A brave attempt

Ajay Devgn is making the most unlikely sequel to the “paisa-vasool” entertainer of 2012 ‘Son of Sardar’. Breaking away from the trend of making a sequel, which is an extension of the feel and aura of the original like in the case of a ‘Dabangg’ or a ‘Raaz’. Devgn and team, is attempting to bring one of the biggest classic story of 21 brave men.

‘Sons of Sardar: Battle of Saragarhi’ will educate us about the legend of 21 Sikhs, who stood up to no less than 10,000 Afghans. As the legend goes, 21 Sikh men lead by one Sardar Ishar Singh resisted an Afghan attack at small border village post of Saragarhi on September 12, 1897. None of them survived. But before they died they ensured that they took almost 600 Afghans with them. Today, it is rated as military history’s most epic last stand in the world.

This story is surely an epic and is such a heartwarming glorious chapter of our history that it should have been publicised to our kids. Bollywood, which generally has remained wedded to routine masala, seems to have woken up to different genres and stories in the last five years. Therefore, Devgn and team have taken a smart market decision too.

But we need to appreciate what Ajay Devgn is doing here as a producer. For a country, which has fought numerous wars and invasions ever since its birth we have not given military and our defenders of the border the kind of respect they deserve in terms of sheer Bollywood limelight. In fact, we have made probably 5,000 movies, where an army officer is involved in a love triangle and probably 15 decent war films.

For a nation that is one of the world’s biggest cinema producers with a rich history of war and army, this is an unpardonable fact. ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ also will bring to the fore the fact that Sikh history is beyond Bhagat Singh, Banda Singh Bahadur and Maharaja Ranjit Singh – With due respect to these great men.

I mean this. Ask yourself how many of you have heard of a Havaldar Ishar Singh or Gurumukh Singh. How many of you ever did a Google search on this great battle before Ajay Devgn announced it as a maker?

This is one attempt most of us should be proud of and look forward to as Indian cinema buffs. We should hope that Ajay Devgn is able to bring the scale of that night of September 1897 to us.

We also need to understand that we do not have many movies made during the period that we were ruled by the British, which look at incidents that can make us proud of being Indians. ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ is one such incident.

There is one more reason why I feel Ajay Devgn is doing the youngsters of India and probably Punjab through this epic. It is a story, which can breed positivity in the younger generation that does not have too many modern patriotism filled movies to fall back on. The last one in my book, which had a good mix of patriotism for the modern generation, was ‘Rang De Basanti’.

We have not made many period films, which show war and sacrifice. The last one that surely does not qualify as a period film was ‘Lakshya’. That one as I recall came more than ten years ago.

This one is a huge gamble too; the current generation could find it boring and too mushy. It could bomb because the modern audience prefers global superheroes to the local ones from a history that is almost 125 years ago. Precisely, this is the reason why ‘Battle of Saragarhi’ is an attempt that deserves a big kudos.

By: Rahul Deo Bharadwaj