Skip to main content

Kuddelmuddel

As soon as the newbie lawyer reaches the valley, he facetiously remarks, "wahan sirf terrorists marte hain, army wale nahi? ". This line is what the writers of shaurya must defend. The reason why an age-old movie makes a mention today is to signify how crudely "Aman ki Asha" was shoved down the throat of millions of unsuspecting Indians. Morarji Desai was given Nishan-e-Pakistan for his contributions to the State of Pakistan, including sabotaging the RAW mission to extract and prevent the nuclear program in Pakistan. The second person who was this close to the Pakistani establishment has to A. S. Daulat. One who was said to know everything about Kashmir, but instead of working out a solution, he kept the status quo, enjoying a leveraged position from the government and the separatists of the valley, selling a dream of peace which kept his coffers filling. 

At this time, India wanted to make a case for its pacifism, showing the west it was a follower of the Gandhian dogma to be slapped in both faces instead of one. One that Shaurya tries to portray with the character of Siddhant Choudary (Rahul Bose)

shows a progressive, free-spirited approach that clashes with Major Pratap (Kay Kay Menon). Sid feels deeply about his father's heroism as a personal loss; he dislikes that people don't love the army as they do their pets. To an extent, Sid so detests the military that you would beg him to quit his job. 

But that's only where some troubles with the narrative start. A lead actress is a media person with whom Sid develops a bond and confides in his deepest fears. This goes on to explain how the Indians were made to believe that the media somehow was a more empathetic companion to international happens than the army. Although none in the military (I can vouch on that even from my experience in the cadet corps) with ever entertain such an idea, when the country and sacrifice of thousands of army men are in question, none of the media houses which thrive on TRP and NGO funds are to be believed. This premise is not foreign to Indians, who have seen prominent media figures leak key army locations, which were ultimately military disasters, however, the government kept showering laurels on them. 

To credit where it's due, the movie does present a case for the potential misuse of power and ordnance in places of continuous military action, often with a bias and prejudice that stems from personal reasons. And that would demand officers be diligent and mindful of their orders. But this should be no excuse for indiscipline. Instead, in the true army spirit, what better serves the country is the proper duty of a soldier. 

Popular posts from this blog

Birth of a flood - a poet's admire of rain

The sky is almost dark, save for those last golden tinges that would fade in no time. As palm trees mark the oblivion, a muddy reflection forms the ground. The last few days were mostly rainy. So profound is our love for rain. And why wouldn't we? Unlike most other seasons, rain is so tender. A drop of patience which is about to reach its final destiny. Every time I look at raindrops, they remind me of a struggle. A journey that begins with summer in an aura of dry and burning heat. And in no time, the drop loses its sources. The long-held identity of its mother. With the loss of identity, an awakening awaits. The pleasure of reaching out and bonding. As our drop moves up and up the end of the sky, it realises the futility of pride and the necessity to bond. This comes with age. Not until it is near Earth does it agree to meet with other wanderers of the new world. And finally, all our drops reach the cold atmosphere. The coldness makes life dreary and lonely. As the youthfulne...

Turning back from pull to push

Two recent campaigns deserve attention from marketing enthusiasts, one of Campa Cola (reenergised by the Reliance Group) and of Tata Sampann's species. The challenges these two brands face are too distinct from one another. Campa, on the one hand, aims to fight the global brands like Pepsi and Coca-Cola, whereas Sampann looks to create a market in indian spices that has been dominated by local players like MDH and Everest. However, their strategies have something in common: getting the distributors to stock more of their products on the shelves. Campa is offering the distributors twice the margins, while Sampann is leveraging its vast portfolio to make stocking only Tata products a win for the distributors. Image credit: Economic Times To understand why this is happening, and what makes this interesting, one has to look back on the history of marketing, more specifically the shift from a push to a pull-based marketing, where the focus of the brands shifted from pushing their produc...
Ideas and beliefs are abstract terms. In fact, the triumph of humans in the race of the intellectual has been attributed to our understanding of the abstract. No other animal in this world builds a society because it understands society as a concept. They merely do so to enhance their food and livelihood security. But for humans, some reasons arise out of understanding the abstract. If our knowledge is to be stripped down to bones, we might find that we are slaves to our abstraction. We revere value in paper notes, honour in metal medals and fear in stone statues. Ideas are what have made this imaginative creature the ruler of the planet. Our success as a species rests on the coherence and usefulness of the ideas we bear. So, the concepts passed upon to us or occur to us in episodes of creative hallucination can change the face of this earth. So, it is the most remarkable creation of humans and, thus, the origin of property. This blog aims to capture some of such thoughts. Believe, or ...