Another review on LOC - Kargil, not again!!! How many times will a review on the same film be written, read, rated and commented and will all these really make any difference to our lives? Will it make us a bit more responsible, conscious and uplift our conscience level and our feelings for our motherland? Or is it just another Bollywood blockbuster that challenged all previous records in the history of Indian cinema. Or is it just another film in the name and sake of patriotism, war and martyrdoms. Please for a change let us behave like literate, responsible and more respectable citizens of this great nation.
Kargil, the name, which was not, that heard of before the 1999 war, now has become a theme and a central point for national security. I am not a person who frequents cinema theatres to watch war movies but after quite a bit hesitation made for LOC - Kargil, a film by J P Dutta. Even before I could react to the scenes of the film, it revived all those feelings that had haunted me during the actual days of the Kargil war the equations that had risen then came back flashing and even years later I simply can’t solve them. Why at all was this war fought? You will say because some intruders had crossed the Line of Control and they had to be shoveled back. Yes that’s what the statistics and records in the books of history say. But how could some intruders enter our backyard and we the nation of 1 billion people didn’t even realize until it was too late. And was it really some, some lunatics, some people or wasn’t it a mass a larger number, with arms and ammunition, who managed to reach those heights with canons and other artillery and our defenses were not aware??? Are we really living in the age of satellites and communication, our intelligence agencies or the RAW, where was it? We are always more eager to find out what our neighbour is doing and what next move they are going to make, then what happened this time. They couldn’t even figure out the actual number of intruders and the forces that had accumulated over there. Or is there another angle to the reality a more dirty and heinous fact that is unknown to us and has been hushed behind the strong walls of the parliament. Isn’t it a mockery for the entire nation and our defense ministry, where were these officials when these people were making their initial moves. Kashmir area has been a red alert area since a long time. Most of India’s best officers and security personnel’s have been posted there, in spite of such high security how did these people manage to reach and capture those strategically important locations. Or was it that it had been quite some time our soldiers had not fought actual battles and it was felt necessary to give them a real life experience and practice, so that the forces can boast of a few more martyrs and a few more bravehearts may be awarded the Paramvir Chakras posthumously. When will the people the actual power of the nation learn to respect the independence that we enjoy and be more conscious while casting our votes? These questions had troubled me during the Kargil war days, how I hated the news that showed more and more of killings, bloodshed and left the bitter miseries untold.
Unless and until this type of negligence is checked and the people responsible for the deaths of Captain Anuj Nayyar or Captain Vikram Batra, tried on court and punished many more such incidences will occur, last time it was Kargil next time it will be Arunachal or Mizoram, Tamil Nadu or may be Assam. Today is yet another Republic Day, we gained independence and have become one of the foremost republics in the world but even today the eyes of those mothers who have lost their sons in the wars are wet, even today deep in their hearts they feel had the war not taken place. What do we really want, may be a leader who can show us the path, the path to build a better nation, a leader who is not concerned with the party alliances, the politics, the election results but is only concerned with how he can educate the mass to rise patriotic feelings back in the hearts of the millions. We need a Netaji and his call to the nation for rebuilding a better India.
As per the film is concerned, I don’t have much different feeling than the other writers who have so beautifully put down the script and the story of the film many a times before on this platform of MS. I share my views with all of them. As the script was real, so it had to be good. I can only say that the bitterness of realities has been canvassed well in celluloid. The actors didn’t have to do much to bring out lives to the characters they played, as the characters were real heroes and their lives were larger than normal life. There may have been loopholes in the fluency of the film and many aspects might have been left untold but in a script of 3 and half hours J P Dutta have done well to bring about the maximum from the war that lasted much longer with much deeper tragedies. What I really appreciate about the film is the massive star casting. A galaxy of actors from cinema and television have enacted their roles in the film, and I really don’t think in near future we will have any other film boasting of such a power packed star cast. Unlike the typical recent time Bollywood films the actors complemented each other and they have tried to bring about the actual feelings and real expressions the soldiers might have felt during the war. There have been scenes, which I felt were a bit artificial and a bit dramatic but as this is just a film and not the real war the director and the actors can be allowed that liberty to make the film better. And moreover the realities of Kargil will never be known, how exactly had Capt. Anuj Nayyar died will always remain a mystery as dead don’t speak.
It seems Mr. Anu Malik always stores the best for J P Dutta Films and he has again proved that. Although personally I really don’t think that a film on Kargil war needed a single song and could only accept the song ’Seemayein Bulaye’ but I would say the other songs were good but I couldn’t place them with the film, for me they were extras. I would have liked a more powerful marching song or a more real song that our soldiers actually sing when they are heading for wars and without music just the voices, it would have added to the flavour of the film.
I was wrong in showing my back to war films. More films on such topics should be made so that the general people who are unaware of the responsibilities attached to the freedom and independence they enjoy can be realized and understood. If we enjoy the safety of the nation we must in return at least show respect to those people who gave away their lives in the many wars that have been fought. What hurt me the most was, just after the interval when the film was preparing the viewers for the final assault and the urgency in the film had reached its peak, I was taken by surprise with a cracking noise coming from my right, I just turned my face to see a lady sitting next to me munching pop corns with the utmost noise she could make and to add to my shock even before the film ended, in the scene where they showed the families of those soldiers shedding tears for the departed how could people just walk out of the theatre. Please for heaven’s sake either have some respect for these martyrs or don’t go to watch such films.
Comments are welcomed and requested.
Paromita Dey