Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Nargis Fakhri, Rahul Dev, Gavie Chahal, Rahul Mittra

Director: Girish Malik

Rating: **1/2

How can you have a war on terrorism when war itself is terrorism? Well, who knows this situation better than our neighboring country Afganistan where traveling to the areas of Afghanistan is unsafe because of critical levels of kidnappings, hostage-taking, suicide bombings, widespread military combat operations, landmines, terrorist. Bollywood has made several films based on the theme of terrorism but very few have touched on the topic of children of war & child suicide bombers. But with Netflix's Torbaaz, Girish Malik brings a film based on that topic that showcases the real situation and beauty of Afghanistan with a touch of cricket fever but with the unmethodical approach of Grish showing everything in a film, resulting in a hit-miss flick.

'Torbaaz' is set on the drop back of Afganistan and starts with an opening scene of suicide bombing when a boy attempts to kill a troop of the army but her mother resists her from doing so and instead killed herself along with the army soldiers. Then a scene cuts to Abdullah Qarar (Rahul Dev), who introduces himself as the Commander of the area from Kunnar to Nooristan to a media channel. In his speech, he speaks about the importance of Afghanistan and how the USA and Russia are scared of them. He refers to army soldiers as demons, infidels and enemies of Afghans. He further makes sure to win the war by making Afghans children suicide bombers.

Then, the film starts revolving around an army officer Naseer Khan (Sanjay Dutt) who just arrived in Afghanistan to attend an NGO 'Tomorrow Hope' which was founded by her late wife Meera. Ayesha (Nargis) receives him and expresses her happiness on his arrival. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's condition unrests Naseer. Even while attending the Children Education Shelter for kids women empowerment care function, the one thing which strikes his mind was children of war. He starts imagining children posing with arms weapons and makes him think twice whether to leave the country or not. Ayesha takes him to the military camp where children of war reside. In a group of children, everyone gets excited when a boy named Baaz (Pakistani refugee) says he has a cricket ball and goes into a fight with Gulab-Ul-Din (Afghani boy) over the ball possession. Then they decided to play a match but with a promise that Gulab-Ul-Din had to bring a bat. While passing Naseer watch these groups playing cricket and throw their misplaces their only ball when a boy named Sadiq slammed him with bad words.

The next day, Naseer along with his friends starts playing cricket without inviting any children and only allows them when Sadiq conveys his request gallantry. But despites of haunted by the ghosts of his past, a dead wife and son, Naseer trains the children from the refugee camp to play competitive cricket. One day he decided to assign a coach for their professional cricket practice and with the positive initiative, Naseer went to Shariyar (Gavie Chahal) and requested him to coach and guide the children but he refused to do so. Then Naseer bet them to conduct a cricket competition between his Torbaaz and Shariyar's academy students for a cricket match. If Naseer loses he promises to pay him 4,000 dollars and if his team wins then Shariyar has to coach his team.

Along with this cricket match, the film showcases the difference between Pashtuns and Hazaras class system and how Afghanis treat Tablibanis. The film also highlights the children of war, NATO actions, West-East civilization clash, beautiful snowscapes, dusty, isolated mountains, and cricket love among Afghanis.

Girish Malik has worked predominantly in Bollywood and Torbaaz is back on the director seat after several years. Girish has directed the film in a not-notch manner and has captured some beautiful scenic visions of Afghanistan. Besides directing the flick, Girish Malik has also written the screenplay with Bharti Jakhar, where they underline the film's apotheosis with emotion and how the magic of a cricket bat can change the perception of everyone. But somewhere they drifted and juggled with terrorism aspects and Agfhanis cricket mania. Hope they had worked more on it.

Cinematography by Hiroo Keswani has shot each frame of Torbaaz in a charismatic way. Apart from shooting in Afghanistan, the maker has also covered the scenery of Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. The snow shot and desert mountain beauty is worth watching in Torbaaz. Dilip Deo's editing could be more effective if he decides to cut a few scenes which helped the film in stretching the plot. Editing is one of the weakest parts of the film and there is nothing much to talk about music.

Moving forward to the performance then Sanjay Dutt has delivered an authentic performance, his pain of losing his family is visible through his expressions. Rahul Dev and Gavie Chahal have fitted perfectly in the Afghani accent. Talking about star children performances, then Rudra Soni who played the role of Gulab played their roles with perfection along with their Afghani accent but Rahul Dev's talent has been wasted in the film. The boy who played Baaz wins hearts but the one who was too hilarious with his dialogue delivery was the little boy who played the role of Sadiq. Wish we could google their name but unfortunately, there is nothing about them on the search engine. Hope after this film, these gems get some fame. On the other side, there is nothing much for Nagis in the film to play and neither she contributed any efforts in her role.

To cut a long story short, the film is about child suicide bombers in Afghanistan, who have been trained to believe that killing the enemy is a virtue and glory in the afterlife. There was a scene when an army officer refers to the country as the graveyard of Afghanistanis, it depicts the situation of war and how the civilians can live without the fear of getting dead. Girish Malik has highlighted the Afghan people's struggle on the screen with its storytelling all thanks to the editor for making the plot boring at a certain time. Talking about the terrorism aspects, Afganistan is not only one country that is suffering from such terror sword but there are several parts in this world where terrorists are misleading and misguiding small muchkins in order to spread terrorism. All-embracing, Torbaaz is a binge-watch film for only those people who watch films with emotional psychic as the last 30 minutes of this Sanjay Dutt starrer drifts more on the fervour sentiments.