Shershaah (2021) on Netflix
NR20212h 15mActionBiographyDrama
Vikram Batra, a college student in Palampur, dreams of a soldier's life. He joins the Indian Army and is posted to Sopore, but Dimple Cheema's father refuses the match.
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- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb8.3/10137,596 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes54%
Trailer
Plot summary
Vishal Batra honors his identical twin, Captain Vikram Batra, recounting his brother's life. As a boy in Palampur, Vikram fights older teenagers over a cricket ball and, after watching the series Param Vir Chakra, declares he will join the military. In college, where he studies English, he falls in love with Dimple Cheema. Selected for the Merchant Navy, he draws pride and worry from her; the two plan to marry, but her father refuses the match over their different Punjabi castes. Vikram decides his calling is the combat forces, clears the Combined Defence Services Examination, and is commissioned into the 13th Battalion, Jammu and Kashmir Rifles. Posted to Sopore, he earns the trust of the local civilians and of his men.
Cast
- Trishaanas Capt. Rajesh Adhau
- Himanshu Ashok Malhotraas Capt. Rajeev Kapoor
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Shershaah (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- In the film, Vikram Batra calls Dimple Cheema from the battlefield on a journalist's satellite phone, but in reality he borrowed the phone to call his father, and his cut-off message "Daddy, I've captured" was at first mistaken for news that he had been captured.
- The radio taunt in the film echoes real life: Vikram Batra himself described in his famous interview with Barkha Dutt how a Pakistani voice told him "Oh Shershaah, you've come. Don't try to come up, otherwise you'll have a tough time", which made his men go wild.
- Vikram Batra's own family wanted Sidharth Malhotra to play him, and he was cast in a double role as Batra and Batra's identical twin brother Vishal.
- Pakistani troops really did ask Indian soldiers over the radio to hand over Madhuri Dixit, a taunt the film recreates and that others who served in Batra's unit have confirmed.
- Shershaah's soundtrack, released by Sony Music India on 16 August 2021, crossed 1 billion streams across all music platforms, making it the fastest Indian album to reach that figure.
