Hi Friends,
State of Siege: Temple Attack is an action drama Bollywood movie that's based on true events that happened during the 2002 attack on Akshardham Temple in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. Though the liberties have been taken to make the movie thrilling and trying to showcase the incidents based on the events reported by people in the incident. The movie is launched on the
ZEE5 Online platform on 9-Jul-2021 and is directed by Ken Ghosh. Ken Ghosh also directed the famous web series Abhay. The movie is 110 minutes long and is the production house behind the movie is Contiloe Pictures.
State of Siege: 26/11 was the first part that was also released on the Zee5 platform last year. I have not watched that part so I need to schedule it for the weekend. Temple Attack starts Akshaye Khanna as Major Hanut Singh, Gautam Rode as Major Samar, Vivek Dahiya as Captain Rohit Bagga, Parvin Dabas as Colonel Nager, Samir Soni as CM Choksi, Manjari Fadnis as Saloni, Abhimanyu Singh as Abu Hamza, Chandan Roy as Mohsin, Mir Sarwar as Bilal Naikoo and various others.
The movie starts with a mission in Northern India, where they are tracking some militants who have caught someone and Major Hanut and the team tries to rescue the girl. During their mission, one of the soldiers gets killed up-close by the captured militants as they were not focused which led to his eyes opening as it was all happening in flashback and still bringing a lot of memories for the Major. He has been taken off the assignments to recover from this huge mental and emotional pain he is going through. It's a journey of a soldier as they lose someone so close to them during all these missions and the pain it brings to them afterwards every night as they think about it.
Meanwhile, 4 suicide bombers get trained somewhere in Pak Occupied Kashmir (POK) and they are sent down a long trip down to reach Ahmedabad as they get mixed into the Indian public and gets support from the local contacts and agents. They enter the Akshardham Temple building and soon captures the theatre hall and an auditorium and make all the people hostages. They kill anyone who comes in their fire line whosoever be it - kids, man, woman, priests - it doesn't matter to them at all, and that's what makes them too dangerous. People inside the temple try to hide wherever possible and try to save their and other people's lives.
The movie is about the operation undertaken by the National Security Guards to save the lives of people meanwhile the terrorist demands was to release their leader from one of the prisons at the border. They are up against the time as terrorists start killing a person every hour or so and NSG needs to enter the building and fight against the suicide bombers with grenades and AK-47s. Coming to the acting, it's great to watch Akshaye Khanna back on screen after a gap if I remember correctly, and it's a movie you would want to watch just like Uri: The Surgical Strike to know the point of view from the NSG team's side. Action sequences are shot really well and have some of the famous actors from the movies and web series. Everyone has performed perfectly well as per the roles given to the characters trying to set the context. The story slowly unfolds and keeps you glued to the end but you already are aware as to what happens to the terrorists in the end so you don't wait for the ending as you already know it. Ken Ghosh is a good director and keeps things together till the end as the team tries to uncover the people behind the attacks.
It's a good one time watch to curb your curiosity to know more about the Akshardham Temple Attack. Watch it if you have
ZEE5 access with your family and friends. If you ever travel to Gandhinagar in Gujarat, you should visit this temple which is a beauty in itself for Hindu Devotees. There is one in New Delhi too which I have visited and it's really beautiful too.
RATING 3/5
