If Pippa makes one crucial mistake that derails its drama, it's not that the film opens with a violent but necessary scene of Bangladeshi people being massacred by Pakistani troops. It's that the film never actually returns to any Bangladeshi characters, instead becoming an overly familiar story about more privileged soldiers and their sacrifices as they get to act as heroes to the camera. It's executed fairly well, with a good bit of suspense as the larger objective focuses up into a specific rescue mission. But even the flashiest production design and the most unique tank-based action can't get rid of the nagging feeling that we're being told a much less important story. In the end, this is still about the glory of military service for a greater good, which just isn't the most interesting direction for this film to take.
Synopsis
The story of Captain Balram Singh Mehta of India’s 45 Cavalry regiment who, along with his siblings, fought on the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. Named after the Russian amphibious war tank “PT-76”, which floats on water like an empty ‘pippa’ (tin) of ghee, the film traces Mehta's coming-of-age as he steps up to prove himself in a war to liberate Bangladesh.
Storyline
A captain of India's 45th Cavalary tank regiment joins the Battle of Garibpur to help liberate Bangladesh.
TLDR
I'm no history expert, but I feel like a movie about the liberation of an entire nation from its oppressors should pay a little more attention to the people actually being oppressed.
What stands out
Tank action in movies isn't new, but these kinds of scenes are rare enough even in war films to make any new iteration pretty exciting to watch. We don't get that many tank scenes in Pippa (the title of which actually refers to the kind of tank used by the 45th Cavalry), but they're still shot with a gritty realism and with special attention paid towards the environment. A tank is a weapon, a mobile shield, and (in this movie) a temporary aquatic vehicle, and it's fun to see how all the soldiers move around and interact with it in the heat of battle.
