Category
Film
Tv show
Documentary
Stand-up Comedy
Short Film
View All
Genres
Action
Adventure
Animation
Biography
Comedy
Crime
Documentary
Drama
Family
Fantasy
Film-Noir
Game-Show
History
Horror
Kids
Music
Musical
Mystery
News
Reality-TV
Political
Romance
Sci-Fi
Social
Sports
Talk-Show
Thriller
War
Western
View All
Language
Hindi
Telugu
Tamil
Malayalam
Kannada
Abkhazian
Afar
Afrikaans
Akan
Albanian
Amharic
Arabic
Aragonese
Armenian
Assamese
Avaric
Avestan
Aymara
Azerbaijani
Bambara
Bashkir
Basque
Belarusian
Bengali
Bhojpuri
Bislama
Bosnian
Breton
Bulgarian
Burmese
Cantonese
Catalan
Chamorro
Chechen
Chichewa; Nyanja
Chuvash
Cornish
Corsican
Cree
Croatian
Czech
Danish
Divehi
Dutch
Dzongkha
English
Esperanto
Estonian
Ewe
Faroese
Fijian
Finnish
French
Frisian
Fulah
Gaelic
Galician
Ganda
Georgian
German
Greek
Guarani
Gujarati
Haitian; Haitian Creole
Haryanvi
Hausa
Hebrew
Herero
Hiri Motu
Hungarian
Icelandic
Ido
Igbo
Indonesian
Interlingua
Interlingue
Inuktitut
Inupiaq
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kalaallisut
Kanuri
Kashmiri
Kazakh
Khmer
Kikuyu
Kinyarwanda
Kirghiz
Komi
Kongo
Korean
Kuanyama
Kurdish
Lao
Latin
Latvian
Letzeburgesch
Limburgish
Lingala
Lithuanian
Luba-Katanga
Macedonian
Malagasy
Malay
Maltese
Mandarin
Manipuri
Manx
Maori
Marathi
Marshall
Moldavian
Mongolian
Nauru
Navajo
Ndebele
Ndebele
Ndonga
Nepali
Northern Sami
Norwegian
Norwegian Bokmål
Norwegian Nynorsk
Occitan
Ojibwa
Oriya
Oromo
Ossetian; Ossetic
Other
Pali
Persian
Polish
Portuguese
Punjabi
Pushto
Quechua
Raeto-Romance
Romanian
Rundi
Russian
Samoan
Sango
Sanskrit
Sardinian
Serbian
Serbo-Croatian
Shona
Sindhi
Sinhalese
Slavic
Slovak
Slovenian
Somali
Sotho
Spanish
Sundanese
Swahili
Swati
Swedish
Tagalog
Tahitian
Tajik
Tatar
Thai
Tibetan
Tigrinya
Tonga
Tsonga
Tswana
Turkish
Turkmen
Twi
Uighur
Ukrainian
Urdu
Uzbek
Venda
Vietnamese
Volapük
Walloon
Welsh
Wolof
Xhosa
Yi
Yiddish
Yoruba
Zhuang
Zulu
View All
Release year
2024
1900
Rating
Must Watch
Good
Passable
Poor
Skip
Yet to Review
View All
Platform
View All
Search

Torbaaz Review: A Well-Intended Film Marred By Erratic Storytelling

By Binged Bureau - Dec 11, 2020 @ 06:12 pm
2 / 5
BOTTOM LINE: A Well-Intended Film Marred By Erratic Storytelling
Rating
2 / 5
Skin N Swear
None
Drama, Sports, Action

Torbaaz Netflix Movie -ReviewWhat Is the Story About?

Netflix’s latest direct to digital release ‘Torbaaz’ is a film that casts a sensitive though simplistic eye on the perilous issue of little children being used as suicide bombers in war-torn areas. Torbaaz is set in the backdrop of Afghanistan and the atrocities inflicted upon the Afghani people by the ruling Taliban. 

The movie is produced by Raju Chadha, Rahul Mittra, Puneet Singh and Girish Malik. It is directed by Girish Malik, from a story he has co-written alongside Bharti Jakhar. 

Former Indian army Colonel Naseer Khan (Sanjay Dutt) is ravaged by the loss of his wife and son in a bomb blast in Afghanistan. Their memories haunt him when he is compelled to return to Kabul to attend an event honouring his late wife’s work with her NGO that rehabilitates refugee children in Afghanistan. Ayesha (Nargis Fakhri) helps him get re-acquainted with the little kids at the refugee rehabilitation camps.

Naseer is especially perturbed about the recruiting of children by the Taliban to act as suicide bombers. His life takes on a new meaning when he realises that the kids’ love of cricket can help turn their lives around. And then he begins coaching the kids to play the match of their lives, even as Talibani leader Qazaar (Rahul Dev) wants his child soldiers back.

Performances?

Torbaaz is out and out a Sanjay Dutt vehicle. The entire narrative banks on his star presence, and he delivers on the role with easy smoothness. It’s one of his better outings, after the nondescript Sadak 2.

Rahul Dev is striking as the Taliban leader in the truncated role he has. Nargis Fakhri doesn’t have much to do, and is passable in the miniscule role she has.

The child actors shine in their individual roles. The kid playing Sadiq is especially adorable, and leaves an impression.

Torbaaz Netflix Movie -ReviewAnalysis

Torbaaz is a film that has its heart in the right place. The premise is interesting. In the right hands, it would have done wonders. Girish Malik’s, alas, are not the right hands though. The storytelling is erratic, inconsistent and all over the place. Some scenes are left to hang in mid-air, while others simply trail off, leading to nowhere. Still others randomly jump into the picture, and then jump out, just as randomly.

The narrative meanders along at a leisurely clip, oscillating back and forth between the past and present. Thankfully, it doesn’t dwell much in the past. The climax is somewhat affecting, but even that is marred by the jumpy, jerky direction. The cricket match – easily the centrepiece of the story – is tepid, uninspiring and lacking in energy, effervescence and a sense of urgency. 

If there’s one thing that does leave an impression in Torbaaz, it is the setting of the movie —it is mesmerising. The harsh, unforgiving landscape; the arid, stony mountains; the flying dust — all of it keeps the viewer hypnotised to the screen. The movie was apparently filmed in Kyrgyzstan to depict Afghanistan, and those shots are truly captivating.

To sum it up, Torbaaz is a film that could have been much more, but chooses to settle for very little.

Torbaaz Netflix Movie -Review

Music and Other Departments?

The musical score by Bickram Ghosh and Vikram Montrose is average and forgettable. The cricket match deserved galvanising background music to lend a sense of urgency to it, but it is curiously mellow and dull. 

Hiroo Keswani’s cinematography is stunning. He captures the jagged locales with deft skill. The aerial shots are especially magnificent. The subdued lighting adds to the gloom and dread of the narrative. 

Highlights?

The settings

The stunning cinematography 

The sensitive subject 

Drawbacks?

Simplistic storytelling

Erratic scene-structuring

Jerky direction 

Did I Enjoy It?

Not so much

Will You Recommend It?

Watch it only if you have time to kill and nothing better to do
 

Torbaaz Review by Binged Bureau 

We’re hiring!

We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.