{"id":198356,"date":"2013-10-15T17:31:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T12:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tehelka.com\/?p=198356"},"modified":"2013-10-15T17:31:05","modified_gmt":"2013-10-15T12:01:05","slug":"film-review-war-chhod-na-yaar-is-a-clever-war-comedy-but-the-jokes-fizzle-out-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/film-review-war-chhod-na-yaar-is-a-clever-war-comedy-but-the-jokes-fizzle-out-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"War Chhod na Yaar is a clever war comedy but the jokes fizzle out soon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Film
\nUnlike Javed Jaffery in the opening scene, War Chhod Na Yaar<\/em> lays out its cards very early on in the film, declares its stand on war, peace and more importantly, what kind of movie it\u2019s going to be. For the rich Delhi kids sitting next to me in the theatre, it was very helpful in deciding whether they should leave at the interval and go watch Gravity<\/em><\/a> (they had<\/em> to be rich Delhi kids; who else can afford to buy two tickets in a Delhi multiplex and choose which one they\u2019d rather watch?). For better or for worse, you soon realise, India\u2019s first ever war comedy is a clever, if over-the-top absurdist take on war, that will have the odd moment of insight punctuated by running gags that get old soon and jokes that, like Pakistan\u2019s Chinese-made weapons in the film, work about half the time (because, you know, Chainese maal hai<\/em>). But the ones that work could possibly be enough to make the film worth your time and money, depending on what your time and money are worth. It\u2019s about the same realisation that you get in most Steve Martin movies.
\nLike most war comedies, there is little real malice throughout War Chhod Na Yaar<\/em>; the villains are all fairly harmless buffoons, all of them played by Dalip Tahil (the Chinese premier has a translation machine, which converts his orders into Sidhuisms for the Punjabi-speaking Pakistani general and PM). The soldiers are peaceful folk, forced into war by their buffoonish superiors. War doesn\u2019t mean death, glory and terribly written patriotic speeches. It\u2019s mostly a neighbourhood game of hide and seek, with zero casualties. The only terribly written patriotic speech, thankfully, keeps getting interrupted.
\nThe film starts with the subcontinent at two minutes to midnight; a nuclear war instigated by China and supported by the US military-industrial complex is imminent. Ace journalist Ruth Datta (Soha Ali Khan) \u2014 female journalists in films might as well come with the label \u201cFEMALE LOVE INTEREST!\u201d attached \u2014 is sent to the front to cover a photo-op for the defence minister, so that he can rally the troops from the border without having to go there once war has already been declared.
\nOnce there, she finds out what things are really like on the front lines. The Indian and Pakistani soldiers, forced to spend their days in the middle of a desert with only each other for company, have built up a healthy camaraderie. The de-facto commanding officers, played by Jaffrey and Sharman Joshi, are friends for as long as orders permit, ensuring an atmosphere of mutual trust.
\nIt is the breaking of this collegial atmosphere, not a nuclear holocaust, that is shown in the film as the major consequence of war. It extends the basic philosophy of Aman Ki Asha and other campaigns of its ilk \u2014 that we are the same people divided by outside forces \u2014 to the armed forces. This noble effort is aided in no small manner by Joshi and Jaffery\u2019s great comedic chemistry. They are able to rib on each other like old friends, and it is their banter on the megaphone that is the high point of the film. At one point, Captain Qureishi (Jaffrey) sings Yamla Pagla Deewana<\/em> to mock Captain Raj\u2019s (Joshi) wooing of Ruth. An impromptu antakshari game ensues, which is ended when one Pakistani soldier, racking his brains under time pressure for a song that begins with \u2018ya\u2019, ends up singing Yeh Mera India<\/em>.
\nThe trouble is that the film runs out of jokes midway and starts recycling old ones. The eventual solution to the war is fine, I guess, but, like most of the rest of the film, is neither inventive enough or funny enough to live up to its promise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film Review – War Chhod na Yaar | Rating – 2.5\/5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":198361,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[8040,7275,8051,8460,8461,8279,8462,8463],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}