VR Entertainers Ltd.’s ‘Zameen’, directed by debutante Rohit Shetty, is one more film based on the burning issue of terrorism and the hijacking of Indian Airlines plane to ‘Kandhar’.

The film like many other recent releases opens in Himachal Pradesh´s Manali, the stand in Kashmir. In the opening sequence Col. Ranvir Singh Ranawat (Ajay Devgan) captures Baba Zaheer (Mukesh Tiwari), head of a terrorists’ organization “Al-Tahir”. 

Six months later four terrorists cross over the LOC. They clash with a group of Indian army soldiers who are caught unawares. There are heavy casualties with just a lone survivor, who is badly injured but provides some valuable information to Col. Ranvir. The case is officially handed over to Col. Ranvir, to find out who these four are and what is their objective/mission.

The focus now shifts to Mumbai where A.C.P Jai (Abhishek Bachchan) is busy tracing out the gang supplying illegal arms in Mumbai city. He is stunned to find out that the arms supplied to the terrorists originally belonged to the Indian Army. The origin of the arms is traced to Col. Ranvir´s batallion. Jai now has two missions, one to find out who the four terrorists are and secondly, to find out the enemy within, who supplied the arms to terrorists.

Jai and Ranvir join hands and almost apprehend the four infiltrators but the terrorists manage to escape and successfully hijack an Indian Airline plane with a number of passengers and crew members. The hijackers demand the release of Baba Zaheer from the custody of  Indian Police.

Col. Ranvir and ACP Jai, embark on a mission to secure the release of the hostages, now across the border.

Debutante director Rohit Shetty has made a movie on the subject of terrorism in his own way. The treatment reminds one of ´Sarfarosh´ rather than ´The Hero´ or ´Jaal´. Rohit deserves full credit for his direction. The first half is fast paced and sets the tone for the enthralling post-interval portion. Climax is excellent but with an over dose of special effects that look phoney! There´s no denying that the action sequences by Jai Singh are breathtaking, but the way director Rohit Shetty has juxtaposed them in the script is what deserves to be lauded.

Music by Himesh Reshammiya is so-so. Except for a couple of songs the music doesn’t appeal much. ´Tere Naal´ and ´Simple Si Coffee’ are well choreographed and look good. Amrita Arora is simply vulgar in ´Dilli Ki Sardi‘, she should take a few tips from her sister Mallaika on how to look graceful in item numbers .

Editing by Bunty Nagi is extremely crisp. Dialogues by Javed Siddiqui are good and excellent in some of the sequences. Special Effects used in the movie are average. Cinematography by Aseem Bajaj is visually appealing and the beautiful Sohlang Valley, Rohtang Pass and the snow clad mountains and the crystal clear river Beas look true to life.

Ajay Devgan once again impresses the audience with his excellent and mind-blowing performance. The year 2003 belongs to Ajay. His performance is marvelous and controlled. The sequence between Ajay and Abhishek, where Ajay tells Abhishek to resign from his job and the way he delivers the dialogues is excellent.

After a good performance in Rohan Sippy’s ‘Kuch Naa Kaho’, Abhishek shows his acting skills once again. He has proved that he has the skills and given the right script, director and some luck he can deliver the goods. Bipasha Basu is just about okay. She looks too animated rather than scared in the hijack portion. Mukesh Tiwari is excellent in the few scenes that he gets. Mohan Joshi is so-so. Rest of the cast is adequate

On the whole, ‘Zameen’ is the kind of movie which, perhaps, needed the lung power of a thoroughly unreasonable Sunny Deol to actually pitch for the applause that is evoked by Pakistan-bashing. Instead, it has a very disciplined colonel in Ajay Devgan, who, incidentally, is the mainstay of  the movie. It is perhaps due to this reason that Zameen did not get the success it deserved at the Box Office.