Ghazi Attack: Movie Summary

India knocked down a lost Pakistani Ghazi in 1963!

Ghazi Attack is a 2017 Bollywood Film based on the submarine war events of 1971 between India and Pakistan. As the loss of Ghazi had come up with its mysteries, the film decodes the puzzle by describing its perspectives on what had occurred at the event. 

Let’s dive in to see the aspects of reality “the Ghazi attack” brought to its audience. 

The film presents the disclaimer by stating that the movie is purely fictional. Also, it clarifies that the story is claimed by the Indian INS-Rajput or S-21 who attacked PNS- Ghazi or S-130, and as a consequence, it sank close to India's eastern coast. 

It starts with an emotional or an undertone message in Visakhapatnam, an officer listening to a Delhi radio station that amplifies the ongoing war between India and Pakistan. Upon being asked by his daughter if he’s in it, too? 

The officer replied, “We don't have to fear as the war is between East and West Pakistan and Visakhapatnam is far away from them.”

The preparations of the Pakistani army on 15 Nov 1971 were shown in the Karachi Naval headquarters. While keeping their eye on the hostiles of East Pakistan, they found it difficult to trade their supplies as being landlocked by India and decided to take the submarine, Ghazi, under Commander Razzaq, and tackle the INS-Vikrant. 

If that didn't go well, they decided to take Plan B into action by attacking an Indian port and paving new sea routes. 

On 17 Nov 1971, the Research and Analysis Wing with the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam decoded a secret message from Karachi to Chittagong demanding “2075 Hydraulic oil in ample amount” used in naval vessels.

The following scenario makes the Indian naval interpret the surprise attack by the Pakistani army and decide to send S-21 to an undeployed place as a key search operation under rebellious Captain Ranvijay Singh with another Lieutenant commander, Arjun, to make sure that India should not be the first one to initiate the attack. 

While entering the Naval Dockyard, EXO Commander Devraj and his wife had their last meet-up. It followed an emotional sequence when his pregnant wife asked if it was important for him to be on his duty. The officer greeted her and said you would tell our children the stories of my bravery. 

Commander Ranvejay Singh and Devraj were on time, waiting for Officer Arjun to arrive. While Arjun was strictly instructed by his general that he was responsible for holding peace by considering it as a search operation, not a war, which is why they are strictly not allowed to attack first. 

After officer Arjun's late arrival, the general introduced him to Ranvijay and his second-hand command Devraj. He further handed the torpedo keys to both Officers and hinted to Ranvejay that the keys might not be necessarily needed. 

On 18 November 1971, an Indian submarine dived 240 meters into the bay of Bengal. Ranvejay unpacks his suitcase and touches the photo frame of a warrior who died in a war. 

One Indian troop tried to explain their new mate by showing him ‘S21’ as an egg in a water glass. While making the glass upside down and crushing the egg, he explained that as they go down, the pressure on the submarine will be higher, which is 2 tons. 

Meanwhile, the officer, Ranvejay Singh, tests his officers to see if they are prepared for a sudden enemy attack or not, hence, calling them for a drill of pipe leakage. Seeing their unprepared and panicked behavior, Ranvijay Singh asks commander Devraj to train officers properly. 

Regarding these unusual circumstances, Arjun complains to Devraj that Ranveejay had a previous record of showing aggression and slapping his subordinates. But Devraj, in denial, tells Arjun that ‘ he’s always right.’ 

Ranvejay Singh's personality is observant in a scene where Arjun holds the book he was reading titled “war as I knew it.” Arjun overshadowed him by stating that the book based on the commander patron’s biography stated him as overly aggressive. Ranvejay shuts the argument by saying that the patron was successful because of his aggressive nature. 

On 19 November 1971, the Pakistani Navy contacted headquarters, informing its crew that everything was going as planned under commander Muhammad Razzaq and that the Ghazi had reached the area successfully, where the Indian submarine was already present.

The Indian Navy was under the impression that the area was clear of any Pakistani crew. These misunderstandings caused the Indian navy crew to begin celebrating a successful mission.

At the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, Girish Kumar informed the head officers of enemy activities from the Karachi headquarters, launching an offensive mission against India. However, the target was still not yet confirmed, but Pakistani navels had launched their Ghazi sub-marine under commander Razzaq.

They suspect it was launched to target an Indian submarine. The officials became concerned as PNS- Ghazi is Pakistan's most decorated Naval structure and concluded that Indian submarines couldn’t beat them. 

In the Bay of Bengal, Pakistani officers found no sign of an INS-Vikrant and reported that there were only echoes of a merchant ship. Upon seeing it as an unusual sign, Commander Razzaq orders to initiate plan B. However, before doing so, Razzaq plans to divert the attention of the Indian navy by bombing a torpedo on an Indian merchant ship. 

While the Indian sub-marine noticed strange echoes, they decided to move to 9 meters in depth. As Ranvejay saw the Indian ship sink, he ordered it to be moved to surface level. Meanwhile, he asked to deliver a message to headquarters that an Indian merchant ship was sinking. 

Being resilient, Officer Arjun opens the hatch and dives into the bay to save Bengali survivors. While Ranvejah asked Devraj to close the hatch, he reported that Arjun was outside. Ranvejah, in shock, called Arjun “Bloody emotional fool.” 

Ranvejay observing that they can be targets for enemies, ordered Devraj to close the hatch and dive after 91 secs.

However, Arjun successfully saved a Bengali woman and her child. On the contrary, Pakistani Ghazi decides to move forward upon seeing zero signs of INS- Vikrant. 

The woman in terror started talking in Bengali. Arjun consoles her by stating that they are from the Indian Navy and that she was saved here. 

Further, Ranvejay Singh and Officer Arjun conflict in an argument. After the ship's explosion, he wants to attack and find the enemy; however, Arjun relays the message of how India is not supposed to attack. He also emphasizes how the Indian Navy does not yet know the cause of the explosion.

Ranvejay ends the argument by saying ‘politics’ and then Devraj orders to dive S21 to 240 meters.  

Arjun asked the Bengali woman why she was singing her national anthem, to which she replied that she thought they were Pakistanis. She further stated that Pakistanis are against their national anthem and instantly shoot if we have sung it. 

Meanwhile, Ranvejay suddenly understands the Pakistani attack as a manipulative activity and doubts if the target is in Visakhapatnam. Upon changing the submarine to 10 degrees west, the officer heard echoes and tracked activity at 2000 meters. 

Ranvejay orders commander Devraj to dive 250 meters, heading west, and torpedo the enemy. However, Arjun suggests holding on until they don't get further orders from the headquarters. 

Seeing Ranvejay's stubborn behavior, Arjun continues to argue that the officers are here to follow the Indian naval disciplines rather than take action on commander Ranvjay’s orders. 

However, everybody holding on to Ranvejay’s order dives S21 as per his instructions. Upon hearing echoes, Ghazi took their position but suddenly noticed that the torpedo was not on target. The missed torpedo compels Razzaq to turn the submarine 30 degrees at full speed. 

Upon hearing that the torpedo missed the distance of 200 meters, Ranvejay comprehends the fact that the enemy was aware of their position. 

While analyzing the S21 position, he states that if they dive S21 a further 50 meters depth, it will help them make the enemy in their firing line and eventually knock them off as they cannot detect them. 

While hearing Ranvejay’s orders to dive 300 meters, he resisted a bit but eventually agreed. 

Arjun again told Ranvejay that this was not safe, but as usual, Ranvejay ignored the dangers. 

The submarine’s compartment seven exploded, and seeing Arjun argued with Ranvejay and other officers to surface the boat, but everyone conformed to the commander’s order to dive in. 

Atop of seeing the urgency from Devraj to stay at the surface, as Arjun said, RV patiently agreed and stated that after clearing the smoke, we would dive in again. 

In response to the missed torpedo, commander Razzaq plans to destroy S21 before speedily en-routing it to Visakhapatnam Port. While doing so, they decide to end this game by destroying them with mines in the hill routes. 

In S21, Arjun was impressed to see the Bengali captive woman claim to be a doctor and help everyone with the band-aid.  

While unable to detect the enemy’s presence, Arjun advised officers to check the point between hill routes upon hearing echoes from where enemies headed the mines.

It eventually causes the destruction of S21, damaging the majority of the batteries, propellers, and circuitry. The submarine bursts open many leaks, flooding the front torpedo room and rendering it incapable of firing its forward torpedoes. 

The collapse of S21 sank at the sea-bed, causing the death of Commander Ranvejay Singh while saving officer Arjun. 

The Indian submarine got stuck with its S21 filled with water. Officer Arjun encouraged people to flush water out of the submarine by filling water into the torpedo tube from every compartment, pressuring it to flush out.

Meanwhile, the Indian naval headquarters got worried after losing communication with S21. 

The destruction caused the S21 to get stuck until Arjun motivated officers to make the submarine reach a depth of 300 meters.

Surviving through times, the Indian submarine can’t travel and can only be made up and lower Movements. Seeing that, Arjun ordered the officer to dive the submarine to 170 meters as it was the only way to destroy the mines and the enemy simultaneously.

The mine blasts alert the Pakistani naval forces and plan to destroy the Indian submarine first before making their way to Visakhapatnam.

Both the forces are locating the submarines and planning to take torpedo action against each other. 

The Indian naval forces can see their plan as a success as Ghazi was moving in their firing line until the Pakistani forces changed their port and stood at a position where the S21 was standing in their firing line. 

Reaching a depth of 650 meters, where the S21 was detected, Ghazi launched their torpedo program. Indian forces take action against it by moving to 190 meters deep. 

It causes the Pakistani Torpedo to pass above S21. Upon hearing that, Razzaq asked his officer Bashir to launch two torpedoes having depths of 210 and 260 meters. 

With weak battery power, Arjun commands to move 150 meters above and, with his troops, sang the Indian National Anthem and the song "Saare Jahaan se Achchha.”

S21 successfully saved itself from both torpedoes. 

Things got more brutal as Pakistanis decided to launch three torpedoes at three different depths of 120 and 150 meters and decided to hit them at 200 meters depth. They declared the Indian submarine as ‘game-over’. 

The game is still not over as S21 stopped at a depth of 125 meters, saving itself from all three torpedoes. 

As all the torpedoes were exhausted, the Pakistani submarine had to move 180 degrees to launch its torpedo. However, upon seeing the movements of S21, commander Razaq ordered them to shut the engines and focus on their position. 

Meanwhile, Office Devraj told Officer Arjun that Ghazi knew their situation of making up and down movements. However, Arjun states that while they will move to launch their torpedo, they will enter the S21 firing line. 

More hurdles parted ways as Ghazi decided to move at a 20-degree tilted position and launch torpedoes. At this point, S21 decides to launch a torpedo program, too. 

The Ghazi had launched their torpedo, but the battery failure caused the Indian submarine to make it difficult until Officer Arjun made their way through the hatch and manually triggered the torpedo. 

Ghazi was destroyed by their S21 torpedo in the heat of exchanging torpedoes. 

Lastly, the Indian submarine paved its way to the surface, and officer Arjun was awakened from unconsciousness and proudly appreciated for their work.

The movie ends by stating afterward that Pakistanis declared war by attacking Indian airfields on 3rd December 1971, the same day Ghazi was destroyed. 

It leaves the suspicions of truth hidden in the ocean waves as the Pakistani government claims to have their Ghazi destroyed through mines.