Nurses, said Kangana Ranaut in one of her promotional interviews, are a sexualised community. ‘Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata’ attempts to dignify the profession and succeeds to some extent.
The actresses representing the nursing profession are just fine; not only Kangana but also Girija Oak Godbole, Rasika Agashe, Smita Tambe Dwivedi (her character is impressively mounted), Asha Selar and Suhita Thatte (playing the matron, a direct descendent of Lalita Pawar in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s ‘Anand’).
The male characters, played by some competent actors, seem hazy and silhouetted. Whether they are the husbands of the nurses or terrorists on the prowl in the hospital corridors (we’ve seen this before in several films and series), they do what the male characters are meant to in a women’s picture show (derogatorily known as chick flick): they exist to define the congregation of sisterhood.
A lot of the second half, especially, plays out like a webseries. Director Manoj Tapadia and his characters share the anxiety to steer the narrative out of choppy waters. While the women do a fair job of it, Tapadia as the navigator of the crisis is frequently stymied by performance anxiety.
Almost every sequence is designed to punctuate the thriller mood. The nurses are great at healing. But the healing touch is sorely missing from the presentation.
What makes ‘BBV’ interminably watchable is its obdurate sincerity of purpose. This film has been made with the sole purpose of glorifying the nursing profession, which came under enormous duress on the night of 26/11 when Mumbai was under a terror attack. A nearby hospital became the primary shelter of the victims. This film is set in that hospital on that fateful night.
The film never deep-dives into lives on edge. Instead, it opts for the tropes of the survival genre, which is not a bad thing, provided the suspense and thrills are harnessed to a higher vision. ‘BBV’ doesn’t lack in lofty ideas or a flag-saluting intent. But there is self-consciousness in the way the nurses are projected as Florence Nightingales, beacons of hope in a stormy night. It all seems too premeditated. Even a moment like the one where a nurse admires herself in the mirror. The moment is fleetingly real, and yet not able to establish itself as unbidden.
‘BBV’ is not unwatchable. On a surface level, it is able to hold our attention. A film focusing on the travails of a female profession could never be unwelcome. More so when Kangana Ranaut does what she is very good at: playing her own favourite.
However, top-heavy writing tends to let Kangana and her committed co-stars down. The storytelling is laden with a righteousness that tends to topple the storytelling over, especially in the second half, which feels more like a game of hide-and-seek than a bonafide homage to grace under pressure.
At the end, Kangana gives a speech on the virtues of being true to one’s profession while Ayan Sil’s camera steps back to watch reverently. And yes, PM Modi gets to make a guest appearance.
‘Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata’ compares well with the series ‘Mumbai Diaries’ in 2021, which focused on the heroes, the healers rather than the attackers, unlike Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘The Attacks of 26/11’ in 2013. Then there was Anthony Maras’ ‘Hotel Mumbai’ in 2018, where the biggest shockers were not the terrorists but Dev Patel trying to pass off as a Sikh with a turban and beard. But the classic case of a cause gone kaput was the 26/11 film called ‘One Less God’ in 2017, directed by Liam Worthington, where the hero came out of the besieged Taj Hotel at the end to see people playing Holi on the streets. In November!
At least Kangana’s effort looks convincing and balanced. The nursing profession may deserve better. But, for now, it will have to make do with this.
