To,
The Editor,
Bombay Times.
In reference to the film review published by Bombay Times
JANUARY, 2004
Shame on us, if we aren't able to figure out a storyline behind the film LOC, KARGIL. It is not just about a film maker, actors or the film itself, but brave sons of India who laid down their lives to protect us from adversaries. It is because of these men of honour that we are able to lead a secure and by enlarge, a comfortable life. Sitting in our luxurious living rooms, thousands of kilometers away from the line of control we forget those who guard our country's border from our not so friendly neighbours, and continue to do so, even when we enjoy a handsome sleep in our air-conditioned bedrooms.
Forget fighting it out with the enemies ourselves, it may even, not be possible for most of us to sustain living, in the world's highest and the harshest terrain battlefield. In such hostile climatic conditions, our brave soldiers had the audacity to face regular enemy shelling and gunfire from atop advantageous positions on high mountains, which flank the LOC, with outstanding courage. So isn't all this an integral part of the film too? Do we need any other spicy fiction to make it look like a story? It seems that story line for us, casual denizens of our country, is restricted to running around the trees and singing mushy songs or maybe walking hand in hand in a garden or may be some obscure daily soap penned by some schizophrenic gossip columnist.
The Kargil war, which has claimed many lives, had become an epic ever since the glorious victory of the Indian army. J.P. DUTTA just gave it a coup de^ grace by capturing it, almost exactly, in the form of a film, a war epic. Eventhough technically unmatched and factually duplicated, LOC, KARGIL has been accused of not being able to appeal to the masses, one of the reasons being its direct comparison with J.P.Dutta's previous war flick, BORDER. BORDER, though of the same genre, revolved around Longewala post during 1971 war. Since the facts relating to Longewala post alone may not have been enough to sail through the entire film, some fiction was added, which included many powerful and inspiring dialogues and an initial story build up, which left an everlasting impression on the viewer's mind. LOC, KARGIL, on the other hand included not one but numerous BORDER like stories and therefore couldn't have possibly been clubbed with any add-on masala. Therefore it is nothing, but the bloody war at its acme, with small gaps of flashbacks.
The captions of the publicity posters of the film rightly read 'BEFORE WE FORGET', as we seem to forget the main issue, the Kargil war, which seems to be dwindling amidst the film's unanticipated criticism from cynical columnists. On the whole, the film has extremely high standards of PATRIOTISM, which deserves a standing ovation.
JAI-HIND
