Ghazi is a movie to be proud of like Bahubali. What a stunning film!

Ghazi (Telugu and Tamil – dubbed) and Ghazi Attack (Hindi) directed by Sankalp Reddy is doing extremely well. The Ghazi Attack is inspired by true events from the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. The film stars Rana Daggubati, Kay Kay Menon, Taapsee Pannu and Atul Kulkarni. Real life, authentic characters, and a cast and crew that show up to deliver some of their finest works. Based on true events, Ghazi is the rarest of thrillers from India, the kind that relies on neither special effects nor circumspect character development. An intricate and precisely executed thriller written by Sankalp Reddy, Gangaraju Gunnam and Niranjan Reddy. How could somebody hate this movie? it can’t be hated! Ghazi is fantastic.

Ghazi was a Tench-class diesel-electric fast-attack submarine of Pakistan Navy leased from the United States in 1963. The war broke out between India and Pakistan as a result of covert infiltration in Indian Kashmir, and Ghazi, at that time, was under the command of then-Commander Karamat Rahman Niazi. Ghazi was Pakistan Navy’s flagship submarine until she sank under mysterious circumstances near India’s eastern coast while conducting the naval operations en route to the Bay of Bengal. The Indian historians termed sinking of Ghazi as one of the ‘last unsolved greatest mysteries of the 1971 war’. The mysterious sinking of Ghazi took place on 4 December 1971 during its hunt to assault the Vikrant and/or during the mine-laying mission on the Visakhapatnam Port, Bay of Bengal. Ghazi sank with all 92 men on board under unknown and mysterious circumstances on the Visakhapatnam coast, allowing the Indian Navy to effect a naval blockade of then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). India built a “Victory Memorial” on the coast near where the Ghazi was sunk. India credits the INS Rajput for sinking the Ghazi and her crew were honored with gallantry awards for this event. Anyway, later in 2011, former Indian naval chief, Admiral Arun Prakash quoted in the national security conference that Ghazi had sunk under mysterious circumstances, “not by INS Rajput as originally claimed.”. Earlier in 1971, Government of India undertook an investigation into the incident and claimed that the submarine was sunk following the series of maneuvers by the Indian Navy.

An independent testimony stems from an Egyptian Navy officer, who claimed that the Indian ships were docked at the Visakhapatnam harbour when the explosions from the supposed Indian sinking of Ghazi occurred, and that “it was not until about an hour after the explosion, that two Indian naval ships were observed leaving harbour”. Many independent writers and investigators maintained the Ghazi was sunk mysteriously not by two depth charges alone– Ghazi may have sunk either by the hydrogen explosion produced when the batteries were charging, or by the detonation of a mine, or either by the sea floor impact while trying to avoid the depth charge released by the INS Rajput. The true cause of the sinking is still unknown, although Indian and Pakistani sources have different views. In 1972, Ghazi and her serving officers as well as crew members were honored with gallantry awards by the Government of Pakistan. After the war, President Richard Nixon forgave the remaining debt of Ghazi to Pakistan when the U.S. Navy’s CNO Admiral Elmo Zumwalt visited Admiral Mohammad Shariff in Calcutta in 1972.

“Ghazi”, the movie, is filled with high- levels of tension, it is entertaining and informative. Your heart will be beating outside of your chest. Exhausting and thrilling, Ghazi is all the more powerful with the knowledge that you’re witnessing a true story. You got to admire film directors and producers who take a gamble. Sankalp Reddy and team have crafted a film that you won’t be forgetting in a hurry.