Agni — Firefighters Save Lives, Deserve Respect
Pratik Gandhi and Divyendu Sharma together after the Madgaon Express
The name Agni suggested to us that it might be about the making of India’s indigenous missiles as biopics have been a popular subject for Bollywood filmmakers. Fortunately, it is about something better, and different. This is the first movie that shows the tough life of firefighters and the important work they do for our society.
We loved the trailer and eagerly waited for the movie. The movie was a glimpse into a world never seen before. The firefighting scenes were thrilling and felt realistic. The on-ground challenges faced by firefighters were shown very well. Contrasting the respect level of a firefighter with that of a police officer showed that the former doesn’t get the respect they deserve. It was fun to watch ego clashes between Pratik Gandhi as the chief of a Fire Station and Divyendu Sharma as a star cop after watching them in a hilarious friendship movie called Madgaon Express.
The relationship between the important characters is shown very well, and that forms the emotional foundation of this movie. Most relationships are connected to the protagonist of the movie played by Pratik Gandhi. The way his wife welcomed him after every firefighting mission showed her love and concern for him, an indirect way of telling him that she understands the difficult job he does and how much she respects him for that. His son respects his wife’s brother (Divyendu Sharma) more than him because he is a police officer, even though both men are at the top of their game in their respective professions. The firefighter and the police officer don’t share a cordial relationship. The love story of a young couple in the fire station is good and fortunately doesn’t become the movie's focus. The scenes of occasional after-hours drinking at a local pub between Pratik Gandhi and his long-time friend, another senior firefighter also felt like a real conversation between two friends.
I find it interesting that in the whole movie they use the word “aag” or “angaar” for fire, not agni. They only use the word “agni” to refer to the god of fire called Agni dev or a higher power that controls the fire aspect of nature. At various points in the movie, we see them use a flame to pray to god, both at the fire station office and at home. This signifies their reverence for fire that ensures their focus is not on “fighting fire” but on saving lives and properties.
At one point in the movie, the hero Pratik Gandhi faces a medical issue due to which his performance at the fire site gets hampered. But they didn’t go deeper into this. I was expecting them to show him train himself to become stronger and return a better firefighter. They instead went for a generic villain trope that led to an underwhelming climax.
Most people don’t even know the risks firefighters take every time they step out to extinguish a burning building. They save lives and reduce property damage. Yet their impact is not felt because of their limited scope of work and low frequency of fire incidents. Agni is a first-of-its-kind movie in Bollywood on firefighters. Such good films can give us a glimpse into how such professionals are contributing to make our lives safer. We have watched plenty of such movies about Police people and Army people so we understand their importance. After watching Agni, I hope we understand the importance of fire people, and not take the mock fire-drill at our offices lightly.
Overall, Agni is an engaging movie that won’t leave you disappointed. The movie begins with a firefighting scene and ends with a firefighting scene with the rest of the movie about the personal and professional crisis faced by the hero. The climax could have been better for the message this movie was trying to convey. Hope to see more of Pratik Gandhi and Divyendu Sharma in good roles in Bollywood movies. You can watch Agni on Amazon Prime with your family.
