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Hindi film Raazi - engaging

I do not watch Hindi films.  Not as a rule but finding a topic I might like and hoping that it is well executed is a gamble.  I am not willing to risk three hours for it.

Myriad other reasons.  But my best half screens them and decides to rewatch some if I am inclined.  One of them was a film called Raazi.

Raazi means a pact.  An agreement.  It is an Urdu word from which the Hindi language derives a lot of its own.

The film was directed by Meghna Gulzar (daughter of famous duo Gulzar, a talented film music director and Rakhee, erstwhile Indian actress).  That intrigued me as did the subject of the film.  The film is about a young girl in her twenties in the Northwest Frontier region of India (Kashmir) being chosen by her father, who is a spy, to continue his work as he battles cancer.

The father is a spy for the Indian intelligence services responsible for gathering intel on Pakistan's military movements.  The actors perform their role with grace and seriousness that the topic calls for.   The nuance of the movie is apparent in the way the daughter ends up in Pakistan, which after the British led partition of 1947 has been a source of aggravation and terrorist threats to India.

Her father decides to marry her to a Pakistani army officer.  This man is the son of a Pakistani military general.  The general trusts the Indian father (of the soon to be bride) to bring him Indian intel and considers him a personal friend and an asset for Pakistan.  The father is an Indian spy feeding the Pakistani general some juicy tidbits that are planted by the Indian army.  In return they get strategic intel of what the Pakistani intelligence is planning in order to destroy India's armed forces infrastructure.

After his death the daughter who has previously undergone short stint in defense training accepts her fate by signing a pact.  A pact to marry this army officer and leave the life she knew behind .  A pact to put her love for her motherland before her own emotion and desires.  A pact to continue to do what her father and her grandfather before him had signed up to do.  Protect their motherland at all costs.

While the film does have tactical deficiencies in its execution, the overall product is fantastic.  The director has done lot of period research to investigate the style and climate of 1960s India and handle this rather fragile yet explosive topic all the while handling the sensitivities on both sides of the border.

Good use of three hours this weekend.

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