IB71: Sankalp Reddy, who directed and co-wrote The Ghazi Attack 6 years ago, presents an account of “true events” orchestrated by an Indian intelligence officer to thwart a planned Pakistani operation versus India on the eastern front throughout the 1971 Bangladesh liberation conflict in his war movie IB71, which is more of an espionage thriller compared to a battlefield drama.
IB71, which stars and has Vidyut Jammwal as one of its producers, is light on action scenes and takes a more laid-back tone to the exploits of Dev, an adventurous IB agent who hatches a bold hijack plot to travel to Pakistan with a group of Indian confidential agents.
A submarine that inexplicably sank in the Bay of Bengal while in Indo-Pak War of 1971 served as the central character in the underwater action movie The Ghazi Attack. A retired aircraft that is prepared for a particular spy operation days before the same wartime clash appears in IB71.
The goal of secret agent Dev’s scheme is to give India a reason to block its airspace as well as frustrate enemy intentions to use Chinese assistance to transport troops and weapons to East Pakistan. The man is utterly focused on the task at hand. He doesn’t have time for love or other enticements.
The portrayal of Pakistani officials in IB71 is, as one might anticipate, done in extremely broad strokes, though it should be noted that the movie avoids overt jingoism. Ashwath Bhatt, who plays the ISI commander, and Hobby Dhaliwal, who plays a severely stressed high-up in to the Pakistani military system, manage to occasionally overcome the constraints of a screenplay that results in a passable spy drama that is refreshingly devoid of gimmicky aspects.
IB71 gives one with the unsettling impression that it might have been a far better movie if the script had been less formulaic. But despite the fact that a mediocre spy drama, it has its charms.
Rating 3/5