Name: 120 Bahadur
Genre: Action, Historical, War
Released: 2025-11-21
Rating: 6
Cast: Farhan Akhtar, Raashii Khanna, Vivan Bhatena, Eijaz Khan, Ajinkya Deo

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Set against the backdrop of the 1962 Sino-Indian War, 120 Bahadur tells  the true story of Major Shaitan Singh Bhati, PVC and his 120 brave soldiers  of Charlie Company. Outnumbered and outgunned in the icy heights of the  Himalayas, they choose valor over retreat, holding their ground against  3,000 enemy troops. With rifles, bayonets, and unshakable courage, they  fight a legendary battle for honor, brotherhood, and the nation. A stirring  tale of sacrifice and heroism, this is the untold legacy of India’s bravest.

120 Bahadur 

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120 BAHADUR is based on true events. Rajiv G Goswami tells a story that many don't know about and that works to the advantage of the makers. Rajiv G Goswami's screenplay is engaging during the war scenes but leaves a lot to be desired otherwise. Sumit Arora's dialogues are conversational and clapwothy in a few places.

Razneesh 'Razy' Ghai's direction is decent. To give credit where it's due, he has gone all out. At a time when films are filmed against green screen in studios, he has shot the film in real and extremely challenging locations. In terms of authenticity, the film scores distinction marks. The war scenes are executed with finesse and moreover, the film pays a great tribute to Major Shaitan Singh Bhati and the 120 brave men under his leadership who chose to fight despite having the option to fall back.

On the flipside, the first half is very ordinary. The scenes of the build-up, Major Shaitan Singh Bhati's flashback and the comedy among his regiment give a deja vu of films like BORDER [1997], KESARI [2019], SHERSHAAH [2021] etc. All these films had great music score and this film lacks in that department. There's a subplot of a rookie soldier; ideally, the makers should have explored it a bit more and made it more dramatic, as it was novel. However, the makers rushed through this track. 
This is Farhan Akhtar’s first film as an actor after nearly 4 ½ years and he’s terrific without a doubt. He underplays his part and also shows his angry side as required and he impresses in both avatars. Raashii Khanna (Sugan) is lovely in a special appearance. Ajinkya Ramesh Deo (Brigadier) and Eijaz Khan (Commanding Officer) lend able support. From the armymen, debutant Sparsh Walia (Radio Operator Ramchander Yadav) gets the maximum screen time and he delivers a very fine performance. Vivan Bhatena (Jemadar Surja Ram) is the next best followed by Ashutosh Shukla (Dharampal) and Brijesh Karanwala (Jairam Kaka). Others who do well are Dhanveer Singh (Jemadar Hariram Singh), Digvijay Pratap (Jemadar Saab), Sahib Verma (Nanha), Devendra Ahirwar (Baingan), Ankit Siwach (Ramlal), and Atul Singh (Nihal Singh). Marcus Mok (General Gao) is fair while Seng Soo Ming (Major Memeti) is over the top. Yet, it works for his character. 
Songs – 'Yaad Aate Hain', 'Main Hoon Woh Dharti Maa' and 'Naina Re Lobhi' – fail to entice or move the viewers. Satish Raghunathan's background score is heroic. Tetsuo Nagata's cinematography is spectacular. Ladakh has never been shot in this manner before. Marek Svitek's action is in sync with the film's mood. And unlike the trend today, it's not gory or disturbing. Theia Tekchandaney's costumes and Shailaja Sharma's production design are authentic. Nolabel, Frame X and Fortune Leaf's VFX is satisfactory. 
On the whole, 120 BAHADUR stands as a sincere and stirring salute to the heroes of Rezang La, powered by immersive war detailing and a commanding performance by Farhan Akhtar. However, the routine first half, been-there-done-that type of moments and underwhelming music hold it back from becoming truly unforgettable. At the box office, the film will have to rely heavily on strong word of mouth and patriotic sentiment to find success.

Director Razneesh “Razy” Ghai revisits a painful yet remarkable chapter of Indian military history that has rarely been explored on screen. Barring Chetan Anand’s Haqeeqat (1964), with its unforgettable anthem “Kar Chale Hum Fida”, Bollywood has curiously stayed away from this story. These unsung heroes deserved a film dedicated solely to them — and Ghai, to his credit, remains committed to that intent.
The film offers glimpses into how a community largely associated with farming in the plains adapted to the brutal cold, altitude, and isolation of Rezang La. There is much to discover in 120 Bahadur, yet by the time the end credits roll, you’re left with mixed emotions — moved by the sacrifice, but not as deeply connected to the characters as you wish to be.
The action stands out as the film’s strongest pillar. The desperate standoffs — snipers, close-range firefights, brawls when ammunition runs out — are gripping. But the storytelling falters in building tension and emotional stakes. The suffocating dread of an inevitable onslaught never fully takes hold, and the immense psychological strain on the soldiers doesn’t land with the impact it should.
Farhan Akhtar channels a rugged intensity and even alters his vocal pitch and body language, stepping into a dramatic zone that he's not known for. He is effective in several moments, yet the sense that this isn’t his most natural terrain lingers.
The supporting cast comprising Eijaz Khan, Vivan Bhatena, Ajinkya Deo, Raashi Khanna, Sparsh Walia, Ankit Siwach, despite its promise, is given far too little to explore. Oddly placed flashbacks and formulaic backstories interrupt the narrative flow, while choppy editing further disrupts immersion. The music too is disappointingly flat — you can’t help but recall every rousing Border track that might have elevated the drama here.
Despite its flaws, 120 Bahadur avoids glorifying war. Its sincerity is both its strength and its limitation. A heartfelt tribute wrapped in a familiar template; 120 Bahadur deserved a more arresting and emotionally resonant execution.

There are some films you simply cannot watch with the usual reviewer's lens. '120 Bahadur' falls squarely into that category. You walk in knowing this is a story of men who fought a battle in conditions most of us wouldn’t survive for five minutes. You walk in already knowing that no matter what you watch on screen, it will never come close to what transpired at Rezang La in 1962. You walk in wanting to be moved, inspired, punched in the gut -- all of it. But here’s the thing: even with all this context and emotional cushioning, the film still leaves you thinking this could have been more. Or it could have been just a short film or a documentary to bring alive the story that deserves to be told.
The biggest curveball in this earnest tribute, ironically, is Farhan Akhtar. Yes, the same man who gave us 'Lakshya', a film that continues to top this genre in recent times. And because of that legacy, you want to like him here, and melt into Major Shaitan Singh. But something just doesn’t land. In moments when he’s at ease with his bahadurs, the actor shines, but when he’s barking orders at them, the performative act fails. Farhan tries, really, but the connection never clicks, making him feel almost miscast.

Thankfully, '120 Bahadur' is rescued and often elevated by its younger cast — the men who breathe life and authenticity into the film. Sparsh Walia, Ankit Siwach, Sahib Verma, and Dhanveer Singh disappear so seamlessly into their characters that you forget you are watching actors and not real-life soldiers. Their camaraderie, their bickering over a piece of chocolate or bad food, and their tiny bursts of humour in an otherwise freezing hell carry the film. When they die in each other's arms, you cannot help but tear up. They are truly the beating heart of '120 Bahadur', and honestly, the reason you sit through parts that otherwise feel absolutely stretched.
You also get unexpectedly tender moments that cut straight through the war cry. Like when a new recruit quietly asks, “Aapne kisi ki jaan li hai (have you killed someone)?” A question so simple yet so loaded, it instantly humanises the men behind the rifles. Another admits he didn’t even choose this life; he was pushed into it to continue a family legacy. And even in his dying moments, all he wants is to have made his father proud.
And this is where the film’s premise becomes even more important, because '120 Bahadur' isn’t just about a battle; it’s about the 1962 Indo-China war, most of us barely know beyond a chapter or two in school textbooks. Rezang La was a massacre, a miracle, a moment in history. What’s stranger and heartbreaking is how many such stories remain buried under snow, literally. If the radio operator hadn’t survived that day, we probably wouldn’t even know about these bravehearts who stopped the larger Chinese troop advance with nothing but grit. These are the stories that deserve space not just in history books but in pop culture. Heroes who didn’t shout patriotism, didn’t perform it, didn’t hashtag it; they simply lived it, and died for it.
However, the cinematography by Tetsuo Nagata is breathtaking -- and not in a glossy, touristy way. You feel the biting cold of Ladakh, the harsh wind, the stillness of the snow that holds both beauty and brutality. The terrain becomes the new villain, a new battle for these men who have lived life in the plains. Towards the climax, when you see bodies of both armies lying bloodied on the serene snow, that’s when it hits you -- war takes away too much. And these visuals, more than the writing, evoke the emotion the film is desperately trying to reach.

But despite the gorgeous frames, sincere performances, and deep respect baked into every scene, '120 Bahadur' never quite climbs to the heights it aims for. It doesn’t shake you the way a war film should. You appreciate it deeply, but you don’t walk out carrying it in your chest. And for a film built on one of the most heroic stands in Indian military history, it ultimately falls short of becoming iconic. It salutes the bravehearts, with full honesty, but doesn’t immortalise them.


It was 120 against 3000, and on that fateful November day in 1962, the one hundred and twenty Indian soldiers led by Major Shaitan Singh Bhati kept the much larger Chinese contingent at bay, giving up their lives to save the crucial Chushul valley in Ladakh.It came to be known as the Battle of Rezang La, and in the continuous onslaught of the Chinese army, only six soldiers of the Charlie Company, 13 Kumaon Regiment, almost all of them Ahirs, survived. Farhan Akhtar plays Bhati with brio, leading his men into a ‘jung’ from where there was no coming back, and the result is a war film which brims with the action-and-emotion necessary for a Bollywood drama, but refuses to go under because of it.
The 1964 Haqeeqat, directed by Chetan Anand, was an account of the same conflict, but that was a purer time when identity politics hadn’t taken over the discourse: here, the soldiers underline the fact that they come from the same area, with familiar, linguistic connection with each other. The war cry, Dada Kisan Ki Jai, is clearly a clan thing; that the two mates shown bickering will be found in close embrace in death is foreshadowed in that early scene.

What’s heartening is that the film rises above these limitations, and we see the ‘120 bahadurs’ coming together to save their zameen and sarzameen from the Chinese aggressors, with their meagre guns and mortars and finally, hand-to-hand combat. The last hour, which sustains the battle’s intensity, makes up for the line of personal flashbacks in a song, which will instantly remind you of the ‘Sandese Aate Hain’ song from the 1997 ‘Border’, also written by Javed Akhtar.
How much of the Jodhpur-set backstory of Shaitan Singh and his wife, played by Raashii Khanna (impactful in a small role) is fictionalised is unclear, but a Holi song featuring both, while colourful, does feel superfluous. The Chinese commanders are depicted as slit-eyed, seething-with-belligerence, even as their Indian counterparts (Ajinkya Deo and Eijaz Khan) refuse to initially believe that such a battle even happened. That comes off really strange, given that they are the ones giving orders from the other side of a crackling line, set up by a newbie radioman (Sparsh Walia, in a stand-out part, even if his accent wobbles in bits), the only one left standing at the end, frostbitten and nearly frozen.
But these flashes are not allowed to bury the film, which returns to the battlefield, and shows us Bhati and his men– most played believably by first-time actors — fight till their last breath.

The ‘vardi’ and the ‘valour’ that demands that ultimate ‘balidaan’ brings a lump to the throat, and a tear to the eye.


Shorn of jingoism, free of gratuitous frills and delivered with fitting deference to the memory of the Indian soldiers (many of them unsung) who laid down their young lives in the battle of Rezang La in 1962, 120 Bahadur is a Bollywood war movie of a refreshingly different timbre.

Directed by Razneesh "Razy" Ghai and written by Rajiv G. Menon with dialogues by Sunit Arora, 120 Bahadur strikes a balance between emotion and action in its fictionalisation of a military face-off that took a heavy toll of lives but helped India stop China from marching into Ladakh.

The loud war cry ("Dada Kishan ki jai") of the Ahir boys of the 13th Kumaon Regiment's Charlie Company, whose last glorious stand at the Rezang La Pass has been part of Indian Army folklore for over six decades, frequently pierces the rarefied air of the battleground at an altitude of 18,000 feet, but the movie's even tone is never irretrievably compromised. It stays true to its purpose all the way through.

The men we see on the screen are ordinary infantrymen. Their incredible heroism stems from their valour. But their pugnacious words and acts, aimed against a marauding army from across the border, do not shellack the film's primary intent.
120 Bahadur is steadfast in paying homage to a group of incredible soldiers from the plains who refused to go down without a fight in alien, inhospitable high-altitude conditions against an army with far greater firepower.

The story of these valiant men who conquered the lack of resources - they had little artillery fire cover and their clothing was hardly appropriate for the oppressively cold terrain - is told in a manner that is both rousing and engaging.

That is not to say that 120 Bahadur is flaw-free, but the chinks in its solid armour are never overly glaring nor are they unmanageable to the point of adversely affecting the impact of the rousing tale of courage and patriotism. They are easy to gloss over even when parts of the film may come across as a touch cavalier with the truth.

The valour of the infantrymen who do not abandon their mission even when the odds are loaded heavily against them and the weather turns extremely hostile is allowed to be overshadowed somewhat by the constant harping on their identity and geographical origins.

That is a narrative device that Chetan Anand's Haqeeqat (1964), which brought to the big screen a fictional account of the same battle, did not have to take recourse to on its way to becoming a much-loved war movie. But that was a totally different era of moviemaking and politics.

Today, identity is invariably placed front and centre in movies about military heroes, commandos and secret agents. The men referred to in 120 Bahadur, led by a brave Rajput officer who leaves his mother, wife and young son behind a few days ahead of Diwali and responds to the call of duty, constantly remind themselves (and the audience) of who a majority of them are - Ahirs from Rewari district.

The constant proclamations of the qualities that define the clan of Lord Krishna worshippers are all fine until they become overly repetitive and begin to take precedence over the other admirable aspects of their personalities.

There is obviously a great deal to admire in these men who willingly embraced death in order to stop the Chinese in their tracks. 120 Bahadur loses no opportunity to bring to the fore the personal dynamics that are at work, especially pertaining to the friendships that take roots among the men and the relationships that evolve between the commanding officer and the group's radio operator.

It is the radio operator - he is one of the handful of men who survive the battle - who, after he recovers in a military hospital, recounts what transpired at Rezang La. The story that he pieces together flows without a hitch although parts of the narration are centred on encounters and exchanges that he might not have been a part of.
Farhan Akhtar, one of the producers of the film along with his Excel Entertainment partner Ritesh Sidhwani and Happy Trigger Studios' Amit Chandrra, leads the charge with controlled gusto. In his first screen role in four years, Akhtar is acutely mindful of the demands of the character and fleshes out the Param Vir Chakra-recipient without overstretching himself.

The actors around him, many of them unknown faces but every one of them perfect embodiments of the tough, unyielding men that they play, rise to the occasion. Each one of them treats his role with the respect it deserves. The physicality and energy that they endow the characters with is sustained almost all through the film, thanks to the focused writing.

120 Bahadur is consistently watchable because it is aware of where it is going and is able to get there without letting the pitfalls of the genre deflect it from its path.
 

Farhan Akhtar’s 120 Bahadur is all set to hit theatres. The film will be released on November 21. Ever since the release of its trailer, the excitement around the war drama has been high. However, does the film meet expectations? Let’s find out.

Directed by Razneesh ‘Razy’ Ghai, 120 Bahadur brings to life the incredible bravery of 120 Indian soldiers from the 13 Kumaon Regiment, who fought with unshakable spirit in the Battle of Rezang La during the 1962 war. In the movie, Farhan Akhtar steps into the role of Major Shaitan Singh Bhati, PVC, the fearless leader who, along with his men, stood firm against overwhelming odds in one of the most heroic chapters of India’s military history.
To begin with, the film opens on a sluggish note, with the first half unfolding at an almost glacial pace. Scenes linger longer than necessary and the narrative seems to wander without a clear sense of urgency. The pace of the film in the first half makes it less engaging and more boring. One ends up waiting only for the interval and hoping that the film might start to interest them a little post-break.
Fortunately, the film redeems itself, to some extent, in the second half. Here, the narrative finally finds its rhythm, gaining momentum and delivering the energy that was noticeably absent earlier. The plot tightens, the stakes heighten, and the storytelling becomes far more dynamic and compelling. The war scenes, ‘Bahadurs’ making tough decisions and intense fight with the Chinese army make the film engaging.

In films like these, which are inspired by true events, it is not the plot but storytelling and casting that often take the fore front. Unfortunately, 120 Bahadur disappoints when it comes to its casting.

Farhan Akhtar also looks like a misfit who fails to evoke that feeling of patriotism. Unlike iconic performances like Sunny Deol’s in the 1997 cult film Border, which still evokes strong emotions and goosebumps, Farhan’s presence in uniform fails to inspire the same level of enthusiasm. His portrayal lacks the energy and intensity that define patriotic heroes, leaving audiences disappointed.
Even other actors like Vivan Bhathena and Ajinkya Deo play their part with sincerity but bring nothing extraordinary to the table. Ankit Siwach looks promising but gets less screentime in the movie, due to the demands of the script.

While Farhan may not impress you all, one actor surely steals the show and it is Sparsh Walia. He essayed the role of Radio Operator Ramchander Yadav in the film and did an outstanding job in his part. He carries not just innocence but also bravery in his character and manages to portray it all on screen with near perfection. While the film might not have managed to grab your attention, Walia surely does with his performance.

Raashii Khanna gets little screentime but plays her part convincingly. She essays the role of Major Shaitan’s wife and delivers the emotional depth of her character aptly on screen.

But despite the shortcomings, 120 Bahadur is a tribute to the unsung heroes of the Rezang La war, and it succeeds in honouring their bravery. While it may follow familiar war drama tropes, the film’s sincerity and intent to tell a largely untold story make it a decent watch.


120 Bahadur | Official Trailer | Farhan Akhtar | Raashii Khanna | 21st November

120 Bahadur | Official Teaser 2 | Charlie Company | 21st November

Indian actor, writer, and film director Farhan Akhtar is a well-known personality. He is the son of Javed Akhtar who himself is a famous writer. Farhan has directed many amazing movies in his carrier like Dil Chahta Hai, Lakshya. Apart from the direction he also acted in movies and debut with the musical fil Rock On! And after that, there was no looking back. Some of his movies are Bhaag Milkha Bhaag(2013), Wazir(2016) Dil Dhadakne Do(2015), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara( 2011), Karthik Calling Karthik(2010), The Sky Is Pink(2019).

Farhan Akhtar

Raashii Khanna is an Indian actress and playback singer who predominantly works in Telugu and Tamil language film industries. 

Raashii Khanna

Vivan Bhatena is a model and  actor who works primarily in Hindi films. He has appeared in blockbusters like Dangal, Judwaa 2 and Talaash. He has also appeared on several popular soap operas including Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kumkum, Pyaar Ka Bandhan and Aahat. In 2001, Bhatena won the Mister India World title.

120 Bahadur

120 Bahadur (2025)

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