Fifteen years of 1971: This lesser known National Award-winning film is a tribute to India's Prisoners of War

Fifteen years ago, this day saw the release of Amrit Sagar’s National Award-winning directorial debut 1971, a rare Hindi film about Prisoners of War. Based on strongly suspected reports of Pakistan illegally keeping thousands of Indian soldiers captive, the film tells a fictional tale of a group of Indian officers, and their herculean attempt to flee from a Pakistani detention camp.  

In any other film around Indo-Pak tensions, we would probably see hyperbolic visuals of the torture and injustice meted upon Indian officers by unhinged evil Pakistani officers. However, the narrative here focuses more on the interpersonal bonding between the officers, and their collective striving to make an escape. Moments or visuals of any brutality upon the captives are kept to a minimal, and remain implied rather than graphic.

1971 is subversive in how it consistently maintains a lightness in tone even as the POW officers plan their escape.

When not struggling to lend each other hope, they survive on volleyball and infidelity jokes. Piyush Mishra, who wrote the screenplay and dialogues, infuses the narrative with certain humour that occasionally releases the tension throughout the narrative. After Subedar Ahmed sits in a corner sullen by the biased attitude of a senior officer, Suraj calmly tries to ease the mood by making a joke about his married life. Later, at a point when Kabir finds himself heavily injured and unable to walk, Suraj this time asks him about his city, its night life, and what his family does, deliberately chartering the mundane to help him forget his wound.

It is this portrayal of camaraderie that helps the film hold its ground while it progresses towards its tour-de-force chase sequences. 1971 takes off a little slow, uneven in its tone and pacing. However, once the POWs make a concrete plan for their escape, the film regains its footing, and marches on to a second half that is far more gripping and intense than the first.

It also helps that the casting is exemplary, which really get us invested in their endeavour. Among the main players, Manoj Bajpayee, who is brilliant as Major Suraj Singh, was the only famous actor in the cast back then. The rest of them, be it Manav Kaul, Kumud Mishra, or Deepak Dobriyal, were far from the popularity they boast of today. And it is really fascinating to see these actors in their initial days, with a certain freshness to their presence. Ravi Kishan too is impressively restrained, playing Captain Jacob, and it is particularly fun to see Kaul and Dobriyal, as Ram and Gurtu respectively, play a couple of jolly air force officers. In a loving tribute, these two officers break into a robust Kishore Kumar imitation from Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi while executing a ruse in front of Pakistani officials.

It is a pity that Amrit Sagar has not made too many feature films then on, for 1971 is extremely impressive in its crafting, equally finessed on script and execution levels, though there are occasional moments when the execution does not match the grandeur of the text. Sagar also displays a great flair for building tension, particularly visible in moments here when Ram [Kaul> and Gurtu [Dobriyal> see the shopkeepers suddenly shut the market and flee away, or when Ahmed realises the need to quickly find another bomb to trigger the explosion as planned.

The whole film is about these prisoners’ escape from the other side of the Line Of Control, and yet we barely hear them singing praises of their motherland. We hear them talk about their hometowns, their favourite fruits, their hope to meet their family again. But in their lack of thoughts about their nation, there is a very subtle comment upon how despite the strong yearning to return to their nation, they shall perhaps need to discover their patriotism all over again — for if Pakistan had kept them hostage, the Indian government too did not seem to take strong initiative towards their repatriation.

We love and prefer to valourise our officers, instead of ensuring their well-being while they are alive. This is a film about one of the countless tragic outcomes of the 1971 war, the one that we rarely talk about, capturing the other grey-shaded side of the messy relationship between a government and its officers. In 2013, with D-Day, Nikkhil Advani had briefly but deftly captured a similar plight of our RAW officers who risk it all, fully aware of the very probable abandonment by their own government at any vulnerable point.

1971 hence recounts a very important chapter of our modern history. This story of abandonment and hope is what makes 1971 stand out amongst the legion of countless war films, also explaining why it probably does not enjoy similar popularity as other war films. The ending of the film is bleak, despite all the hope and humanity at display, reminding us that perhaps the good does not win all the time. Sometimes, it dies in front of their own, and still does not get recognised.

Around the same time, a film like Namaste London was selling a different, more palatable kind of patriotism to mainstream film viewers. The NRI brand of patriotism ushered in by Karan Johar amongst others. Amidst that horde, 1971 must have stuck out like a sore thumb. Made on a budget of Rs 5 crore, the film could barely recover its cost. Apparently, the last two years have lent the film its much-needed audience and appreciation on YouTube. And yet, it possibly cannot make up for the royal ignore it received at the box office back then.  

Another remarkable aspect of the film’s writing is how it paints a balanced view of the other side. Pakistani officials are still relatively shrewd and deceitful, but there is an air of insecurity to their evil. Also, their Machiavelli is rife with internal conflicts and strain, which makes our protagonists’ escape all the more interesting. While Suraj Singh and his mates attempt to flee despite all the obstacles, we also see the superseded Pakistani officials deal with everyone, from their human rights commission members to non-cooperation from their own civilians to skeptical questioning from some of their officers. In a brilliant confrontational scene, we see a senior official’s ego crumbling down as he is forced to answer the questions of a female Human Rights commission official, while his voice keeps raising — and yet, the film’s view of them remains critical. 1971 went on to prove that there are alternative ways to tell stories of this never-ending conflict without resorting to jingoism or bashing.

Piyush Mishra smartly saves the best role for himself, playing Major Bilaal Malik, a zealous yet level-headed officer who knows how to keep it cool, and yet cannot hide behind the façade of bureaucracy. At one point, he voices out loud the futility of keeping the Indian soldiers captive, both on moral and logistical grounds, with such high stakes of the International Red Cross being at investigation. But then, he quickly cuts off his trail of thought, realising that if heard by his authorities, he shall be immediately labeled a traitor — and he goes back to puffing his cigarette. Bilaal is a Pakistani official, but at that moment, his fear cuts across to us Indian viewers too, for we now know what it means to be called an ‘anti-national’ merely for pursuing reason and rationale.  

1971 is a rare war movie that understands that any war leaves victims on both sides, and of all types — just that some of them stay alive, continuing to smoke their cigarettes, still bothered by the moral dubiousness of it all.

BH Harsh is a film critic who spends most of his time watching movies and making notes, hoping to create, as Peggy Olsen put it, something of lasting value.

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