BEYOND THE HERO

Reclaiming the Collective Story of War

Indians are hero worshippers. They cannot help it, it’s inherent in their genes. That’s one of the reasons we find a string of war movies streaming out of Bollywood studios in recent times, depicting the life and times of one or other war hero, some of them with fair amount of success as well. While it is an encouraging development for war movie buffs of the country, it might also be an occasion for movie makers to venture producing some war classics of global standards. After all, there is an abundance of feats of arms in the annals of India’s military past, even if we restrict ourselves to the post-independence ones. Few armed forces in the world can match ours in the number of wars fought and we even have ongoing ones like Siachen and the proxy war in Kashmir. However, to produce a war classic, you need imagination, creativity and a commitment to quality, beyond the concerns of box office.

First off, they need to shed their inhibitions of hero worship and understand the dynamics of collective bravery, that shapes victory in the battlefield. A good war classic should be about an actual war or battle or an imaginative fiction based on those, not the biopic of one individual, however decorated he is. Imagine a movie like “A Bridge Too far”. Its brilliant narrative captures history, without robbing it of the cinematic effect. The primary reason for it is that it is based on an extremely well-researched book of the same title by Cornelius Ryan, an accomplished war correspondent and military historian. While we may have difficulty in finding his equal on Indian military history, a dedicated researcher can certainly put together a telling narrative on anyone of the chapters in the multiple wars and battles Indian armed forces have been engaged over the years.

Take for instance, the Bangladesh Liberation War fought by the Indian armed forces over thirteen days. It has all the elements of drama, heroism and poignance. Made into a movie, it could turn out to be a masterpiece that could outdo even the epic “Is Paris Burning?” In fact, the actual operation itself was a brilliant stroke of military genius with few equals in the world. To be successful however, the movie must seamlessly tell the story, combining history and human suffering with the feat of arms, depicting the heroism and sacrifices by the thousands of soldiers, sailors and airmen involved, without diluting it with jingoism and lionizing individuals.

If such a broad narrative looks too tall an order for an average Bollywood movie maker, there is always the option to create memorable movies with fictional narrative like Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan”. Then again, it would not offer them the opportunity to screen a song-and-dance sequence, an affliction Indian movie makers seem incapable of getting rid of. In fact, the song-and-dance fixation seems to be the principal reason for their choosing an officer as the protagonist in all the movies and not a soldier from the ranks. How could they show a lot of pretty females attired in fashion wear and handsome young officers in their glittering uniforms in an officers’ mess function, if they are to tell the story of an ordinary jawan? That is exactly what spoils every other Indian war movie. Why are they so obsessed with such rubbish? The argument that the audience want it does not hold good, because unless you have tried giving them a perceptive fare, how do you know whether they would like it or not?

Indeed, it would be unfair to blame the movie makers alone for such ills of Indian war movies. Awareness about military and warfare among people at large is so abysmally low, that, more often than not, a well-told war narrative might not find traction in the public sphere. For the same reason, but for the lip service offered in praise of armed forces whenever there is a war, there is seldom any real empathy for their personnel among the civilians. This is in stark contrast to other major democracies like Britain or the USA, where armed forces personnel, both serving and retired, get tremendous respect in civilian establishments. It is essentially because the general public is well-informed about armed forces, either because of many having served or because the education system provides for children to be imbibed with military knowledge. Except for the NCC, we have no system in the country to impart basic military knowledge to the young. The ramifications of absolute ignorance about military matters among the public are multifold. Apart from a general lack of resilience if and when the country is faced with an external threat or war, the potential of the general public to be contributors in national defence in case of such an emergency would be minimum.

The point here is, there is a definite need for imparting a certain amount of education for children on military matters. It would have immense value in building their character and discipline, besides inculcating in them a sense of solidarity with the armed forces, which will go a long way in the personnel of armed forces receiving the respect they deserve among the people. Such respect, call it izzat or honour, is the prime factor that motivates the soldier to bring off extraordinary feats of courage and sacrifice. Of course, it goes without saying that better awareness of military matters by the public would provide a more fertile ground for movie makers to produce world class war movies that will not bomb at the box office.