Celebrating Indian History through Movies
I watched the movie Sam Bahadur yesterday. It is based on the life of Sam Manekshaw, the first Field Marshall (the highest army rank in India) of India. During the later part of the movie, Manekshaw was having breakfast at his home with his wife when his phone rings. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi calls Manekshaw, orders him to leave everything and come to her office immediately wearing full Army uniform. The next scene shows Indira Gandhi sitting in front of Henry Kissinger discussing about the invasion of East Pakistan. Despite fierce opposition and warnings of retaliation from Kissinger, Indira Gandhi stood firm, concluding, “If you do not lay a clear path for East Pakistani refugees back to their country,” pointing to Manekshaw she said, “he will.” After the meeting ended, Manekshaw complimented Indira Gandhi, “Well played, Madam Prime Minister!”
This scene gave me chills and goosebumps. But it ended very quickly. More screen time should have been given to introduce Kissinger and the then American President Richard Nixon. Kissinger was the most powerful man in the Cold War era. Nixon and Kissinger both loathed Indians. Kissinger called Indira Gandhi a bitch and Indians as bastards. And our Prime Minister still had the courage to conclusively say NO to the most powerful man on earth relying only on the word of her Chief of Army.
India ultimately liberated East Pakistan against inhuman slaugther from the Pakistan army and won the biggest war against our neighbours under Manekshaw’s leadership.
We learn more about Manekshaw in this movie, and I imagine what could have been had he not survived after getting hit by seven bullets during the war against Japan in Burma. Or had he not negotiated with the Maharaja of Kashmir after independence. Or had he not raised the morale of our Army during the war against China or while fighting against Mizoram’s insurgents. And of course, how he led the war against Pakistan from both fronts in 1971. Each of these events shaped our country to what it is today. I shudder to think our fate if even one of these events went against us.
I have read about most of these events. But visuals is a much more powerful medium. This is the third movie — after Raazi and The Ghazi Attack — made on the 1971 war. And with each movie, my understanding of this monumental event in our country’s history becomes clearer; I feel more and more in awe of what our predecessors achieved against all odds.
Today’s cinema is not just limited to the 1971 war. We have seen movies on the 26/11 attack and on the famous Uri retaliation. We have seen movies based on significant real life events like Airlift, Madras Cafe and Neerja. There is a legendary scene in the series, “Special Ops,” where the RAW officer Himmat Singh interrogates Kasab.
There are movies highlighting how we became a nuclear power against all opposition and amidst all surveillance from the Americans. How we achieved our mission to Mars with an extremely limited budget. The TV series, “Rocket Boys” celebrate Vikram Sarabhai and Homi Bhabha as the fathers of our space and nuclear programmes.
I find it hard to recall any serious movies on real-life events before 2010. Lakshya (2004) and Border (1997) are the ones that come to mind. For whatever reason, Indian cinema was not motivated enough to make movies celebrating our history.
It is heartening to see that such movies are now being made regularly. Not everyone knows about history; not everyone is interested enough to read about history. And the Indian schooling syllabus is blank when it comes to our history post-independence. As difficult as the fight for freedom was, our survival and growth post independence was equally difficult. Indians should be made aware of this. Indians should celebrate it. Indians should feel a sense of pride that we are among the very few newly independent countries who have not just survived post independence but are thriving. Movies (and TV) is a very powerful medium for the same.
Other countries, most notably America and Britain, shamelessly promote their historical achievements in movies building nationalistic fervour. There are countless great movies made on their achievements during World War II, Cold War, their war against Osama Bin Laden etc. I myself have seen scores of them. Yet such movies on India are few and far in between, this spell broke only in the last few years.
There was a standing ovation in the usually silent, upscale, multiplex hall after the movie ended. We reached home at midnight; both Sukriti and I spent an hour reading about our first Field Marshall and discussing about him in detail. The movie had succeeded in doing its job.
