The Ghazi Attack

[Beltran Mathews]

Ghaziis inspired by the fictional events from the mysterious sinking of PNS Ghazi during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.[5] The story is about a submarine of the Indian Navy, an executive naval officer and his team, who remained underwater for 18 days.[6] It is about the valour of the crew aboard the Indian submarine INS Karanj (S21), which according to Indian claims destroyed the Pakistani PNS Ghazi submarine when it ventured into Indian waters to destroy INS Vikrant on the shores of Visakhapatnam.[7][8][9]

The film was released theatrically on 17 February 2017 to widespread critical acclaim and did decent business.[10] It was declared "Hit" by Box Office India.[11] The film later won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu.[12] It was also nominated for Best Film and Best Director at 65th Filmfare Awards South.

In November, 1971, India and Pakistan are on the verge of declaring war on each other, as a result of the refugee crisis precipitated by the Pakistan Army under Operation Searchlight. The Indian Navy and RAW decipher a secret code sent from Pakistan to East Pakistan (modern-day Bangladesh), relating to a possible attack on an Indian naval vessel. The Navy deduces that the target may be INS Vikrant, India's sole aircraft carrier. The top command dispatches the submarine S21, under the command of Captain Ranvijay Singh for recce missions. To temper Singh's belligerent tendencies, the Indian Navy Admiral assigns Lt. Cmdr Arjun Varma to S21, with orders to ensure that Singh does not confront any Pakistani warships and trigger a war.

The Navy's top command soon learns that the Pakistan Navy has dispatched PNS Ghazi, under Cmdr. Razak Khan, to the Bay of Bengal to confront Vikrant. Meanwhile, to divert the attention of the enemy, Ghazi torpedoes an Indian merchant ship. The attack is picked by S21, which races to the scene. Noticing survivors in the wreckage, Arjun jumps into the sea and manages to rescue a girl child and a woman, both of whom are Bengali refugees. During surveillance, S21 acquires a sonar signal of Ghazi.

Singh believes that they should track down Ghazi and attack, while Arjun obstructs, reiterating his instructions. Singh then orders the ship's EXO, Lt. Commander Santosh Devraj to conduct a drill and target Ghazi while doing so, despite Arjun's protests. They fire a torpedo, which misses Ghazi narrowly, thus alerting them of their presence. Aware of the enemy's presence, Razak orders his crew to head towards Visakhapatnam Port at full speed and to set up mines en route, planning to destroy S21.

S21 pursues Ghazi's path, but they realize at the last moment that it is headed into mines. Singh and Arjun frantically attempt to change its course but a mine explodes in the stern and damages most of the sub's batteries, propellers and circuits. The sub blows open many leaks, with the forward torpedo compartment flooded, crippling the sub and barring it from firing its forward torpedoes. Singh dies while trying to save Arjun, as S21 sinks to the sea-bed.

Arjun, now in command of the sub, regroups and work towards reviving S21. They manage to clog the sub's leaks and pumps the excess water out, before holding a final farewell for Singh. The crew notice that the vessel is incapable of moving in any direction, except upwards or downwards. Since they are unable to chase Ghazi, the crew artificially trigger one of the naval mines in its vicinity to lure Ghazi to their position. Razak, believing S21 is still operational, orders his crew to turn around to sink S21.Arjun and Devraj plan to lure Ghazi within its range of firing, but a suspicious Razak orders Ghazi's course to be changed at the last minute.

Ghazi, now having the ability to attack S21, fires six torpedoes, all of which are avoided by S21 through depth changing maneuvers, much to Razak's frustration. S21 dives to 350 m, in order to slip from Ghazi's sonar range despite being designed for a maximum of 250 m depth. With very limited battery support, Arjun instigates Ghazi into attacking by transmitting his crew singing 'Saare Jahaan se Achchha' and the Indian National Anthem. Riled up by S21's defiance, Razak orders another torpedo attack on S21, for which Ghazi will have to turn by port 180 degrees. Arjun dives into the flooded forward compartment to manually trigger the torpedoes, successfully managing to do so. Ghazi also launches its torpedo at the same time. The torpedo launched by Ghazi misses S21 narrowly, but it is hit by S21's torpedo and disintegrates in the water, killing the entire crew. S21 surfaces and the crew manages to save Arjun from the flooded compartment in the nick of time. S21 is later saved by a patrolling Indian Navy vessel.

The ending titles narrate the mysterious circumstances of Ghazi's fate, with its sinking credited to the actions of INS Rajput. It also mentions that in the aftermath of Ghazi's sinking, India and Pakistan had declared war on each other, which would ultimately result in India's victory, Pakistan's surrender and the creation of Bangladesh.

The film stars Rana Daggubati[17][18] and Taapsee Pannu[19][20] in the lead along with Kay Kay Menon,[21] Satyadev Kancharana,[22] Atul Kulkarni, Ramanuj Dubey, Kunal Kaushik, Priyadarshi Pulikonda, Rahul Singh, Akshay Mittal, Malyaban Lahiri and Naren Yadav.[23] Cinematography is done by Madhi, music composed by K, Visual Effects Supervisor Vasudeva R Enugala and editing by Sreeker Prasad.[24][25]

It is not so sure to say that "Indian Navy sunk the PNS Ghazi on 3 December 1971 at the Vishakhapatnam harbour when then Captain Inder Singh of INS Rajput ordered the attack upon it". Because Indian Navy official Vice Admiral Gulab Mohanlal Hiranandani said in his book (Transition to Triumph: history of the indian navy, 1965-1975) "the truth about ghazi is unknown to many" and Pakistan Navy and neutral analysts believes the Ghazi might have sunk due to it mistakenly entering its own minefield and collided with one of the mines, which resulted in the violent underwater explosion.[28][29][30] Historically sinking of german submarine U-864 remains the only incident in the history of naval warfare where one submarine sank another while both were submerged.

Renuka Vyavahare of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 and said that, "While the visuals and special effects lack finesse, the film compensates for it with its riveting story. Despite the hitches, this underwater thriller is worth a watch."[32] Shalini Langer of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 saying that the film "could have been an engrossing crisis-at-sea drama but the film is so busy slaying Pakistanis that it loses sight of its core strengths."[33] Prasanna D Zore of Rediff said that, "The Ghazi Attack is a riveting telling of a war story" and gave the film a rating of 4 out of 5.[34] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 saying that, "The Ghazi Attack delivers many a riveting moment and is bolstered by the talent of a few capable actors. Its plot, however, is devoid of any mystery."[35] Bollywood Hungama gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5 saying that the movie "is a gripping war drama that leaves a stunning impact."[36] Divya Pal of News18 criticized the screenplay and direction of the film and gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 saying that, "All in all, "The Ghazi Attack" is utterly disappointing."[37] Authors at "The Reading Hook" featured this film in their list of best Bollywood War Movies ever made and was positively accepted by their readers."[38]

We also get a kind of by the numbers intro to our sub officers, Kay Kay as the aggressive Sikh captain, Rana as the fresh-eyed and aggressive junior officer, and Atul stuck between them, an old friend of Kay Kay, but with a calmer personality (and a pregnant wife).

And then their radar guy hears something just as they have finished their final order and are about to go home. They go off to check it out, and arrive just in time to see an Indian merchant ship sinking. The Pakistanis, unable to find the aircraft carrier that was their primary target, have instituted their Plan B, to sink a random merchant sink, and then zip over and attack a port city while the Indian navy is distracted by the merchant ship.

And, FINALLY, we get to the undersea battle portion! The Pakistanis figure out that the sub is chasing them and instead of shooting a torpedo and possibly missing, they decide to plant landmines behind them in the path of the Indians. Which is great tension, us in the audience knowing they are heading towards mines and waiting to see what will happen!

Now, this is fascinating! All the mental challenges and rules and buttons and things lighting up! And it gets even more interesting when Rana rises to the challenge and takes control of the ship and determines that their only hope is to get the Pakistani sub to come to them and line up with their rear so they can shoot of their rear torpedoes. And the best way to get it to turn back is if they set off the other mine so the Pakistanis will come to look at the damage and confirm the kill. And the way to do that, best of all, we just see happening and get to figure it out ourselves, without them explaining all the thinking to the audience.

Now, the good news is, the Pakistanis have used all their front weapons. They will most likely spin around and line up with the Indians torpedoes in the back in order to be able to use their back torpedoes. Which will give the Indians another chance. But only if the Pakistanis move quickly, since their power and air will only last for another 25 minutes and they will have to surface. And only if the Pakistanis attack from the back, since their front torpedo compartment is flooded.

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