mdash for no particular reason The politicians on both ends have much to gain from this seemingly absurd confrontation But the soldiers arenrsquot too triggerhappy especially the Pakistani ones After all for some jingoistic reasons they are portrayed as those who donrsquot even have enough to eat and are prepared to forget defense protocols for hungerrsquos sake Now really Also the clicheacute of associating the Urdu term janaab with Pakistani characters is outdated as well as baseless to say the least but itrsquos persistent in the dialogues The story picks up pace for a short while when a journalist enters the scene Despite being in the loop from the very start her conscience rises to the occasion only much later into the plot For the record she must be the first reporter ever mdash in fiction or otherwise mdash who was on ground even before the war started with complete knowledge about whatrsquos going to happen Fortunately enough shersquos not preachy unlike the movie There are moments created here and there with haphazard approach towards an existential enemy To the scriptrsquos credit nobody seems to drop dead thus providing comic relief On the downside throughout the film not a single chance to emphasise Indiarsquos superiority is overlooked If comedy was the genre shouldnrsquot it have been a bit more balanced for a changeu00a0 Interestingly after a certain point of time it becomes evident that a third country is the real bad guy And thatrsquos not it People on the street are seen boycotting products from the country as a response to their covert action In terms of performance Sharman Joshi is barely distinct as the captain of the army This is certainly not his finest performance till date Soha Ali Khanrsquos touristy scribe remains spirited till the credit rolls As the Pakistani captain Jaaved Jaaferirsquos admirable command over diction caves in only when his jibes at his men donrsquot make you laugh Dalip Tahil portrays four roles in the film but none of them stand out Their intense caricatures ultimately end up destroying them On the other hand Sanjai Mishrarsquos senile yet quirky Pakistan commander comes across as the mostdefined character in the entire canvas He doesnrsquot deviate an inch from his graph and does justice to his part In hindsight the intention and the muchneeded message behind this project is praiseworthy but the execution meanders way too much Even if itrsquos a fun onetime watch a slightly tighter hold on reality and a lot better storyline would have done the magic If only everything was fair in war and cinema as well