Starcast: Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Jackie Shroff, Sonali Kulkarni, Puru Raajkumar and Abhay Chopra Music: Shankar - Eh...
Starcast: Sanjay Dutt, Hrithik
Roshan, Preity Zinta, Jackie Shroff, Sonali Kulkarni, Puru Raajkumar and Abhay
Chopra
Music: Shankar - Ehsaan - Loy
Direction: Vidhu Vinod Chopra
Even saying the title takes me straight back to Diwali 2000. I was in college hostel in Delhi, and all the newspaper supplements were carrying articles on the big clash, Mohabbatein vs Mission Kashmir !! Unlike my friends who were hardcore SRK and Aishwarya fans, I chose to watch the latter. I had two of my hot favourites along with the dimpled beauty Preity Zinta it also had a classy trailer to boast of. Every single TV channel running that haunting “Bumbro” song on loop also worked its charm on me. This wasn’t just a movie; it was THE Diwali release everyone had circled on their calendars. Hrithik Roshan fresh off Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai, Sanjay Dutt looking like he could chew glass, Preity Zinta being the nation’s crush—Vidhu Vinod Chopra had stacked the deck and the hype was nuclear.
So did it deliver? Mostly, yeah.
Twenty-five years later, it’s one of those films you remember in flashes: the
snow-capped mountains, the crack of gunfire, that gut-punch twist in the first
fifteen minutes. Let’s unpack it all over again.
The story kicks off hard. A
little boy, Altaaf, loses his entire family in a police raid gone wrong. The
cop who accidentally pulls the trigger? Sanjay Dutt with that trademark mix of
guilt and granite. Years later, Altaaf (now Hrithik, all brooding intensity and
dance-move biceps) is radicalized and hell-bent on blowing Kashmir—and
Inayat’s world—to kingdom come. Preity shows up as the bubbly TV journalist Sufiya who is, inevitably, Altaaf’s childhood sweetheart. Cue love, duty, and enough
moral quicksand to drown a philosophy major like me.
What works like gangbusters is
the emotional core. Chopra doesn’t shy away from the messiness of the Kashmir
conflict; he plants the camera right in the crossfire and lets the audience
feel the collateral damage. The opening massacre is brutal—kids, dogs, old
people, nobody’s safe—and it’s supposed to rattle you. Binod Pradhan take a bow! When Altaaf screams
while rigging bombs, you get why. When Inayat whispers “I’m sorry” to a photo,
you get why he can’t sleep. It’s not subtle, but it’s honest.
Hrithik is pure eye candy here.
Fresh-faced superstar or not, he sells the rage without turning into a cartoon.
Watch the scene where he confronts Inayat in the hospital—eyes bloodshot, voice
cracking, veins popping like he’s about to explode. That’s not just acting;
that’s a guy who studied the script and immersed in it. But it was Sanjay Dutt,
who is the ultimate winner here, he dials down the swagger and gives Inayat real
weight. You believe this is a man carrying an orphanage on his shoulders. His
eyes speak volumes in each scene. He truly deserved all the accolades he got.
Preity’s… good. She’s the emotional glue, but the writing doesn’t give her much
beyond “please don’t kill each other, guys.” Sonali Kulkarni pops up as
Altaaf’s foster mom and Inayat's Hindu wife Neelima in flashbacks and rips your heart out in three scenes flat.
Respect.
Oh boy. This was 2000, so
we’re talking practical stunts, real snow, actual explosions—no CGI safety net.
The climax on the frozen lake is still a banger: choppers buzzing, grenades
cooking off, Hrithik sliding across ice like he’s auditioning for a Bond flick.
The boat chase in Dal Lake is pure adrenaline, even if the editing occasionally
feels choppy. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s score deserves its own paragraph—those
Sufi-tinged strings in “socho ke jheelon ka” and the way “chupke se sun” swells
during the romantic scene? Chef’s kiss.
Where it stumbles is the third
act. The terrorist mastermind (played by Jackie Shroff mouthing 'Bachcha') is cartoonishly evil,
and the whole plan is so over-the-top it almost derails the realism. Plus, the
resolution leans hard into Bollywood’s favorite crutch: love conquers
terrorism. It works emotionally because the actors sell it, but logically?
Well, not quite.
Still, for a big-budget Diwali
tentpole released on October 27, 2000, Mission Kashmir takes risks most masala flicks wouldn’t touch. It
asks tough questions—whose fault is the cycle of violence? Can a killer and a
cop share a meal?—and doesn’t always tidy up the answers. That’s rare even
today.
Rewatch value? Surprisingly
high. Strip away the dated fashion and some clunky dialogues, and it's still
solid. Stream it with the family, argue about the politics over chai, and try
not to tear up when Altaaf finally calls Inayat “Abbu.” Just don’t expect
perfection; expect a Diwali firecracker that still pops, even if a few duds are
in the box.
By Ayushmaan Mitra
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