‘Pippa’ review: Ishaan Khatter and the military tank are the main attractions

Captain Balram Singh Mehta of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron was one of the heroes of the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war. Later, as Brigadier Mehta, he recorded his experiences and memories in the book The Burning Chaffees. The Prime Video film Pippa, directed by Raja Krishna Menon, is an adaptation of the book as a war drama.

Some of the narrative jumps in the screenplay suggest that it was challenging for co-writers Menon, Ravinder Randhawa and Tanmay Mohan to condense a 300 page book into a 140-minute film which is primarily a recreation of a covert operation that became the Battle of Garibpur. This operation was pivotal to the liberation of East Pakistan from a genocide that resulted in millions of refugees flooding India.

Bookending events on the battlefield is a family drama set in the Mehta household. A martyred war hero’s two sons are fighting their own emotional battle even as they prepare to go to the Eastern front. Older brother and war hero Ram (Priyanshu Painyuli) has become the household’s de facto head. Ram is frustrated by his younger brother Balram’s (Ishaan Khatter) seeming lack of responsibility. Their mother (Soni Razdan) reminds them and their sister Radha (Mrunal Thakur) – a whiz at decoding cryptography...

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