Subhash K Jha is once again focussing on a film that is well, maybe, not the best in this edition of This Day That Drivel: as he revisits Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, which released in 2002.
If only wishes were cabinet portfolios. Bihari Babu Shatrughan Sinha plays an idealistic Home Minister battling militancy in the Valley. The Kashmir problem was so poorly depicted in Vinod Chopra’s Mission Kashmir and Tinu Verma’s Maa Tujhe Salaam that any attempt to tackle the core issue, albeit on a basic and simplistic level, raises our interest level in the potboiler genre of the Hindi commercial cinema.
Director Osho Raja, who earlier made some unsuccessful mixed-up mainstream films under his real name Ashok Tyagi, tackles the issue on a strictly “filmy” level. Except for the conflicted militant Shabbir (Chandrachur Singh), the characters are all one-dimensional heroes from the Indian government services and villains, naturally from the other side of the Kashmir border, perpetrating mayhem and friction in the once-peaceful Valley.
Shatrughan Sinha gets a chance to play a politician on screen. He’s the upright Home Minister Mahendra Survanyvanshi, who won’t compromise on his principles even if he has to make personal sacrifices. Hence, when his schoolteacher wife (Jaya Pradha) and college-going son Chintu (newcomer Vikram Aditya), along with a busload of students, are kidnapped by militants, Mahendra refuses to relent to their demands.
The negotiations reach a head when an army officer, Major Abdul Hameed (Puru Raj Kumar, late veteran Raj Kumar’s son), raids the militants’ hideout but is captured. The climax has the male protagonists joining hands to defeat the militants while Shabbir (shown in flashbacks to be a victim of BSF excesses in his hometown) surrenders arms and returns to the Indian fold, thanks to the nurturing tactics of the Home Minister’s kidnapped wife who convinces Shabbir that he’s like a family member who doesn’t stop belonging to the family just because he has moved away angrily.
Facile solutions to deep-rooted socio-political problems are offered with a disarming directness. Director Osho Raja seems to have made his film from the heart, and never mind the broad pro-government slant of his thematic arguments that push the narrative dangerously close to government-sponsored propaganda. Within a limited budget and an even more restricted creative ambit, Raja manages to have his say in an unapologetically loud, jingoistic way.
Though the severe budgetary and continuity crises crop up intermittently, the narrative holds together thanks to Nadeem Khan’s photography and the director’s dogged determination to see his thesis through to the last boom-and-bang-filled shots.
Music and other “filmy” devices, such as young romance, are used with merciful infrequency. The songs are largely reworked versions of patriotic classics like ‘Allah tero naam’, which the director imposes emphatically on his exaggerated idealism. Militancy as a gripping formula isn’t quite what the bureaucrats in the national defence counsel advice as a solution to the Kashmir imbroglio.
But Osho Raja has made an effort to project a core of genuine concern for the Kashmir crisis within the lowbrow mainstream format. When judged within its simplistic format and genre, the film isn’t half as pointless and exasperating as the mushy love stories that infest the cinema halls with epidemic persistence. At least Osho Raja dares to dream, never mind the garish colours of his imagination.
Both Shatrughan Sinha and Jaya Pradha are chosen for their offscreen images as parliamentarians. They’re convincing for what they represent rather than the way they enact their holier-than-thou parts. Chandrachur Singh, as the conflicted terrorist, and Shadaab Khan, as his unrepentant lieutenant, look more lost than motivated by their mission. Two retired actresses Vidya Sinha (remember her from the breezy Basu Chatterjee comedies in the 1970s?) and Tabu’s sister Farha make mercurial appearances. Maybe they just wanted to be part of the film’s blunt message of peace.
Puru Raj Kumar displays a surprising agility in his commando’s part. He should be cast more often in action roles. As for the newcomers, they are forgotten when the film is over. Ironically, even as Osho Raja wants to give peace a chance, his soundtrack reverberates with the sounds of roaring guns and exploding bombs. What would happen to films about terrorism if the malady was eradicated from from the world map?
