JOIN USNeerja, Shahid, Black Friday, Mumbai Meri Jaan, A Wednesday, Fanaa, Aamir, Amu, Sarfarosh, Dil Se, December 16, Holiday, Baby, Roja, Bombay, Fiza, Mission Kashmir, Main Hoon Na are some of the Hindi films released in the last 2 decades. Most of them are films made post the 1993 serial bombings in Bombay. The central plot is terrorism!
There is a particular thread which links these movies — the hard hitting, violent, painful subject of terrorism is handled with care and sensitivity. No one comes out of the theatre cringing and scared to face next day. One more thread that binds them together — protagonists of these films are either superb actors or are handled by outstanding directors. Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Nasseruddin Shah, Anupam Kher, Akshay Kumar, Arvind Swamy, Rajkumar Rao, Konkona Sen Sharma, Manisha Koirala, Kajol, Madhu, Sonam Kapoor and all others who have acted in these films, know their art and essay it well.
And people who have been handling these subjects are veteran directors like Mani Ratnam, Vidhu Vinod Chopra to youngsters like Anurag Kashyap, Kabir Khan, Shoojit Sarcar to novices like Raj Kumar Gupta, Ram Madhwani, Niraj Pandey, Shonali Bose and others.
The latest one to join this elite club is Neerja, directed by Ram Madhwani. Based on a real life incident, Neerja was handled with such expertise that even a non-actor like Sonam Kapoor, essaying the title role, was appreciated for acting skills. Though it was all about terrorists storming a plane, hijacking passengers and shooting down an airhostess in the scuffle, the handling of the film came across as an inspiring tale of bravery, rather than the brutality of terrorism.
Another splendid film on terror is Shahid, directed by Hansal Mehta, starring Rajkumar Rao. For his delicate handling of a sensitive subject, Mehta was awarded the National Award for best director, and Rajkumar for best actor. Once again based on a real-life story, it followed the life of Mumbai-based Shahid, who after a brief period of militant training camp in POK, returns to Mumbai and is arrested. Seven years in jail and later acquitted, he goes on to study law and starts defending Muslims charged for terrorism.
Kashmir’s ugly face
Any depiction of terrorism is incomplete without the mention of Kashmir. And director Mani Ratnam has portrayed the ugly face of terrorism in Kashmir, in a deft manner. In fact Ratnam has so far directed 5 films in Hindi of which 3 — Roja, Dil Se and Bombay were based on terrorism. Beautifully made, these films had great music, great acting and superb hard-hitting stories told with a velvet glove. The horrors of terrorism or communal riots were not watered down, but were juxtaposed with subtlety.
The best example is Roja. One can probably label it as a pioneer of handling this subject with utter care, without hurting any sentiments, without taking away the hard core problem and the pain it triggers but with beautiful poetry woven in every frame and dialogue. The terrorist, played by Pankaj Kapoor, was shown so humane, trusting, without understanding the consequences of his actions and absolutely confused, depicting the exact mental condition of many young Kashmiri youth.
Similarly, Ratnam handled Shah Rukh Khan and Manisha Koirala in the film Dil Se. This time he shifted gears from Kashmir to the Northeast where All India Radio programme executive, SRK, is sent to cover, the festivities of Assam. He falls in love with a girl, Manisha, without realising that she is being trained as a suicide bomber by an extremist group.
Amu is probably the only film, which showcased the Sikh riots of Delhi in the aftermath of the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Directed by Shonali Bose, the film went on to win the National Award for the best feature film in 2005. Bose had the brilliant Konkona Sen Sharma as the main protagonist. Konkana had already done another film Mr and Mrs Iyer based on terrorism directed by her mother Aparna Sen. So she knew her subject and fitted the role.
The only sad part of these films is that unless there is a big star cast, films on terrorism don’t bring in the moolah. They also encounter many hurdles with the Censor Board of Films. For example Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday dealing with Mumbai blasts, was held up by Censor Board for years. In fact, it was Shahid who fought the case in the court and the reason why Anurag decided to produce the film Shahid based on his life. Another film which faced problem was Amu. Though it won accolades worldwide and won the National Award too, it never got a commercial release as the Censor Board had asked for too many cuts. In the end, the film was released only on DVD format!
These are only a few examples. But films which get released are a real treat to watch.