A different film from other movies based on the subject of terrorism as there is almost no violence in the movie Mission 11 July. A perfect example of a youth who is confused and can easily be pushed in to the terrorism.
Debutant director Vinod R. Thakur attempts to re-live the tragic attack on parliament in 2001 in Mission 11 July. It was almost a decade ago that the Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists attacked the India Parliament in New Delhi. Several policemen and civilians were killed, and then finally the 5 terrorists were slayed by the security forces.
Shahid (Tarun Khanna) is a good-natured young man, who loves his `ammi’ (mother) and his `watan’ (mother-land) with equal fervor. He lives with his mother in Pathanwadi, and like any normal guy, Shahid has friends, Arjun and Rafiq with whom he has close relationship and shares everything. His girlfriend Raavi (Natasha Singh) is a Hindu. His life is going smoothly until a professor from Delhi, Javed (Pramod Moutho), comes and influences him, preaching about `sachche Musalmaan’ and `qaum ke liye ladaai’ which means – a true muslim and fight for the community at large.
The professor infuses the doctrine of jehad and brainwashes him. Under his influence, Shahid leaves his home, and from a simple boy, he is now transformed into a terrorist. By the end of the first half of this film, Shahid is now a complete convert to the cause of `his’ people, and is all set to play with `gola’ and `barood’.
Shahid comes to Delhi and join’s the professor’s associates, Aftab and Gazi. Now they hatch a plan to attack Indian Parliament. To enter easily inside the Parliament, they kidnap the Police Commissioner Abbas Ali Baig’s wife, daughter-in-law and grandson.
It so happens that before the attack on Parliament could be carried out, there is a blast in Mumbai’s local trains. This incident shakes up Shahid and incidently he comes across a good Musalmaan (Vikram Gokhale). The motive wrong of jehadis occur to him and Shahid realizes his mistake. Finally, he surrenders but his accomplices end their lives.
Tarun Khanna and Natasha’s performances in the film are fine. Natasha is fresh looking even without make-up in many scenes. Other artistes Vikram Gokhale, Pramod Moutho, and Neena Kulkarni too have given credit worthy performance.
Mission 11 July has much of dialogues and a little action. The director tries hard to show a patriotic responsible citizen’s effort to make terrorist realize that they are being wrongly motivated to carry out such cruel activities. Some dialogues do touch the heart while the music by Afsar-Sajid isn’t impressive. The second half has a very strong message to the common man not to come under wrong influence.
Cast of Mission 11 July:
Tarun Khanna
Natasha Singh
Vikram Gokhale
Mukesh Tiwari
Neena Kulkarni
Pramod Moutho
Usha Nadkarni
Credits & Crew of Mission 11 July:
Banner – JMJ International
Director – Vinod R Thakur
Producer – Manoj B. Jangid
Music Director – Afsar – Sajid
Lyrics – Shahab Allahabadi
Cinematographer – Shakeel Khan
Editor Mansoor – Azmi
Mission 11 July, movie review
