Fire within and dousing flames

Hindi movies have never had firefighters as heroes, so it’s heartening to see them getting the central focus in a film that has them putting their lives at risk to save lives of civilians caught in some of the deadly fires in Mumbai. This is, of course, a fictionalised account.

The station in focus is Parel and the vicinity is known for its congested lanes, old dilapidated buildings and chock-a-block high-rises. The opening sequence itself has the fire chief, Vithalrao Surve (Pratik Gandhi), and team fighting off a fire in a restaurant called ‘Curry in a Hurry’.

The narrative catches pace as we race from one fire to another and the firefighters do their job with aplomb. Samit (Divyendu) is a Bollywood cop with all the trappings — yes men, lackeys, etc. He is always in the news and is at loggerheads with his brother-in-law, Vithalrao. To make matters worse, Vithalrao’s son thinks of Samit as his hero. It’s a dynamic that changes once the arson investigations are done and the real fire-starter gets apprehended.

The narrative treads the whodunit terrain towards the latter part of the second half. There’s also quite a bit of unnecessary drama trying to keep the narrative busy. The family dynamics are welcome, but Vithalrao and Samit’s non-stop cold war doesn’t exactly make sense.

Essentially, the film manages to convey the sense of hopelessness, the high risks and serious health hazards the firemen and women battle everyday.

Writers Rahul Dholakia and Vijay Maurya try to liven up the drama with trivial dialogues and one-liners that don’t sound realistic. Pratik and Divyendu do a good job playing each other off.

Sai Tamhankar as Vithalrao’s wife, who lives in fear every time he goes out on a call, is well cast and so is Saiyami Kher, the doughty female firefighter, who ends up losing her fiance on her birthday.

The fire sequences are effective enough but the fires look pretty much the same. CGI/VFX is mostly generic so you don’t get the distinctive feel from one fire to another. The pacing is also quite uneven. It starts off as a racy thriller but ends up getting bogged down by family squabbles and other trivial pursuits.

‘Agni’ deserves credit for showcasing the intense dedication of firefighters. However, its execution doesn’t allow for deeper enrichment. There are thrilling moments and emotional ones, but they are fleeting and far between.

The nature of this telling does not allow for greater involvement and that’s where the movie is found lacking.