Rashtra Kavach Om Moview Review | Clunky title, clunkier film

It’s a mystery for the ages. Kapil Verma’s film was initially titled Om ­­- The Battle Within. Bizarrely, with no apparent provocation, it was changed to Rashtra Kavach Om. It’s been a mystery for ages. Kapil Verma’s film was initially titled Om ­­- The Battle Within. Bizarrely, with no apparent provocation, it was changed to Rashtra Kavach Om. What was existential (‘battle within’) was thus transformed into patriotic. I’m glad this trend hadn’t caught on two decades ago. Imagine Gadar: Ek Desh-Prem Katha or Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in Hindu Rashtra.

The producer is Ahmed Khan, so plot summaries are damned. Here’s the gist: supersoldier Om (Aditya Roy Kapur) leads a one-man raid aboard the ‘Battleship’ (Potemkin?). However, at the last minute, he takes a bullet to the head and is cast off. He wakes up several months later in a safe house. His mind, like a defunct hard drive, has been wiped clean. Just a single file persists in a traumatic childhood memory, involving Dev (Jackie Shroff), a rogue scientist. The connection, you ask? Dev is the daddy, and Om is his issue.

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