16 December : Electrifying
December 16 is a landmark date in the history of modern India. It was on this day in 1971 that the Pakistani army surrendered to the Indian troops and Bangladesh came into existence. Pakistan has never forgiven India for, what it claims, was a second partition. The film 16 December touches on this and is a scathing commentary on India’s flourishing black market that is crippling our country from within.
Gulshan Grover is a terrorist mastermind who was a lieutenant in the Pakistan army at the time of surrender. Since then he has turned into an expert make-up artiste and has led a chameleon-like existence spreading mayhem in India. He lures several corrupt politicians and unscrupulous businessmen into his net and with the money they bring in he buys a nuclear weapon from one of the defunct Soviet states. He plans to detonate the bomb on December 16, 2001 in the heart of Delhi to avenge, the Pak’s defeat and leave a bloody scar on the nations psyche.
The only person standing between him and his doomsday vision is Danny Denzongpa. Danny, a defence advisor, recruits Milind Soman and a team of daredevil agents to fight the enemy. Needless to say, our super-spies, with the help of cutting-edge technology, manage to outsmart the bad guys in the nick of time.
Danny excels in the role of a tough intelligence chief, while Gulshan Grover is simmering with hate and anger. Newcomer Dipannita Sharma is okay as Milind’s lover and sidekick. Sushant as a vigilant agent, makes an impression. Milind Soman, for the first time, is energetic and expressive on screen. Full marks to the director. Mani Shankar has done everything possible to make the edge-of-the-seat thriller entertaining. It’s only his song picturisations that have let him down. The two love duets, in fact, are unnecessary and should have been left out on the editing table. Also, there was no real need to show our hero romancing the lovely Aditi Govitrikar for simcard-lookalike microchip. Being a resourceful agent, couldn’t he have just stolen the gadget?
All-in-all, 16 December is a sincere effort from writer-editor-director Mani Shankar. However, the man-on-the-street would have a hard time wading through the techno jargon before fully understanding and enjoying the film.