Operation Valentine (OV), directed by debutant Shakti Pratap Singh Hada, positions itself as the first Telugu aerial action thriller and narrates the story of a covert operation handled by the Indian Air Force. The film is inspired by real incidents during the Balakot airstrikes following the Pulwama attack in 2019. Also simultaneously filmed in Hindi, it marks its lead actor Varun Tej’s debut in Hindi cinema. Considering the shrinking boundaries between languages as movie lovers are spoilt for choice, it is tough to dismiss the heavy sense of deja vu for those who have watched the recent Hindi film Fighter. It might be a co-incidence that both these films were being made simultaneously, but the timing of the release makes the comparison all the more unavoidable.
One of the pivotal plot points in both these films is the retaliation following the Pulwama attacks. The broad narrative tropes are also similar — the best pilot is a rebel who goes beyond the rulebook, is plagued by ghosts of the past and has a strained equation with someone close to him. Such tropes are oft-repeated in action thrillers and espionage dramas worldwide, but in Operation Valentine, the sense of fatigue is also because the writing merely scratches the surface and fails to offer anything new. There is not enough to make us empathise and root for the characters.
