Language: Hindi
I can’t remember the last time we had the quintessential, long build-up sequence towards an intimate moment in Hindi cinema, the kind with two virginal lovers brimming with sexual tension. Our ‘hero-heroine’ figures, per se, have evolved greatly and are lot more forthright in their sexuality today - there is very little play around the much-desired moment where they make the giant leap towards intimacy. We know it too, and hence the non-sexual foreplay has more or less disappeared from the scene.
Which is why the first act of Shashant Shah’s Operation Romeo leaves a strong impact - As we see Aditya (Siddhant Gupta) and Neha (Vedika Pinto), the two young lovers of the story smile upon mushy text messages, make 12am birthday calls, send each other subtle signs about nearing intimacy, Shah deftly builds sweet anticipation with all the tropey typicality of old-school romance - before he suddenly pulls the rug underneath, revealing a much darker world ready to squash your tiny ambitions. There is an air of impending dread amidst all the warmth, and yet we are taken aback when it finally arrives.
It’s hard to talk about Operation Romeo without giving away any spoilers, because a lot of narrative depends on major anticipations built only to lead us into completely alienating space, belying our expectations time and again.
Shah packs in a lot of good things in a narrative essentially a cautionary tale about fragile masculinity and moral policing. Operation Romeo is an official remake of the Malayalam film Ishk, originally written by Ratheesh Ravi & Arshad Syed, which was set in a relatively smaller city of Kottayam. Setting the Hindi adaptation in a city like Mumbai nonetheless seems appropriate, for although the city enjoys a great reputation of letting its denizens be, it also harbours the fringes’ simmering hostility towards the outsider, especially the one who doesn’t speak the native language. There is also an element of class divide and the ensuing anger that largely remains subdued but could explode any moment, depending sometimes on where you live or park your car.
There are two long, sprawled out sequences (one in each half) where a certain bunch of people stay with each other (some of them against their will) which lends the narrative a great sense of entrapment. They feel deliberately stretched out, denying us any change of space and after a point, we want the confined to just escape the spiral somehow, irrespective of how we feel for them. The second half in particular is filled with a lot of things to appreciate and marvel at, but most importantly how the playout refuses to leave the four walls of a secluded tiny house that feels deserted and unsafe even in the midst of religious celebrations right across the street.
The film makes an occasional fumble when it confuses stagnation for the state of being stuck. Even though the attempt for a deliberate mood of claustrophobia is visible, there are moments when the narrative itself begins to feel repetitive beyond its intention. The dialogues are overwrought at many places and distract us from the tension, and there is a worrying amount of usage of slo-mo shots that look forced and jarring in a narrative that is visually very immersive otherwise.
However, Operation Romeo’s biggest strength lies in its ability to charter the uncomfortable lanes around the themes of justice and morality. The film is naturally reminiscent of Sriram Raghavan’s Badlapur in many places where too we slowly grew distant from the ones we were first told to root for, eventually bewildered about the side we are supposed to take, or if a choice needs to be made at all - Operation Romeo despite its many missteps achieves that ambiguity. In all fairness, the film itself occasionally sounds vague about where it morally stands about its characters and their questionable choices, but we remain intrigued and engaged nonetheless.
It is essentially a story about two sides of the same toxic coin (though one might not look as lethal at first glance), the collateral damage that women (and children) always find themselves as, the liberty men always take to intrude in spaces that don’t belong to them, thriving in their own delusional sense of entitlement and superiority.
The writers smartly give us a brief glimpse of Chhaya’s (Bhoomika Chawla) life outside her house, which initially doesn’t seem necessary, but makes sense when we find ourselves most empathetic towards feeling her tragic presence in a tug of war between two lumps of fragile masculinity. Bhumika Chawla, despite a stilted Marathi accent, makes a strong impact. Debutant Vedika Pinto, given very limited dialogue and being asked to emote mostly through her body language, manages to convey the plight of a small-towner undergoing all the world’s guilt for allowing herself one little act of rebellion.
Siddhanth Gupta, playing Aditya, shines in the first half where he has to tap the uneasy blend of fear and anger that he is forced to repress throughout. It’s the second half where his prowess is really put to test since it’s his transformation that’s at the heart of this narrative. Gupta doesn’t really rise to the challenge, and it’s hard to shake up off the feeling that this film could have used a more seasoned actor for this part.
However, it is Sharad Kelkar and Kishor Kadam, playing Mangesh and Kiran Mama respectively, who form the film’s creepy backbone, keeping the tension alive and often elevating the narrative from getting too static. Kelkar in particular excels at both creeping the viewer as well as creating vulnerability around his character later on.
The film keeps us on our toes throughout, and we remain edgy about the final payoff because we know our films are capable of unfathomable forgiveness towards men who trespass their boundaries. But ‘Operation Romeo’ has its heart at the right place, and thankfully very loyal to the Malayalam original. (MILD SPOILER AHEAD)
I found the treatment of the climactic moment over the top and borderline laughable, but it conveys the point loud and clear. Amidst these times when hyper-masculine films are lapped up by the audience left, right and centre, it feels good to see a film choose not to reward toxic masculinity for a change.
Rating: 3.5/5
BH Harsh is a film critic who spends most of his time watching movies and making notes, hoping to create, as Peggy Olsen put it, something of lasting value.
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