Another Bhuj: The Pride Of India Trailer Has Dropped, And We’re More Baffled Than Ever About What Is Happening
They say history is written by the winning side, so don’t just blindly believe on everything you read. It could be biased. But here’s an addendum to this saying. History is rewritten by those making films about it. I could take a historic figure whose contributions have been hidden in the pages of history and make a blockbuster about it, and suddenly they’d become a pop culture phenomenon that would stay in public memory for ages. I am pretty sure there are people who think Lagaan legit happened, or all those romantic subplots that real historical figures get in our Bollywood movies were actually true. I’m going to apply this same analogy to a more recent, hitherto unreleased film, the Ajay Devgn starrer Bhuj: The Pride Of India, and talk about just how baffling its trailer messaging is.
What is Bhuj: The Pride Of India about?
Independence Day aaye our ek patriotic film naa aaye, aise toh haalat nahin! Releasing on August 13 on Disney+Hotstar VIP, Bhuj: The Pride Of India is produced by T-Series, Ajay Devgn Ffilms and Select Media Holdings LLP. It is directed by Abhishek Dudhaiya, and written by him along with Raman Kumar, Ritesh Shah and Pooja Bhavoria. It stars Ajay Devgn in the leading role as IAF Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik who, back in 1971 during the Indo-Pak War, was in-charge of the IAF’s Bhuj airstrip. Pakistan launched massive repeated airstrikes on this strip with napalm bombs, destroying it and halting IAF’s war efforts. In the wake of this emergency, and a dearth of labourers, 300 locals most of which were women from the Madhapar village, helped rebuild the airstrip in just three days by working overnight.
Alongside Devgn, the film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sonakshi Sinha, Nora Fatehi, Sharad Kelkar, and Ammy Virk amongst others.
Let’s talk about the problems with the trailers
I missed shared my usual Haute Thoughts with you when the first Bhuj: The Pride Of India trailer dropped. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t have anything to say. In fact, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “Oh God, one more film about our history?” I know the wolves will descend on me for this, but I think we’re doing really great so far with making movies about problems that are relevant to our current socio-political climate, thank you very much. We don’t need to rehash our history at this stage, because honestly none of those lessons are going to help. That’s like telling someone with depression to “just smile and try to feel better”.
But okay, in hindsight, I might see the appeal of churning out a patriotic film that is also about courage and resilience and making the impossible, possible ATM. But if you’re going to do it, if you’re going to talk about history, at least do it properly? Give the proper people the credit?
The first trailer has every character talk in rhymes. Including your mandatory ‘evil Pakistani general’ (or at least that’s what I think he is) that no war film in Bollywood is complete without. I mean, WTF is with that? Is this a kavi sammelan that we didn’t get a memo about? The film has been marketed as some kind of a biopic on Squadron Leader Karnik. Which, okay, I understand. Reportedly, he and the sarpanch of the village were instrumental in convincing the villagers to help out. Karnik trained these women in how to hide in case there were more air strikes while they were labouring.
Okay, all fair. But you cannot deny that these women are so so so important to this piece of history. The reparation was the combined efforts of the IAF officers and these women. So why is everything else shown in such detail but we get like one tiny glimpse of these women at work?
And finally, the CGI, which is terrible. I am very rarely dismissive of movies at this early stage, because it is the product of so many people’s hard work and effort. But the reason I feel obligated to talk about it here is because you can clearly see that a lot of money has been wasted in elaborate dance sequences (which have no place in a war film). If am boldly assuming budget wasn’t an issue here; who would say no to investing in a patriotic film hitting screens on Independence Day, right? But if budget was an issue, why spend so much on song sequences when you could spend that money on hiring technicians that let me remind you do award-winning CGI for Hollywood films!?
Also Read: 5 Thoughts We Had About Chura Ke Dil Mera 2.0: Shilpa Shetty Is Fire In This Version That Wasn’t Needed But Isn’t Half Bad.
So are we respecting women or objectifying them in this film?
The first Bhuj: The Pride Of India trailer has me assuming that Nora Fatehi is some kind of Indian double agent who uses her charm and her body to infiltrate and then betray the Pakistani big baddie. I could be wrong, but filhaal this is what it looks like. Again, a very very very (raised to the power of 100) basic trope that we’ve seen so many times in Bollywood movies. Like could it have been anything else? Were female spies only ever used for honey traps? I don’t know, if you’re going to take creative liberty to give a war hero a romantic track where he sings and dances, or mouths poetic lines at the drop of a hat, like he probably didn’t IRL, take some more and write a better character for the female soldier na? One which does not involve an item song with lyrics like ‘Zaalima Coca Cola Pila De’! Is it too much to ask? Am I reaching for the stars here?
Really, what are these lyrics? Did the composers think having Shreya Ghoshal sing and adding a hint of semi-classical is going to make these lyrics fit into the 1971 vibe? Also, who in their right mind will not see all the innuendo that can emerge from these lyrics, seriously, guys?
On one end, we’re going to be applauding the courage and toil of these women villagers who helped the IAF by building this airstrip in record time. But the very next moment, please come enjoy trashy lyrics that don’t exactly fit the era they’re being sung in, kyunki who cares about historic accuracy?
Cultural appropriation much?
Speaking of songs, lyrics and inaccuracies, Bhuj: The Pride Of India has two more released songs which I couldn’t digest. In keeping with the trend of having some Punjabi in every Bollywood song as a matter of rule now, you have Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik who, as much as my research allowed me to know, is a Maharashtrian, singing a song with Punjabi words in it in ‘Hanjugam’. Pranitha Subhash, the actress who plays Devgn’s wife (FYI, she’s 23 years his junior, but oh well) is clearly clad in Maharashtrian attire. I wasn’t born in that era but I am low-key betting, Punjabi music wasn’t as much a rage back then as it is now. Toh matlab why are the lyrics in Punjabi? Why? Why? Why?
Actually, chalo, that is still a hole you can fill in with some stretched logic. I really lost my calm when I heard the song ‘Bhai Bhai’ which if it sounds familiar, you first heard used in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram Leela. It’s actually a Gujarati folk theatre form called ‘Bhavai’, which again you would’ve heard Aishwarya Rai’s Nandini explain to Sameer Hawa Ka Jhonka (Bhaijaan) in another Bhansali film years ago. Anyhoo, the song is pictured on Sanjay Dutt, who is a villager in 1971 Bhuj, a state in Gujarat. Now with this information fresh in your head, I urge you to listen to the song. And I trust the problem will reveal itself to you organically.
If not, let me explain. The Gujarati bits are force fit into this song, which otherwise has lyrics like ‘kutte ke pille’ and are sung by Mika Singh, a voice that is so synonymous with the Bollywood dance songs of our times that I cannot digest it in this setting. Remove the Gujarati bits and this could just be any other contemporary song that Mika Paaji has sung recently, like ‘Hawa Hawa’. Couldn’t we have used a Gujarati folk singer here?
If you think at this point I am just a cynic with a box of complaints, there’s someone else who has an issue with this song. Gujarati folk singer Arvind Vegda has also said that the makers need to give due credit to the folk format and the artists in the film’s credits.
Bhuj: The Pride Of India looks like it is made with a very singular intention. And you know what? I miss the ignorance we had before when we could watch movies and not spot these problematic things because the bliss made everything look hunky dory. Unfortunately, we’ve grown up and so has our tastes in cinema. But could Bollywood at least try, just to keep up appearances, to make it look like it cares about getting things right? Must history be lost or over-exaggerated in translation, in such callous manner?
