Red Alert: The War Within
Encyclopedia
Red Alert: The War Within is an India
n film released on 9 July 2010. The drama is based on the true story of a poor Andhra cook who gets caught in the gunfire between cops and naxalites and is forced to work with the latter
Red Alert was screened at the 6th Stuttgart
Film Festival in 2009.
, Chhattisgarhi and English
versions, with all four versions scheduled to be released the same day. Rahul Aggarwal
, one of the producers, said every actor dubbed their English lines themselves.
The film was originally scheduled to be completed and released in 2008.
site Rotten Tomatoes
. Rachel Saltz of The New York Times
said the film "seems torn between two storytelling modes: episodic with a documentary flavor and action-driven pulp. It makes a hash of both." She added, "For some reason [it] has been dubbed into heavily accented English for American release, adding an unnecessary 'What did he say?' level of difficulty." Frank Lovece
of Film Journal International
echoed that, saying, the film "plays like one of those stiff historical drams that educational-film companies make for schools. Or in this case, an outsourced educational-film company." Adam Keleman of Slant believed, "The unforgivable flaw of the film is its lack of subtlety, the way character detail and plot development is laid for us on a silver platter, never requiring the audience to ... fully engage with the intricacies of the lead character's internal and moral quandary."
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n film released on 9 July 2010. The drama is based on the true story of a poor Andhra cook who gets caught in the gunfire between cops and naxalites and is forced to work with the latter
Red Alert was screened at the 6th Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Film Festival in 2009.
Cast
Source for first 12 cast-members: Characters per additional sources.- Sunil Shetty ... Narasimha
- Sameera ReddySameera ReddySameera Reddy is an Indian film actress, primarily working in the Hindi film industry and Tamil industry. Apart from Bollywood, Reddy has also appeared in a number of Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam films.-Early life:...
... Laxmi or Lakshmi - Bhagyashree... Uma
- Ayesha DharkerAyesha DharkerAyesha Dharker is a British-Indian actress. She is known for her performance in the Tamil Indian film, The Terrorist , for which she was awarded Best Artistic Contribution by an Actress at the Cairo International Film Festival and nominated for a Chlotrudis Award and National Film Award for Best...
... Radhaka - Seema BiswasSeema BiswasSeema Biswas is an Indian film and theatre actress from Assam who shot into prominence with the role of Phoolan Devi in Shekhar Kapur's film Bandit Queen . She has a reputation for performing strong character roles.Biswas won the 1996 National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the film...
... Saralaka - Ashish VidyarthiAshish VidyarthiAshish Vidyarthi is an Indian actor who worked predominantly in Hindi films and lately in South Indian films. He has won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for film Drohkaal in 1995....
... Velu - Makrand DeshpandeMakrand DeshpandeMakarand Deshpande is an Indian actor, writer, and director in Hindi and Marathi films and theatre. He is often seen in supporting and pivotal roles in various films like Jungle, Sarfarosh, Swades, Makdee, and Darna Zaroori Hai where he often plays drunkard, wayfarer roles. He has directed over 5...
... V.K. Raghavan - Sunil Sinha ...
- Ehsan Khan... Krishna
- Gulshan GroverGulshan GroverGulshan Grover is an Indian actor, who has acted in over 400 films through a career spanning over 30 years.Gulshan Grover is one of the first Indian actors to have made a successful transition from Bollywood into Hollywood and international Cinema....
... Deputy Inspector General Rathod - Naseeruddin ShahNaseeruddin ShahNaseeruddin Shah is an Indian / Bollywood film actor and director. He is considered to be one of the finest actors of Indian cinema. In 2003, the Government of India honored him with the Padma Bhushan for his contributions towards Indian cinema.-Early life:...
... Naga - Vinod KhannaVinod Khanna-Early life:Khanna was born to Kamla and Kishanchand Khanna, a textiles, dyes and chemicals businessman of Hindu Punjabi Khatri origin, on 6 October 1946, in Peshawar, British India . He has three sisters and one brother...
... Krishnaraj - Sophie Hilbrand ... Reporter
Release
The Hindi-language film was dubbed into TeluguTelugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
, Chhattisgarhi and English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
versions, with all four versions scheduled to be released the same day. Rahul Aggarwal
Rahul Aggarwal
Rahul Aggarwal is a Distinguished Engineer at Juniper Networks and has played a significant role in the development of MPLS and in particular multicast in MPLS and BGP VPNs.- Career :...
, one of the producers, said every actor dubbed their English lines themselves.
The film was originally scheduled to be completed and released in 2008.
Critical reception
The film was not reviewed by a sufficient number of contributing critics to be rated at the review aggregatingReview aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services . This system stores the reviews and then uses them for purposes such as: creating a website for users to view the reviews, selling information to third parties about consumer tendencies and creating databases for...
site Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. Rachel Saltz of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
said the film "seems torn between two storytelling modes: episodic with a documentary flavor and action-driven pulp. It makes a hash of both." She added, "For some reason [it] has been dubbed into heavily accented English for American release, adding an unnecessary 'What did he say?' level of difficulty." Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece
Frank Lovece is an American journalist, author, comedy performer and comic book writer. He was additionally one of the first professional Web journalists, becoming an editor of a Silicon Alley start-up in 1996....
of Film Journal International
Film Journal International
Film Journal International is a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It is a sister publication of Adweek, Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, and other periodicals....
echoed that, saying, the film "plays like one of those stiff historical drams that educational-film companies make for schools. Or in this case, an outsourced educational-film company." Adam Keleman of Slant believed, "The unforgivable flaw of the film is its lack of subtlety, the way character detail and plot development is laid for us on a silver platter, never requiring the audience to ... fully engage with the intricacies of the lead character's internal and moral quandary."
Awards
- Winner, Director's Vision Award at the 2009 Stuttgart Film Festival
- Winner, South Asian International Film Festival Award for Best Actor - Suniel Shetty
- Winner, Stardust Search Light Award for Best Actor - Suniel Shetty
External links
- Red Alert: The War Within (official site)
- Tuteja, Joginder. "'Red Alert could have been set in Cuba or Ireland' - Anant Mahadevan", BollywoodHungama.com, July 7, 2010
- Kashifrazaseed. "Red Alert, eye opener on Naxalism, lesson for all", AllVoices.com, June 30, 2010