State of Siege: Temple Attack Review: Akshaye Khanna's braveheart story is laced with redundancy

Movie: State of Siege: Temple Attack

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Vivek Dahiya, Gautam Rode, Sameer Soni 

Director: Ken Ghosh 

Streaming Platform: ZEE5 

Rating: 2.5/5 

Akshaye Khanna has returned once more to hold our attention and entertain us and with State of Siege: Temple Attack he does exactly that. Directed by Ken Ghosh, the terror flick stars Akshaye Khanna in the lead role alongside  Vivek Dahiya, Gautam Rode, Sameer Soni, Parvin Dabas and Akshay Oberoi among others. As the film's title suggests, State of Siege: Temple Attack is inspired from true events and chronicles the 2002 Akshardham temple attack in Gujarat. 

Spanning across Kashmir, Haryana and Gujarat, the action film begins a year prior to the attacks as Major Hanut Singh played by Akshaye Khanna is leading his unit to get hold of a terror mastermind. While tragedy unfolds, Major Singh struggles with self doubt, confidence and getting back in the game while a new mission comes calling.

Akshaye Khanna as Major Hanut Singh is an experienced, no-nonsense NSG commando, who often goes with his gut feeling and   disobeys protocol or higher orders. However, to him, it is not breaking protocol but taking mindful decisions as each situation demands. Khanna yet again delivers an impressive performance and is one of the few reasons that will keep you glued to the screen. 

The supporting cast is an interesting mix of actors Vivek Dahiya, Gautam Rode and Akshay Oberoi who all play NSG Commandos. While Sameer Soni plays an underwhelming politician, Parvin Dabas calls the shots for the NSG. However, apart from Rode and Dahiya, no one quite stands out including the actors who play the four terrorists. 

While State of Siege: Temple Attack's first 20 minutes reel you in and get you interested in what's to follow, the screenplay falters to keep you hooked. The film is only gripping in parts as the braveheart, Major Singh, with just a couple of NSG commandos begin their mission at the Krishna Dham temple which has been attacked. 

As expected, plenty of guns, firing, drama and torture by terrorists -- everything you've probably seen before in a war-terror film, State of Siege includes that. The director and writers fail to bring anything new to the screen and the entire story revolves around a redundant plot. Unlike Uri, where refreshing dialogues, intense scenes and visually captivating scenes managed to keep us on the edge of our seat, State of Siege struggles to hit home. 

While the makers have beautifully created the temple set, the direction and cinematography team do not do enough justice to the space to make it a visually, compelling narrative. Instead, it is all point and shoot. Apart from the Nokia and burner phones, there's very little to suggest that the film is actually set in the early aughts. The absence of a fully functioning government responding to the attacks, the frenzy of the media and distancing itself far and wide from the actual tragedy makes the film just an embellished piece of work laced in redundancy. 

State of Siege: Temple Attack will leave you asking: Was the actual tragedy not enough to make for a riveting script? 

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