While there have been scores of films made on the Indian Army and the country’s Air Force, it is quite baffling that Hindi mainstream cinema has hardly explored the exemplary bravery of the unsung heroes of the BSF. The Border Security Force, aptly known as ‘The First Line of Defence’, is the focus of Ground Zero, this Friday’s release in theatres, and a biopic of sorts of Narendra Nath Dhar Dubey.

It was NND’s sharpness, his eye on the eye of the fish focus, and the passion and patriotism that a man in uniform has by default for his country, that resulted in the killing of Ghazi Baba, the chief of Jaish-e-Mohammed and the man responsible for scores of terrorist attacks, most significantly the Parliament carnage of 2001.

A film on Kashmir in a week that has witnessed indescribable manslaughter in the state feels very raw, very delicate. Especially one that doesn’t celebrate the paradisiacal beauty of the state or has chiffon sari-clad heroines cavorting in songs that wax eloquent about ishq wala love. Ground Zero is about Kashmir in the grip of insurgency in the early 2000s, which today, almost 25 years later, feels, heartbreakingly, the same.

Despite its unmistakable Bollywood treatment, Ground Zero is a well-made film. It is pacy but makes time to pause for the emotional moments. It feels urgent and timely. Its players are sketched like flesh-and-blood people, and not larger-than-life superheroes. It recognises the problems that face Kashmir, but doesn’t alienate itself — or the viewer — from them. More importantly, it doesn’t play a game of us vs them.

Like all films based on real-life events these days, Ground Zero, too, claims to be a ‘work of fiction’. But unlike last week’s Kesari Chapter 2, director Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar (yes, this is one person), doesn’t use creative Licence to twist around facts. Led by a stellar Emraan Hashmi, who plays Dubey with both steely grit and emotional heft, the film is solid on almost all counts, looking at a time where the youth of the valley have been brainwashed from across the border to trade stone pelting for guns. Scores of security forces have lost their lives in the region in the last year alone. It is in the middle of this, with the ‘Pistol Gang’ in full-on active mode, that Dubey works tirelessly, taking on tremendous risk and the responsibility — despite a system that opposes instead of supporting him — to nab Ghazi Baba. The mission, aided by Intelligence officer Adila (Zoya Hussain), soon becomes personal for Dubey.

What is laudable about Ground Zero is that it doesn’t indulge in chest-thumping jingoism. The enemy is, of course, named, but a dialogue like: ‘Pehredaari bahut ho gayi, ab prahaar hoga’ feel integral to the plot rather than deliberately inserted lines to invite hoots and whistles from front-benchers.

The film, however, is not without its share of flaws. Dubey often gets expository, and Ground Zero glosses over the fact that our security forces are not without their share of faults. But what makes the film truly hit home — in the light of what we are in the middle of today — is a line uttered by Saie Tamhankar, who plays Dubey’s resilient wife. “Yeh Kashmir hain... pataa nahin kab mausam badal jaaye.”