Review of D-Day (2013) by Pragyan T — 11 Sep 2013

Nikhil Advani's political thriller D-Day launches itself without wasting any time. The film opens at a wedding reception, where the son of a notorious gangster is getting married. This fast-paced sequence, backed up with a qawwali song in the background, establishes the main premise of D-Day: Four RAW agents are on a mission to take down this gangster - cheekily named Goldman (Rishi Kapoor) - at his son's wedding and dispatch him alive back to India.

Rishi Kapoor's Goldman strikingly resembles crime lord Dawood Ibrahim. He is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks all around India and his vast spreading organized crime empire has made him India's Most Wanted. Goldman refutes all of the negative accusations and likes to be called a businessman instead of a terrorist. He has a charming aura that hides the monster inside. Rishi Kapoor, with the forte of his recent films, gives yet another chameleon-like performance. Here, he is well composed and gets the film's best one-liners.

On the other side we meet Wali Khan (Irrfan Khan) and his team that includes an ex-military man, Rudra (Arjun Rampal), an explosives expert, Zoya (Huma Qureshi) and a reformed criminal, Aslam (Aakash Dahiya). The first half of the movie provides us ample back-story on these individuals that does enough to invest our empathy towards them. Wali is a family man whose wife and son know nothing about his real job. Throughout the movie Wali has the dilemma of his own: whether to protect his family or his country. Irrfan Khan has an intense part to play and he plays as per the character's demand.

The action is of international standards and although few songs get in the way of the film's narrative, D-Day never deviates from its storyline and flows in a steady pace. The movie keeps up with the thriller genre convention and at the same time manages to deliver a stinging social message.