I was browsing through Amazon Prime the other day looking for a film to watch when I came across this little gem: “Pippa”.

To quote the IMDB description: PIPPA tells the story of Captain Balram Singh Mehta of India's 45 Cavalry regiment who, along with his siblings, fought on the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971. Named after the Russian amphibious war tank "PT-76", which floats on water like an empty 'pippa' (tin) of ghee, the film traces Mehta's coming-of-age as he steps up to prove himself in a war to liberate Bangladesh.

The main storyline is fairly standard stuff - youthful impetuous officer rebels against authority during training then comes good and saves the day when the action starts - but it is very well acted and there are a couple of decent sub-plots along the way.

Inciudentally, please don’t be put off by the Bollywood song and dance number very near the beginning of the film (I think it’s supposed to be the post-opening sequence theme music). This is the only one and, quite frankly, I can see how many famous war movies would have been improved by something similar!

For us wargamers, obviously, the real stars of the show are the PT-76 tanks. There are a lot of them to look at, and there are several excellent sequences showing them on both land and in amphibeous mode, including the preparations that need to be made to move between the two.

There’s plenty of time spent on them as well, so you can properly see them in action. The cinematography is good - there’s one scene in particular where the company is crossing a wide river that is quite beautiful: it looks more like a travelogue than a war movie - and the action sequences that take up the last third of the movie are excellent too: think Fury but with a company of tanks rather than just three.

So if you are in the mood for a decent war movie and fancy seeing how a PT-76 looks and operates, I’d recommend watching Pippa. It certainly had me reaching for the Flames of War catalogue, wallet in hand!