50 years of the 1971 war | 10 films that move us and make us grateful that we have our freedoms

Pavan Malhotra in 'Children of War', a bone-chilling film about war atrocities. (Image: screen grab)

In 1971, India fought a war with West Pakistan and helped create a new nation: Bangladesh. A war cry of ‘Joy Bangla’ reverberated across that nation, and the Mukti Bahini that was fighting a guerilla war, got some much-needed help from our Armed Forces.

What do I remember about the 1971 war? Mainly my dad leaving home with a strange passport that had him wear a smaller version of a fez cap in the photo. He’s still tight-lipped about that war, but will tell you even today that wars have a cost beyond just human lives.

As with many revolutions across the world, the spark was lit (in what was then East Pakistan) by students. They wanted the government to acknowledge Bangla as the official language along with Urdu.

‘Podda (Padma), Meghna, Jamuna, Tomar Amaar Thikana’ (the land of rivers Padma, Meghna and Jamuna is our land) was their slogan as the students marched in the streets of Dhaka. Planeloads and shiploads of military men arrived from Pakistan and the crackdowns began… Talks between their leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Yahya Khan had broken down… This was war.

There are stories about how India got involved. There are books about the war and its aftermath. Do read Salil Tripathi’s The Colonel Who Would Not Repent: The Bangladesh War and its Unquiet Legacy and Gary J. Bass’s The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide to understand the hows and the whys of a war that affects us as citizens of this subcontinent even today.

We celebrate the valour, the indefatigable spirit of our soldiers who can take on the enemy no matter what the terrain. We have parades to show our military might and build monuments to the bravery of fallen soldier. We also make movies so that the next gen knows of the sacrifices people have made to keep them safe. Sometimes the movies we make fall short in ‘how’ they tell these stories. Are they too sanitised? Do they celebrate only our bravery and ‘their’ cruelty and cowardice? Well here are movies that will share very different points of view about a war 50 years ago.

1. 1971: Prisoners of War

Manoj Bajpayee is a force to reckon with. As are Manav Kaul, Deepak Dobriyal, Ravi Kisen, Kumud Mishra, Chittranjan Giri and, yes, the writer actor Piyush Mishra. 1971: Prisoners of War is about Indian prisoners of war being hidden and moved around to escape international scrutiny by human rights groups and the Red Cross… But it’s the mad escape of these prisoners of war to prove that they are really alive which is beyond brilliant. You are so involved in this caper because each of these characters is so well written, that when Major Suraj Singh (Manoj Bajpayee) asks an injured Captain Kabir (Kumud Mishra), ‘Are you good to walk?’ You know he’s going to answer, ‘I’m going to try.’

2. Raazi

Based on a book Calling Sehmat, this film is about a plucky young woman who is married off to a Pakistani army officer by her Kashmiri father. She helps India’s intelligence agency by gathering information that helps the country anticipate the 1971 war. Apart from the cry of ‘I want to go home’ (that inspired a thousand memes) Alia Bhatt did a stupendous job. As did Jaideep Ahlawat and Vicky Kaushal. You can watch this film on Amazon Prime Video.

3. Children Of War

Whenever there is war, and men fight men, the biggest victims are the women. They are raped not because the soldiers are lustful, they are raped to break the spirit of the people, destroy their identity. This is a movie that will make you feel very uncomfortable. And even though the language is Hindi, it is about the Bangladesh war. And how men (Pavan Malhotra at his offensive best) keep women behind barbed wire fences to erase their pride. It feels exploitative in parts but it is a story that needs to be told. The film is shot beautifully. Raima Sen, Tillottama Shome offer us heart-rending performances.

4. Shongram

Anupam Kher is Karimuddin, who’s living in another country now, but cannot forget the most cruel war that he has lived through. Especially his love for a girl, a Hindu girl, whom he promised that he would find and save.  In an interview with a British journalist he reports of the genocide that saw 600,000 people killed simply because they wanted to be Bangla, not Pakistani.

5. Meherjaan

Victor Bannerjee is Khwaja saheb, the grandfather who tends to his garden with love. Meher grows up in a loving home, and she falls in love with a man who belongs to another religion. It’s just that the timing of their love is wrong. Bangladesh is fighting for its independence and the Pakistani soldiers are intent to shoot and kill and burn everything down. The countryside was so beautiful before the war, Meher’s walks of love across the fields and the lake are so beautiful, you are aghast at what war does to a country. The film was ahead of its time and shows a woman as a sexual being, and also talking about rape in a very different manner…

6. Ora 11 Jon

‘Those eleven people’ is the story of men fighting for their freedom. ‘Will you give me blood?’ one of them asks. And it takes an elder lady to hear what the whole country was saying, ‘For my country, yes!’ The film is available on YouTube and it shows the struggle and the trials and the tribulations young men went through to fight for their beliefs.

7. Anil Bagchir Ek Din

What is it to be a second-class citizen in your own country? Anil Baghchi is an everyman. And the war that Bangladesh finds itself in affects everyone. Those complicit as well as those involved with the fighting. War does not spare anyone. There are brave men among ordinary people, and when the Pakistani commander says, ‘We rape the Bengali women because they will give birth to a true Pakistani’, you feel a shiver go through your body. This film is on YouTube.

8. Ekhottorer Jishu

Is there anyone who can save humanity when there’s a war raging around you? This story is that of one such man - Father Desmond - the saviour of Bangladeshi fisherfolk who were Christians. Desmond decides to stay back when the Pakistani soldiers attack the villagers, and soon he finds himself saving the lives of many. The film is available on YouTube. You realise that when wars are fought, the attackers will not spare anyone…

9. Meghmallar

What does an ordinary chemistry teacher know of war? But when wearing a particular raincoat during the rains makes him a suspect of being a freedom fighter, then what happens to the family? The son has already run away to fight and the daughter is still in touch with the brother despite all warnings and fears… The story of an ordinary man forced to change because a war has been thrust upon them… The film is available on Amazon Prime Video.

10. Matir Moina or The Clay Bird

War affects grown ups, but what does it do to kids? When Anu’s father turns into a conservative Muslim in an East Pakistan on the brink of the 1971 war, he decides to change the fate of his family by choosing to send his son to a Madarsa. The film received critical acclaim and it was Bangladesh’s entry to the Oscars. What is so amazing about this film is encapsulated in one sentence that the wife says: I guess people who inflict pain on others also have pain, no?

We make films on war and there are many misses, or those that seem too illogical now because our sensibilities have changed. We know that our movies show Pakistanis say, ‘Ji janaab’ (yes sir) and they are practically bestial. Tropes to please the lowest common denominator. Among the war films that seem rather cringeworthy today - either for being too dazzled by the superstar/s, too over-the-top patriotic content or having a painfully slow narrative - were in their time received well. These are movies like 16 December, Deewar: Let’s bring our heroes home, 1971: Beyond Borders, and the 1973 film Hindustan Ki Kasam. Not that Bhuj that has recently released is very different. All we need to know is that our independence has been granted because of the sacrifice of many ordinary men who did extraordinary things. As soldiers and as everyman, let’s celebrate this freedom with gratitude.