Operation Valentine Review – An Okayish Patriotic Action Drama

Operation Valentine is a 2024 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film written and directed by Shakti Pratap Singh Hada. The film has Varun Tej & Manushi Chhillar playing the lead roles while Ruhani Sharma, Navdeep, Paresh Pahuja, Mir Sarwar, Shataf Figar, Sampath Raj, Abhinav Gomatam, Ali Reza, Anish Kuruvilla, Lahari Shari, Shubasree & others are seen in key supporting roles. The music is composed by Mickey J. Meyer and the film is produced by Sony Pictures & Sandeep Mudda under Renaissance Pictures banner.

Story:

Arjun Dev (Varun Tej) who is an IAF officer known by his call sign called Rudra has nightmares because of an incident in the past. He is married to another Air Force Radar Officer Aahna Gill (Manushi Chhillar). One day when Arjun is in the air, the Pulwama Attack takes place and kills 42 CRPF Indian Jawans. How will the Indian Airforce which never faced a defeat earlier take revenge by going ahead with an aerial strike on enemies? forms the rest of the plot.

What about on-screen performances?

Varun Tej looks perfect as a courageous squadron leader and he delivers superbly in both the action and emotional scenes. The way he shows his emotions with his eyes in the aerial sequences are noteworthy.

Manushi Chhillar leaves a mark as the Radar Officer and she does equally well in the romantic scenes with Varun too. She has a decent screen presence and her eyes are quite expressive.

Navdeep, Ruhani Sharma, and Paresh Pahuja impress in their important supporting characters as the co-pilots.

Shataf Figar is poorly cast in his role as the senior officer. He lacks the proper body language as an Air Force officer and his Telugu dubbing is poor.

Mir Sarwar, Sampath Raj, Abhinav Gomatam, Ali Reza, Anish Kuruvilla, Lahari Shari, Shubasree Rayaguru & all the other supporting cast are fine in their respective limited roles.

What about off-screen talents?

The story is based on the 2019 Pulwama terrorist Attack by Pakistan on India and the retaliatory Balakot Air Strikes of 2019 by the Indian Air Force. The plot is quite similar to the recent Hritik Roshan’s Hindi film ‘Fighter’ and those who have seen ‘Fighter’ will definitely feel underwhelmed with ‘Operation Valentine’. But for those who haven’t, this will be a decent plot to watch on big screens.

The screenplay by Shakti Pratap Singh Hada, Aamir Nahid Khan & Siddharth Rajkumar is not up to the mark. It is only the interval part and the whole aerial attack in the second half that keeps us engaged to the screens. The whole drama part in the first half doesn’t work as expected and even the emotions related to the revenge or the co-pilot’s death don’t reach properly.

Debutant Shakti Pratap Singh Hada made a commendable effort with his presentation. But his narration is not completely engaging. Had he put more effort into adding more drama and elevating the emotions a notch higher, the result would have been better.

The Telugu dialogues by Sai Madhav Burra could have been written better. He writes pretty ordinary lines that never look authentic as the Air Force officers never talk that kind of lines.

The cinematography by Hari K. Vedantam is excellent. All the aerial sequences are shot well while the edit by Naveen Nooli is crisp and has a decent run time.

The songs by Mickey J. Meyer are not up to the mark but his background score does elevate the film in all the key moments.

The VFX & CGI in the film do not match up to the standards that were required for this kind of film. They looked patchy in a few scenes, especially in the aerial sequences.

The production values by Sony Pictures & Renaissance Pictures are good.

What’s Hot?

* Varun Tej’s Performance
* Manushi Chhillar’s Performance
* Interval Sequence
* Good Second Half
* Sound Design & Background Score
* Cinematography & Production Values

What’s Not?

* Unengaging Screenplay
* Weak Emotional Connect
* Body Language Of Actors In Few Scenes
* Needed Authenticity In The Dialogues
* Weak Climax
* Patchy VFX In Many Scenes

Verdict: Being the first aerial action film in Telugu, Operation Valentine is a fair watch on big screens for its genuine attempt. Though the writing lacked depth in places, the performances and the aerial action make up for the drawbacks.

Telugubulletin.com Rating: 2.5/5