In the more “masala” space, though, militancy and terrorism have become vehicles for black-vs-white, good-vs-evil heroism of the kind where one man single-handedly takes on a group of ghouls.Įxceptions include Kabir Khan’s Kabul Express (2006), New York (2009) and Ek Tha Tiger (2012). There was a conscious effort to show us why things unravel in the way they do.” “While you are clearly rooting for the hero, who is a part of a secret intelligence organisation, the terrorists aren’t always painted black either. “Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK’s web series The Family Man is a more recent example of a story that offered a deeper understanding of the terrorist rather than just using the character as cannon fodder,” says film critic Anupama Chopra. Both films has Roshan play characters thrust into a life of violence as a result of circumstances in Kashmir and in Bombay after the 1993 riots respectively. These are landmarks films in the genre because Ratnam took militancy out of the “macho, violent” space and packaged it with stunning visuals and music to make the subject more mainstream.Įven Hrithik Roshan signed up to play militants in Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Mission: Kashmir (1998) and Khalid Mohamed’s Fiza (2000). Over six years, Mani Ratnam directed a trilogy of films with such backdrops - Roja (1992, set in Kashmir), Bombay (1995, set against the communal riots), Dil Se… (1998, set in the north-east). The insurgencies in Punjab, Kashmir and to some extent the north-east began to be reflected on the big screen. Before he met Rajkummar Rao and cast him in Omerta (2017), a nuanced tale about a real-life terrorist, director Hansal Mehta says he was repeatedly asked why he wanted to tell this story. Today, it’s hard to find stars willing to take on a role full of shades of grey. The ’90s were when Hindi filmmakers started to replace the evil Thakur or the smuggler in his flashy lair with gun-toting militants and terrorists, in keeping with the new kinds of conflict looming to the forefront and capturing the popular imagination in the real world. There’s a line in the film ‘Lakeer ke us paar chala gaya hun, wapas aana mushkil hai, Veera’ (I’ve crossed over to the other side and it’s impossible to return)’ that has always stayed with me because you can feel the character’s anguish.” “It was a very sensitive story that needed to be told,” says Chandrachur Singh, of his debut feature. You think this could happen to your family.”Īpart from a National Award for Tabu, Maachis also won one for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment. “The film is relatable because it’s so realistic. “Usually, even when filmmakers show us how ordinary people become terrorists, they end up being stereotypical, but Gulzar kept the story rooted, with small, ordinary details,” says Meenakshi Shedde, film critic and India and South Asia Delegate for the Berlin Film Festival. He plays hockey with his friends, hopes to marry his sweetheart Veeran (Tabu), but ends up taking up arms after his best friend, Veeran’s brother, is detained unjustly. Kripal is a young man from a small village in Punjab. It was set in the late ’80s in the aftermath of Operation Blue Star, the storming of the Golden Temple to flush out armed militants. Directed by Gulzar, Maachis was a rare and fiercely political Bollywood film that attempted to understand a turbulent period of Punjab’s history. He’s explaining to the protagonist Kripal (Chandrachur Singh) what drives an ordinary person to rebel and take up arms. Regardless of whom he’s fighting, it’s a response to that injustice,” Sanathan (played by the late Om Puri) says, in a pivotal scene in the 1996 film Maachis. “When someone has been subjected to injustice time and again… He looks for others like himself.
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