Scene 1:

The soldier tightens his grip on his his U.S M -60.The laser’s from the guns combs the room for any survivors .After his search has been satisfied he moves a few steps ahead towards the door. He holds his fist in the air indicating the rest to stop. Then he whispers into his COMM kit

We need to blow this door. Somebody hand me the RDX stick.

The soldier goes up to the door, place the RDX stick on the door, moves few steps back and then blows up the door. He leads the rest others through that doorway

Scene 2

The Soldier discovers the enemy’s bunkers located at a distance of 500m from their location. He yells out the name of a few deities as war-cries. This bolsters the morale of his fellow soldiers who start running haphazardly towards the enemy without caring for their life.A few get blown up by a land mine and a few by 

their cries(:p Seriouslyy ).

I was watching Zero Black Thirty from which the Scene 1 was taken and while watching the movie I was reminded of the film LOC which is depicted by scene 2. Although both films are on  different aspects of warfare and depict different countries yet it left me thinking about how films in India made on Army operations are on any Defence operation are in nowhere any match  to those made outside India. So I tried to think a couple of reasons behind it.

1.For one we have been a peace loving country. Although our neighbours have been constant pest but we tend to ignore them and this is the reason why we have only a few tactical operations of fame. So our filmmakers have very less content to inspire them. Yet this reasoning is faulty because we have operations like BLUE STAR at Golden Temple Amritsar, Operation Vijay during the 1999 Kargil war and the recent storming of the Taj hotels by the NSG. The recent film on the attacks of 26/11 at Mumbai was a pure disaster with characters failing to do justice to the film. Zero Black Thirty based on the build up and the actual operation to eliminate Osama bin laden is a joy to watch as you can get involved in their operation and realize how it had actually gone down that faithful night. Kudos to the director.

2.I believe in India we are kind od more excited by the concept of a guy leaving his home leaving behind his family , singing a couple of songs and then getting killed in an heroic manner and then his family left wailing for them. There is very less time left for any kind of description of actual thing. So we end up having important scenes or build ups cut out of the main film story. Why  can’t we cut the crap and get to the real thing. In a movie called Black Hawk Down there was no depiction of soldiers leaving their homes and singing songs of their loved ones .It was about the bravery of the soldiers and how they managed to pull of a operation in dire circumstances. The film was about an operation and how the situation made people into heroes rather then being about songs that would stay at the no1 in the music charts

3.A part of the blame lies with the actor/actresses portraying a particular role. They need to do a significant amount of R&D before they begin to shoot for a film. They need to get into the role of a particular person. you need to be particularly familiar about how a soldier moves, acts in a given situation and moreover the way he speaks. A soldier repeatedly giving abuses leaves a bad impression on many of those who are watching

Its is important to get the plot and the act right because these are replicas of what actually  happened in a particular event, it is a way of giving respect to people who have fought and laid their lives for others. These films act as an inspiration for many others ,so it is important that we get the message right and  propagate it through the society

Arrival…

A white tata indica which had been cruising till now came to a stop on the Gujarat- Rajasthan highway. The road ahead would not permit the car to go ahead. The sole occupant of the car got out, stretched his cramped legs and let his eyes wander all over the place. He spotted a hoarding which said GEC,MODASA and an arrow beneath it pointing in the direction of a distant building which was in middle of nowhere ,unloaded his luggage and paid of the driver . As the car sped of leaving a small puff of smoke the occupant collected his luggage and moved towards the building.

Mornings in the hostels of Engineering colleges on Sundays usually begins at 2 p.m in the day, People tired after bouts of drinking, lan gaming, night calling(people responsible for the spurt in growth of reliance) and studying(ya …we have aliens amongst us) the previous night disturbed by pangs of hunger wake up. Amid fights over turns at the wash-rooms  people waking each other up, doors being banged and barrages of expletives doing rounds the hostel comes to life. It is just like a CD which in the start does not emit any sound giving us the impression that it is corrupted and then suddenly it belts out rock music at very high decibels and thus shell shocking us.

I woke to the noise of my door being pounded, i removed the pillow beneath me and used it to cover my ears and tried to go back to sleep but the incessant ponding continued. Finally ,I relented and with my foot I slid the lock aside. The door was slammed to the wall with a loud thud which startled me.it was a guy named Ravi  who lived in the room across that of mine. HE shouted.

Wake up. And get dressed.

I nodded my head and using my hand to support my head dozed of once again. Drops followed by a trickle of water against my skin  jolted me out of my sleep. I noticed Ravi holding the empty bottle of water with a smile. I cursed him for waking me up. He threw me a towel and said ,Get up ,we need to go ,you are finally getting a room partner. I looked over at the the empty bed which had till now been acting as a store house of my books.sadly,I had to clear them but as of now I had to head down and help the guy. Racing down the stairs I asked ravi if he knew anything about the guy.

I got a call from a senior. This guy is from Assam.

I saw a guy leaning on the gates of the hostel surrounded by his luggage.It looked like as if he was a refugee who had packed everything that he could lay his hands on with no hope of returning back.I shared my analysis with ravi ho chuckled. On reaching closer I found a short pot bellied guy smiling.He looked out of breath and his clothes were drenched in sweat.He extended his hand forward and said.

I am Deka from Assam.

Deka.what sort of name is this ?? was the first thought that came to my mind. Anyhow I shook hands with him and said.

I am Ronit ogra.

HE exchanged pleasantries with my senior and then directed us to pick 2 bags each and he would carry the remaining ones. We ,looked in awe as he slid 2 bags on his hand and then went on to pick 2 more bags in each hands and started walking with relative ease. We smiled at each other and then followed him. We directed him to my room. He took his seat on my bed while I started cleaning out his Bed. When I had finished I turned around and realized that he had dozed off in my bed. I looked around and saw his luggage. I saw that each one had a sticker with a label DEKA.

DEKA.

What kind of a name is this.

Ah.it must be his surname or his first name.

But then again who goes around with a name like  DEKA.I smiled again and then rushed off to the washroom with the words of somebody very famous who had said

What’s in the name. Well now he was destined to be with us for the next 4 years and there was nothing much that either of us could do about it .I also wondered what in the world had he brought in the large assortment of numerous suitcase and bags. This would have been  probably enough to rehabilitate a small family from the slums. Looks like there was no going back for this one. I hoped he had brought food from home ,5 days already into the hostel and I was already missing home food.

It was late in the evening when I returned from playing football with studs hanging around my neck and my tongue out of my mouth. The hostel in the distant was shining due to the lights of the individual rooms, had it not been for these lights one could completely miss the hostel in the night and walk away and only realize one’s folly when one had reached the state highway. I slowly trudged up the stairs while discussing about the today’s match with a friend.I suddenly realized that there was a lot of commotion out of my room, with the remaining strength I raced towards my room to find throngs of people standing there. Numerous things raced through my mind –

had there been a break-in, my laptop ,damn man, dad would kill me for this.

 Had there been a fight, man but a fight in my room, everybody was out playing….except the new guy DEKA….!!!

Had there been some kind of official visit, but why was everybody in my room??

As I pushed through a couple of guys to enter the room I noticed that everybody was eating and gossippin. the beds which had been separated by tables had now been combined so as to make way for more people to sit.The tables were now kept pressed to the walls and it had polybags which contained food,it took me a moment to realize what was happening.I located deka among a bunch of gujaratis telling them about the contents of the various packets.My intial reaction was to shout his name loudly and then barrage him with expletives and at the same time get rid of the crowd.But I kept my emotions in check and went up to deka and pulled him towards the verndah

What are you doing dude??

whats up with the crowd and food??

 Are you nuts..calling people like that in the room..

They could steal something…..

i have my laptop in there

He smiled. This smiling was not going to help his cause. I wanted to push him over the railings of the veranda down into the ground. He said

Chill dude…..I had brought food from home so I decided to invite everybody . Moreover mom had told me to share this with everybody. And these guys have been a real help, they helped me in setting up the room. Come on lets eat else there won’t be anything left for us and I wouldn’t want my room partner to go without food.

I couldn’t help but smile at his naïve nature . The anger vanished immediately as my stomach growled at the mention of food. He had hit me at my weakest spot. Although the mention of food had made me lose my focus for a bit , I realized he needed to be taught few things about hostel life. I said

Deka bhai. Its alright what u said. But this is not your home that you can invite everybody. Plus these are people who just came at the mention of food. None of them are your friends and don’t expect any help from them in future. Also some of them can steal things from our room. And this room is mine too, so the next time you decide to hold a langar please do inform me.

He again smiled and said

Bhai it is not necessary to make friends for help. I didnt share food with them so that I could get help from them. I just did it because mom had told me to do and I felt like doing and I apologise for not having consulted with you before but it didn’t occur to me that u would have a problem with it .Anyhow I will the next time.

I was tongue tied.

Morever the distant noises of people gobbling up food diluted my remaining anger and I said:

Lets go and get rid of these people.Over my tiffin and your food lets get introduced informally.

He smiled back and then shouted everybody to leave the room.I tried to stop him midway telling him that nobody would listen,but apparently deka magic was at action and the people emptied out of our room.and I sat down to have my food with deka thinking about his words………..