Article 370 Review - Gets Passing Marks In The Cinematic Test On Article 370

Article 370 Review: Aditya Jambhale brings the history of the much-talked-about national subject, Article 370, to the screen. For over 70 years, the article was a subject of political propaganda for the leaders, and it finally ended in 2019 during the BJP's reign. Jambhale's tale gets into the details of the events, which are unknown to many except the ones who were involved in or affected by them. The idea is to give a proper seminar on Article 370's removal, from legality, secrecy, and constitutional loopholes to army operations. The normal audience would have never known them if it weren't for this movie. Jambhale's Article 370 is realistic, somewhat dramatic, and emotionally powerful. Like every other Bollywood film, it also has some issues in the storytelling, but they don't hurt much, even if one has to think about them from a tough critic's point of view.As we know, the film is set against the backdrop of the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and the autonomy granted under Article 370 of the Indian Constitution to Jammu and Kashmir—a region administered by India. Zooni (Yami Gautam) kills one of the militants in Kashmir, which leads to her suspension. Soon, she is called back to join a new operation by PMO secretary Rajeshwari Swaminathan (Priyamani). Zooni is given a free hand at the NIA to stop all the terrorist activities in J&K and also the political leaders, including CM, who are playing with the lives of innocent people for the sake of their political propaganda. Nobody can touch them because of Article 370. The Pulwama attack disturbs her, the Prime Minister, and the entire nation, which is followed by a historic, successful air strike. Now, the government wants to end the growing politics and terrorism in J&K by putting an end to the restrictions of 7-decade-old Article 370, which no other party was able to remove. The Prime Minister (Arun Govil) and Home Minister (Kiran Karmarkar) decide to remove Article 370 without opposing the constitutional and legal rights of the citizens. How do they do it? What problems do they have to face? You get to see all these things in the film.Article 370 is a well-researched script, but it's too long. The first half takes too long to set up the plot. Maybe because it has to do with the research, prelude, and many other things at ground level. However, the second half picks up very well, with some crowd-pleasing scenes. The last 30 minutes are what make this film a winner in a true sense. The entire bill-passing process is damn interesting and gripping, and it's likely to go viral on the internet. Some may call it political propaganda, but you can't help it if that is what has actually happened. For instance, that Amit Shah's viral speech. We have all seen it in 2019 on National TV, and the representation of that event in this film is surely going to create a lot of noise on the internet. Some scenes are overdramatic, and some scenes are left incomplete—yeah, there are a few mistakes here.Yami Gautam has done a fine job yet again. She is outstanding in that monologue scene while explaining Kashmir's corruption, and what a speech it is. She has another scene to remember, which we have seen in the trailer already: "Har baar, we have a breakthrough." In short, we have the first standout performance of 2024 by a female actor. Priyamani has a very sophisticated role. She hasn't got any expressive or extreme-level scenes or dialogues, but she has done well enough. Kiran Karmarkar tries to mimic Amit Shah, and it looks funny. But that's entertaining too. Those prosthetics could have been better, though. The same goes for Arun Govil, who plays Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He didn't look like Modi, but he definitely looked like a sophisticated prime minister (of any country). Iravati Harshe eats up everyone in every single scene of hers. What a performer! Raj Zutshi, Raj Arjun, Skand Thakur, Ashwini Kaul, Vaibhav Tatwawadi, and others have done their part nicely in supporting roles.Article 370 doesn't have a big budget, and it didn't need it either. It is a well-made film for its budget, but the technical aspects could have been finer. The VFX part isn't encouraging either. The film has some massy dialogue that will become fan favourites in no time. One of the biggest problems here is the editing. Dividing the film into 6 chapters was not a good idea when only half of them actually held something for the audience. The other three were like documentaries. Article 370 has some overly fascinating and overly dramatic ideas about certain scenes, which don't fit well with the logical reasoning. The analysis was good, but highly confusing. Aditya Jambhale attempts to merge some massy and explosive scenes with the story that hasn't got to do anything with it, but surprisingly, he managed it very well. By the time you finish the film, you don't remember those illogical scenes because, by that time, you have enough new political masala to consume. As a whole, Article 370 seems more like an audience's film than a critic's, so it should find commercial success. It passes the cinematic test on Article 370, which is no less than a UPSC for Bollywood filmmakers in current times. But as an authentic cinema, it could have been better.