12. Mission Extreme; movie review

 

MISSION EXTREME

Cert 15

141 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence

A few short years ago, Bengali films were not shown by UK cinema chains because of the perceived low quality.

Mission Extreme is a measure of how they have improved - it is up there with the very best Bollywood action movies.

This was the second part of my Saturday evening two-hander in Birmingham, nipping over from Cineworld at the NEC to its cinema in Broad Street in the city centre.

I was rewarded with a police thriller which had me enthralled from the opening to its last minute.

Sunny Sarwar and Faisal Ahmed's film stars Arifin Shuvoo as a fearless leader of an anti-terrorist squad facing a sustained attack on Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka.

Taskeen Rahman is the head of a cell which has taken naive teenagers off the streets with the eye to turning them into suicide bombers.

Again and again they strike and only a combination of savage police interrogation techniques and high-tech surveillance provide opportunities to track down the perpetrators.

Shuvoo's cop has a very loyal team including a female officer (Sadia Nabila) who is left to choose between her career and a potential marriage.

Meanwhile, romance is also in the air for our hero with a very young TV news producer (Jannatul Ferdous Oishee).

Anyway, I am aware critics have said Mission Extreme follows a very similar format to many Asian police movies.

I disagree. While I enjoy Rohit Shetty's Cop Universe, it isn't as serious or as gripping as Mission Extreme. 

For example, Akshay Kumar is as much a comedic as dramatic figure in Sooryavanshi whereas Shuvoo's Navid is much more serious - even during its romantic scenes.

And he certainly doesn't have things all his own way. This is a genuine battle of wits between Navid and terrorist leader.

Consequently, I was hooked and, for once, am looking forward to a sequel.

Reasons to watch: High tempo crime thriller

Reasons to avoid: Jumps about a bit too much

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? Through 2020, according to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal, at least 197 militants of different groupings were arrested from across Bangladesh in different raids.

The final word. Taskeen Rahman: "We worked very hard to put this film together. I can only hope that viewers will enjoy it just as much as we enjoyed making it." The Daily Star

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