Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo

About the film

Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo (transl. We entrust this nation in you, O countrymen) is a 2004 Indian Hindi-language war film directed by Anil Sharma. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Bobby Deol, Akshay Kumar, Divya Khosla, Sandali Sinha, Danny Denzongpa, Ashutosh Rana, Nagma and Aarti Chabaria.

Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyo was released worldwide on 24 December 2004, coinciding with the Christmas weekend.

Plot

Major General Amarjeet Singh is a dedicated officer for the Indian Army. His son Vikramjeet Singh follows in his footsteps and joins the Navy. In 1971, during the Indo-Pak war and the formation of Bangladesh, Lt. Commander Vikramjeet Singh had a ship under his command and a regiment of soldiers of the Indian Army, commandeered by his dad, Major General Amarjeet Singh. The ship comes under attack by a submarine of the Pakistani Navy, undergoes damage, and sinks along with Vikramjeet, but not before he courageously rescues about a hundred trapped army personnel.

Years later, Vikramjeet's son Kunaljeet joins the army as a captain, but he lacks the values his dad and grandfather had in them about serving the country selflessly. He just wants to be employed with the army for a couple of years, then re-locate to the U.S., run a business, and become rich. In order to accomplish this, he always makes up excuses for not going to the front. He falls in love with Shweta Bhansali and decides to stay in the army in order to be close to her. In order to achieve a medal, he fakes heroism, then carelessly jeopardizes a planned attack on terrorists, and as a result, many terrorists escape to their hideouts. Disciplined and chastised, an injured and humbled Kunaljeet waits to meet his sweetheart - only to find out that she is in love and married to his senior officer, Major Rajeev Kumar Singh, who was assumed to be dead but actually was a prisoner of war. The only thread binding him to the army is broken, and it is then Kunaljeet finds out that the terrorists, in collusion with rebel Pakistani officers, are planning to bomb the Bhagwan Shivji's Amarnath Temple in Jammu & Kashmir in order to foment communal strife. Kunaljeet saves everyone and wins his grandfather's heart.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Anu Malik, with lyrics written by Sameer.

Reception

Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave the film two out of five, writing, "On the whole, AB TUMHARE HAWALE WATAN SATHIYO falls way below expectations. At the box-office, it will meet with mixed reactions. While the masses wouldn't mind it, the classes, especially the family audiences, would give it a cold shoulder." Patcy N of Rediff wrote, "The film's music is average. Divya Khosla doesn't have much to so and acts well in a few sequences. Akshay gets the applause, not for his acting but for his well-written shayari. Bobby is good. Amitabh Bachchan is seen far too often in these officer roles and has nothing at all new to offer in this uniformed outing. He has started looking and acting very monotonous."

Key details