There are ill-timed films and there are well-timed films. And then there are films that the universe conspires to make relevant, no matter what the price is. For example, a beloved Pope's death has brought Ralph Fiennes-starrer and a winner at the 2025 Oscars, Conclave, back into focus. It still took a few months to say, "How uncanny".
When Emraan Hashmi-starrer Ground Zero premiered in Srinagar two weeks before its nationwide theatrical release, little did anyone know that this cultural landmark would be followed by its very antithesis within a few days. Jammu & Kashmir witnessed the bloodiest terror attack against civilians in Pahalgam on April 22. With this backdrop, is it possible to assess this film only on the basis of filmmaking rubrics?
The Story Of NND Dubey
The biopic tells the story of NND Dubey, a Border Security Force officer who led a successful on-ground operation in Srinagar neutralising Ghazi Baba, a Pakistani terrorist responsible for many violent strikes in different parts of India, including the December 13, 2001 parliament attack. Ghazi Baba was trained in Afghanistan before his 'deployment' as the commander in chief of Jaish-e-Muhammad in Jammu & Kashmir.
Going by the latest trends in the Hindi film industry, Ground Zero stood in serious danger of turning into a jingoistic shill furthering communal propaganda. The biggest achievement of the film is its honest attempt to render cinematically the multitude of Kashmir stories that cannot be contained in agenda-bound files.
A Film That Holds Its Own
The film addresses, in an act of uncanny preemption, the good-evil binaries even well-intentioned people descend into in a moment of crisis. Prima facie, the film celebrates an operation that finds mention in the Border Security Force's (BSF) official history as the force's biggest success story. What unfolds in the process, however, is the pain, pride, and price conundrum of the people of Kashmir.
Dubey and his team display a variety of attitudes towards the people of Kashmir, representing those of many uniformed personnel posted in one of the most militarised regions in the world. On the other hand, there is an almost equal dose of polyphony in terms of how Kashmiris view the boots on the ground. Ground Zero works its way through this minefield of attitudes and actions towards finding a terra firma where mutual respect and goodwill can be built.
From references to the trend of chasing medals, custodial torture, and distrust on the one hand to conspiracy, assassinations, and religious dogma on the other hand, the film reveals its politics in certain terms. Sometimes, subtlety is lost in this endeavour, and the camera focuses a bit too long on certain gestures, and the dialogues are delivered a bit too deliberately. Emraan Hashmi acts with due restraint, and the performances of the supporting cast carry the film well despite avoidable cliches and some crowd-pleasing lines and situations.
The Politics Is Right
Flawlessness in filmmaking is often an easy casualty when a 'point' is being made in cinema. It may be an acceptable collateral if the point is made from a position of goodwill and realism. If a bunch of lines spoken by Emraan Hashmi and Sai Tamhankar as Mr and Mrs Dubey appear unrealistic to some, it is because the film mostly gets its tone and politics right. Amidst a nuanced and realistic portrayal of how individuals operate in a milieu of violence and foreboding, some over-the-top elements stick out as jarring. But maybe they are the ones that bring people to the cinema halls.
Ground Zero was meant to be a marquee product that demonstrated the willingness and ability of a troubled region to move out of the vicious circle of violence. Shot primarily in Kashmir - including the walnut forests not far from the massacre site in Pahalgam - the film aimed to resurrect Kashmir's lost reputation as a sought-after film location. In another movie set in Kashmir, the Jimmy Shergill and Minissha Lamba-starrer Yahaan, a character comments sardonically, "I challenge Shammi Kapoor's son to dance here today". This is in response to Shergill musing how it appears unreal that once Shammi Kapoor used to go prancing at various Kashmir locations.
There Is More To Lal Chowk
The producers of Ground Zero, Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, have been effusive in acknowledging the love and support they received from all quarters while shooting in Jammu & Kashmir. The executive producer, Arhan Bagati, a Kashmiri, hoped for the film to demonstrate that there is more to Downtown and Lal Chowk neighbourhoods of Srinagar than political unrest and violence. The ugly narrative emerging around the people of Kashmir in the aftermath of the Pahalgam killings shows how difficult this task of 'normalising' Kashmir is.
The film, however, holds out as a beacon of hope, underscoring the importance of each individual action - in reel or real life - geared towards peace. If Ground Zero succeeds in making even a single member of the audience revisit their presumptions and prejudices as one of the characters does before the climax - "Kashmir ki zameen bhi apni hai aur Kashmir ke log bhi apne hain" (Kashmir's soil is ours, and so are its people) - it should be deemed a hit, despite the box office verdict. When political rallies and media outlets are working overtime to peddle blanket hate, films like Ground Zero are an act of bravery.
In the end, a gentle reminder: the phrase ‘ground zero' doesn't mean what it almost always used to convey in headlines.
(The author is a Delhi-based author and academic)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
