Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl

About the film

Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl is a 2020 Indian Hindi-language biographical drama film, directed by Sharan Sharma and produced under Dharma Productions and Zee Studios. The film stars Janhvi Kapoor as Indian Air Force pilot Gunjan Saxena, one of the first women to fly in a combat zone, alongside Pankaj Tripathi and Angad Bedi in supporting roles.

Principal photography commenced in February 2019 and was wrapped up in October; it was extensively filmed across Lucknow. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film was unable to release theatrically and was picked up for distribution by Netflix. It was released globally on 12 August 2020.

Plot

Beginning in Lucknow, in 1984, the story begins with young Gunjan Saxena on a flight along with her older brother, Anshuman. Gunjan wants to look out of the airplane window, but Anshuman doesn't let her. A kind air hostess tends to the problem and takes Gunjan to the cockpit. Looking at the cockpit immediately sparks a desire in her mind to become a pilot as she feels enthusiastic about the plane's features.

A few years later, Gunjan is congratulated for her academic excellence with her proud parents, Anup and Kirti, were planning to send her to high school. Gunjan, however wants to drop out of high school to become a pilot. Anshuman, her brother feels that women should not be in the cockpit, but in kitchen making food for the family, but her father strongly disagrees. A firm believer of gender equality, he allows Gunjan to experiment with her desire to become a pilot. Gunjan makes multiple attempts, but these are thwarted by concerns regarding her educational qualifications and high costs, causing her to return home dejected

each time. While her parents differ in their outlook towards her dream, with her mother hoping her daughter would soon be wary and Anup insistent on allowing his daughter to pursue her dreams relentlessly, an advertisement in a newspaper for acceptance into the Indian Air Force provides Gunjan just the right opportunity for making an effort to enter the air force. Anshuman, who is himself serving in the army, completely disapproves and tells Gunjan that the Air Force isn't a place for women. She, however, ignores him, and goes ahead with the formalities, later finding out on the day of the results that she is the only female who got accepted.

Production

Principal photography for the film was commenced in February 2019, with the film being extensively shot at Lucknow. The film's shooting, despite being continued for three months, came to halt in May 2019, citing the bad weather, but later resumed the same month. The first schedule of the film was completed on 24 May 2019.

While the team planned to shoot few scenes at London on July, the team planned to change the location to Georgia. The team planned to shoot some sequences high altitude regions of Georgia in the north eastern part of the country in a town called Kazbegi. The town is a mountainous area set over 5700 feet above sea level. Both Janhvi Kapoor and Angad Bedi have shot the sequences for maintaining fitness for their roles, being accompanied by coach Brinston Miranda. Shooting of the film was wrapped up on 29 December 2019.

Soundtrack

The film's music was composed by Amit Trivedi while lyrics were written by Kausar Munir.

Controversies

Gunjan Saxena's coursemate Sreevidya Rajan posted on Facebook claiming she was the first woman pilot to fly in Kargil, even before Gunjan came to Srinagar. She said they were both posted at Udhampur, however Rajan was sent to the deployment at Srinagar when the conflict started, and flew missions in the conflict area. Saxena came to Srinagar with the next crew few days later, and they participated in the operations together. Retired Wing Commander Namrita Chandi also said that it was not Gunjan, but Sreevidya Rajan who was the first lady pilot who flew to Kargil, and said that credit was being taken away.

Rajan said she had never claimed credit because of her strong belief in gender equality.

She also stated that heroic acts may have been shown as part of cinematic licence.

Release

The film was scheduled to release theatrically on 13 March 2020, and was later postponed to 24 April 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's theatrical release was put on hold. The film's digital streaming rights were acquired by Netflix. On 9 June 2020, Netflix released a teaser video introducing Gunjan Saxena and also announcing the film's release date. The film was premiered on the streaming platform on 12 August 2020.

Critical reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 17 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10.

The film was received well in review from critics. Renuka Vyavahare of The Times Of India gave the film 4/5 and wrote "Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl is a deeply moving tale of a feminist father and his feisty daughter. It wages war against patriarchal mind-set and discrimination, and identifies it as a bigger threat to progress than the one we perhaps tackled in 1999". Geetika Mantri of The News Minute gave the film a rating of 4/5 and wrote "The film makes you uncomfortable and emotional without obnoxious jingoism that’s common in army films". Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave the film 4 stars out of 5, and found the film to be a "deeply moving account of a remarkable woman's heartbreaks and soaring triumph".

Key details