Operation Gold Fish is one of the very few Telugu films to have been shot in Kashmir in years. In the run up to the film’s release, the makers stated that they don’t intend to cash in on the scrapping of Article 370.
OGF doesn’t shy away from giving a nod to the removal of Article 370. There’s also a passing reference to the surgical strikes, and while referring to a minister, a terrorist comments that he belongs to the RSS and isn’t scared of sacrificing his life for the country. The story also refers to how Kashmiri Pandits were mercilessly uprooted from their homes.
However, all these remain surface details and never come together to build a strong story. Strip them away and you have a story that’s been told many a time in Indian cinema across languages — of a duty-bound officer rising to challenges and settling a personal score in the process. If the threadbare storyline treads on a been-there-done-that path, at least it needs to be told in an engaging manner.
- Cast: Aadi Saikumar, Abburi Ravi, Sasha Chettri, Nithya Naresh
- Direction: Adivi Saikiran
- Music: Sricharan Pakala
The initial portions depict the clash between Ghazi Baba (writer Abburi Ravi cast as a menacing terrorist) and a journalist (cameo by RJ Hemanth). Years later, Ghazi’s terror is almost reigned in when NSG commandos headed by Arjun Pandit (Aadi Saikumar) nab him in a covert operation. Ghazi remains smug and declares that he will be a free bird soon. He taunts Arjun’s Kashmiri origin (wait, is Aadi playing a Kashmiri or a Telugu officer whose parents were once in Kashmir? Till the end of the film, I couldn’t figure it out) and harps on jihad .
In a bid to bring Ghazi back, the next terrorist in command who takes over, plans to kidnap the daughter of the external affairs minister (Rao Ramesh). While army officers cite the intelligence reports they’ve gathered and advise the minister to keep his daughter in a safe house, the father refuses and reasons that his daughter likes to be a free bird. Talk about freedom at the risk of being nabbed by terrorists! Later, there’s a hint of a fractured bond between the father and daughter, but it isn’t addressed well to make us root for either of the characters.
As Arjun and fellow officers try to protect the girl and her friends in the college campus, the film meanders. This whole thread of fractured father-daughter bond and the looming militant threat reminded me of Main Hoon Na . In hindsight, that film was mighty silly too, nevertheless hugely entertaining. OGF ? The campus portions are painfully boring and test your patience.
Nitya (Nitya Naresh), Tanya (Shasha Chettri), Solomon (Parvatheesam) and Karthik Raju (Karthik Raju) live it up in the campus and go away on a trip without informing their parents. Parvatheesam’s character unleashes lame innuendo-loaded jokes and there’s Krishnudu as the apartment watchman who sleeps in a car boot and cannot identify people without the help of magnifying glass!
A love triangle... no, a rectangle plays out. Meanwhile, Arjun is earnestly trying to save the college students. Wouldn’t it be easier for Rao Ramesh to just state the facts to his daughter and protect her and save the army officers all the trouble?
All through the film, Aadi puts his best foot forward and portrays the single-minded focus of an army officer. Anish Kuruvilla as a retired officer makes an impression. Jaipal Reddy’s cinematography and Sricharan Pakala’s background score work to an extent, but do not salvage a tiresome narrative.
