D-Day: Re-defining Patriotism in Indian Cinema
Patriotism in Bollywood is synonym with Manoj Kumar and his brand of cinema. Chetan Anand and J P Dutta have also contributed equally to the patriotism in Indian Cinema. But Nikhil Advani has tried to re-define patriotism in new India through an espionage genre of movie.
The story is of 3 RAW agents Rudra Pratap Singh(Arjun Rampal), Wali Khan (Irfan) & Huma Qureshi (Zoya) and a small time assassin Aslam 
(Aakash Dahiya)who are sent to Karachi, Pakistan for Mission Goldman wherein they are supposed to get India’s most wanted criminal Don Ibrahim (Rishi Kapoor) to India.
The story & screenplay by Nikhil Advani, Suresh Nair & Ritesh Shah is well researched and every minute detail is painstakingly correct in the script. It has the right pace of a thriller in the first half till the interval; post interval is when suddenly the screenplay dips in pace giving way to some romantic angle between Arjun Rampal & Shruti Hasan but then it recovers soon enough. The climax is the biggest highlight of the script and is straight forward which leaves you spell bound. The best part of the script is that each character is build well and makes complete sense and is believable. Dialogues by Ritesh Shah & Niranjan Iyengar gel well with the script.
Editor Aarif Shaikh has done a splendid job in keeping the pace intact. Cinematography by Tushar Kanti Ray is excellent and re-creates the mood with his vision which is raw and unpredictable. The real highlight of the movie is the action by Tom Struthers (Dark Knight & Tomb Raider series), it is gritty and raw just like the mood of the movie.
After watching this movie I realized how under rated actor was Rishi Kapoor for Indian cinema till recently. He is becoming brilliant with each movie right from Agneepath. In this film whenever he is there on screen he captivates you with his portrayal, he is mean, gritty as well as completely unpredictable. A REAL CLASS ACT. Irfan as usual is good. Arjun Rampal is another actor who is growing from strength to strength and his portrayal of Rudra is cold, mean and at the same time emotional, quite complex but Arjun does an excellent job. Huma Qureshi & Shruti Hasan did well. Other actors like Aakash Dahiya, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Sree Swara Dubey, Nasir & KK Raina are apt and do a splendid job.
And last and definitely not the least Nikhil Advani after some misses like Salaam-E-Ishq and Chandni Chowk to China, gets it right with D-Day. D-day shows patriotism without being preachy and there lies the real strength of the movie. Nikhil introduces a new genre to Indian Cinema the Espionage genre of cinema which is so common in Hollywood, and he does it well.
I go with 4 stars for D-Day….