Who remembers the Gasden Purchase? Nobody, huh? OK, who remembers that Texas was once part of Mexico? Ah, now we’re getting somewhere. Now, instead of the Alamo and the Mexican-American War and all that crap, imagine the key to Texas independence came down to paperwork. Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Oh, and a few terrorists, cuz we might find the paperwork boring.
In 1954, the Indian government gave “Special Status” to the northern states of Jammu and Kashmir. They were established as semi-independent which kept alternative claimants like Pakistan and China at bay. The legislation calling for Special Status was Article 370. And, hey, we have a title.
For a while, Article 370 was a good ol’ fashion tale of terrorists and agents. Agent Zooni Kaksar (Yami Gautam) is the Dirty Harry of the Indian NIA. She hates the bad guys more than she likes the rules. Early on, she leads a Kashmir raid against orders to eliminate a terrorist. Despite her success, her superiors believe the threat is now greater with the badguy dead … and Zooni gets demoted to Delhi.
But you can’t keep a bloodthirsty nationalist down, even in India. Hence, a few years later, Zooni makes it back to Kashmir to go after the terrorist threat that replaced the last terrorist threat. And it all has to do with Article 370, which -for Lord knows what reason- the Indian government somehow doesn’t have the legislative paperwork. I’m not making this up. Our dudes actually had to enter the Muslim-dominated Kashmir library under false pretenses, sneak into the forbidden section, ignore Harry Potter looking for books on Horcruxes, and thieve a copy of the act’s amendments.
I’m sorry, but how is it even possible that there was only one copy of this legislation and it was being held in the restricted section of a public library? Words fail me.
Oh, it set up a cool chase scene, which is where the strength of this film is housed. Unfortunately, 
that strength is also in a restricted section as Article 370 eventually devolves (like Phantom Menace) from a potentially exciting international terrorist shoot ’em up into a tiresome discussion of parliamentary minutiae. I trust Indian nationalists found joy in the speeches and voting sessions that brought Kashmir back to the fold, but most normal movie patrons are not going to go gaga over a chapter title on screen that reads, literally, “Sub-clause (d).” You know that one is a barn-burner.
Article 370 had some moments, but not enough to justify a 158-minute runtime. On top of that, this is the second Hindi film in a row (Fighter) with a terrorist vanbomb attacking an Indian soldier caravan … is this something that happens a lot in India? And this is yet another Indian film with no big Bollywood numbers. What’s up with that? Nobody wants to sing and dance about parliament or terrorism? Boo.
There once was an agent named Zooni
A fresh young recruit out of uni
Her trigger-filled craze
Made her good rep a phase
And the demotion almost made her go loony
Not Rated, 158 Minutes
Director: Aditya Suhas Jambhale
Writer: Aditya Dhar, Arjun Dhawan, Aditya Suhas Jambhale
Genre: Free range history
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Indian nationalists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Terrorists
