Review: 1962 The War in the Hills Review Abhay Deol’s Historical Drama Is Decent

1962 The War in the Hills Cast and Rating 

Director- Mahesh Manjrekar

Producer– Arre Studios

Platform – Disney Plus Hotstar VIP

Artists – Abhay Deol, Mahi Gill, Anoop Soni, Akash Thosar, Rohan Gandotra, Sumit Vyas, Meyang Chang, Hemal Ingale etc.

Stars- 3/5 (Three Star)

1962 The War in the Hills Story 

The battle is fought on the outskirts, but its explosions tremble even to the village, street and courtyard, whose son, brother or husband is slain on the palm of the enemy’s teeth. In the passion of patriotism, these drunkards forget the greatest personal mischief of the country and write the highest story of sacrifice.

Just 15 years after independence from British rule, India faced a war for which it was not ready at all. The country was also not able to make arrangements to protect the soldiers from the cold in the inaccessible areas of NEFA and Ladakh. There were many such difficulties, but it proved to be dwarfed by the rocky intentions of the jawans. China was well aware of India’s weakness, so it started a strategic attack on India to implement its spread policy. Politics were forced, but not the army.

The Mahesh Manjrekar-directed web series 1962- The War in the Hills is one such story inspired by the 1962 war between India and China, which highlighted the emotional battles that the jawans face in their personal lives. , Which spans 10 episodes of the series.

1962 The War in the Hills Episodes Review

The first episode begins with Major Suraj Singh (Abhay Deol), who has recently been transferred from Rajasthan to Kashmir to Baramulla. Major is also accompanied by his wife Shagun (Mahi Gill) and daughter. Major treats his battalion C-Company as a family. The role of war from China has started, because many posts in Ladakh have been occupied by the Chinese. Major Suraj Singh with his battalion C-Company is on a mission to redeem these posts. The Defense Minister and senior military officials advise the Prime Minister to adopt a forward policy against China to stop its growing footsteps. After a fierce battle at a post, the situation becomes such that Major Suraj Singh has to surrender. They also get injured in this fight and the post goes under the occupation of the Chinese army. This defeat has a profound effect on the major. Now they are waiting for an opportunity to wash this stain.

Kishan and Karan have a rift for Radha. As Ram Kumar, there is a character that takes away the loneliness of life from the upbringing of son Raju (Prem Dharmadhikari). To marry his half-brother Gopal (Satya Manjrekar), he is always unmarried. Gopal has a new marriage and the bride Padma (Pooja Sawant) has incomplete desires. There is a post office in the village, where the only son of the post master post uncle is Ahmed (Siddhant Mule) in the army. And all these characters have an affinity and connection with each other.

1962 The War in the Hills Screen Play Review

The screenplay of Charudatta Acharya is mainly divided into India-China skirmishes, political compulsions and personal life of the soldiers. The narration uses the narration of Major Suraj Singh’s wife Shagun Singh (Mahi Gill), who tells her Millennial grandchildren and grandchildren about the story of the war and the turmoil in the personal life of C-Company jawans Is telling about However, the older Shagun is played by another cast. In the narration, only Mahi’s voice is used.

The designing department has done a good job portraying the sixties. The period has been established through army uniforms of that era, vehicles and Hindi film songs of the 50s. The cult song ‘Chin Chin Chu …’, a 1958 film Howrah Bridge playing on gramophone at Major Suraj Singh’s house in the atmosphere of fighting with the Chinese, is an excellent experiment. However, the poor VFX in the battle scenes lightens the series. Director Mahesh Manjrekar has used different color tones to show the war scenes and the events going on in his personal life, which is a bit awkward.

The early episodes of the series have a slow edge and pace, but the last four episodes pick up the rhythm and the series starts engaging. Had the series been made in fewer episodes, the result would have been more impressive, as the personal life events of the jawans are very filmy and taut. They slow down the pace of the series.

1962 The War in the Hills Characters Review

Abhay Deol succeeds the emotional side of Major Suraj Singh’s character. His character is not very loud. In the role of Suraj Singh’s wife, Mahi is reunited with Abhay after Gill Dev.D. In spite of suffering from cancer, Mahi has done well in the role of husband’s wife.

In the remaining cast, Kemal’s girlfriend Radha, as Hemal Ingale, impresses with her performance. One of the weaknesses of the series is the tone of its characters. The background of the jawans has been set in Rewari village of Haryana, but the tone of most artists is missing the Haryanvi touch. The actors playing the role of Chinese soldiers are also talking fluency in Hindi, but this may be acceptable, as the makers also cleared the disclaimer at the beginning of the series that it was done so that the audience could understand There should be no problem.

The 1962 The War in the Hills web series is more of a fictional story than a commentary on the political or historical aspect of this war, inspired by a true event and should be viewed from the same point of view. Therefore, the character is based on the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but he is not given any name in the entire series. This character is played by Arif Zakaria. At the same time, there is also a character based on Indira Gandhi, named Priya. The character is played by Geetika Vidya Ohliyan. By the way, the story Mahesh Manjrekar has shown on the personal life of the soldiers with the war of 1962 can fit into the story of any war. Now why would he have known the battle of 1962, he would know better.