Squad is an action-drama movie directed by Nilesh Sahay and starring Pooja Batra, Malvika Raaj, Rinzing Denzongpa, and Mohan Kapur, alongside other cast members. The movie is 124 minutes long.
Zee5 describes the movie as:
This ZEE5 Original film narrates the thrilling story of an STF squad tasked with the responsibility of protecting the granddaughter of a renowned scientist, who holds the blueprint of a lethal cyborg programme.
– Squad review does not contain spoilers –
Squad is your typical movie about ‘deshbhakti’ and patriotism… well, nationalism. The first scenes of the movie itself are just so typical that it feels like you’re watching the same thousand movies on the topic. This time it starts with terrorists trying to teach Indians a lesson for taking over Kashmir.
Then we meet Bhim, played by Rinzing Denzongpa, who is introduced as the action star, who has only one expression – action. His dialogue delivery is as plain and “action-packed” as his very flat expressions and this first cringe-inducing sequence, complete with a child suicide bomber, sets a precedence for what we are about to experience in the next 2 hours.
Squad trailer still 
Squad trailer still
The biggest problem with Squad movie is that it takes itself a bit too seriously. It says “deshbhakti” every 5 minutes. However, I’d give it to Nandini to show the men around her in her high-position job to stick it. That being said, everyone in the movie delivers such “dhansu” lines that it becomes problematic to watch this movie or take it seriously. Every minute every character has something or the other up their tongues that will make you cringe so hard after a while.
Additionally, Squad also falls in the trope where, for some reason, the women all have their hair open all the time along with perfect makeup while operating sniper rifles. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’s Malvika Raaj’s body gets too much attention rather than her fierce attitude or her skills. On the other hand, her introduction with Tanisha Dhillon’s Addy is just so horrifying that I had to pause the movie to get it out of my system.
See, I enjoy goofy nationalistic movies. Take War for example – I loved it because it didn’t take itself too seriously and was more about Hrithik Roshan than anything else. It knew what it was and showed us that too. It was about entertainment and gawking at Roshan. Squad, kinda similar with its basic storyline, is too serious so much so that it’s annoying. People just throw lines that are cringy instead of impactful and their motivations, too, are skewered and uninteresting.
Squad trailer still
I am also confused as to where Squad movie is situated. For all the “Hindustan Ki Beti” and whatnot, there are an awful lot of foreign nationals in the movie. Actually, I saw foreigners more than Indians, foreigners who talk in Hindi perfectly. I mean, deshbhakti is ok, but as long as white people are dancing with me at the bar.
And then we get into the sci-fi territory. Yes, it gets as bad it can get. I am not even going to get into it.
As I mentioned previously, everyone in Squad is just so bad both acting and character-wise. Rinzing Denzongpa, the star of the show is an action hero. That’s all. His character is an action hero and we all know about action hero men – they have no emotions (much like mard ko dard nahi hota, you know). The others are just as flat and uninteresting as him. Nandini, although fierce, just gets road-rolled by her dialogues much like everyone else on-screen. Bhatnagar, on the other hand, instead of being a scary antagonist, is a tantrum-throwing annoying manchild who just keeps on crying every time things don’t go his way.
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Their dialogues give them a caricature-like feel, just like their characters. Also, remember Fardeen Khan in Prem Aggan delivering dialogues? Yes, that’s all of this movie.
Oh, and if you thought there wouldn’t be any songs, you’re wrong. Are they good? Well, no. Bhim gets two songs dedicated to him.
Summing up: Squad
Squad trailer still
Squad is a cringe-fest that tries to be too serious with its sci-fi storyline. It’s a good time-pass movie if you’re into that sort of thing, but other than that, there are better action movies out there, quite honestly.
Squad is streaming on Zee5.
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