120 Bahadur

In the last decade, Hindi cinema has witnessed a surge of patriotic historical dramas, each striving to present tales of courage rooted in pivotal moments of India’s past. Within this landscape, 120 Bahadur, directed by Razneesh “Razy” Ghai, sets its sights on one of the most stirring chapters of the 1962 Sino-Indian conflict. Farhan Akhtar steps into the challenging role of Major Shaitan Singh, the charismatic commander whose steadfast leadership during the Battle of Rezang La has long been revered but insufficiently explored on film. The result is a work that marries emotional solemnity with the visceral spectacle of war, aiming to honour a legacy that remains vital to national memory.

1962 का समय। हिन्दी-चीनी भाई-भाई के नारे को ठोकर मारते हुए चीन ने भारत की पीठ में खंजर भोंका था। उसी युद्ध में 18 नवंबर, 1962 को लद्दाख के रेज़ांग ला में एक ऐसी अनोखी लड़ाई लड़ी गई थी जिसमें 120 वीर सिपाहियों की चार्ली कंपनी ने मेजर शैतान सिंह की अगुआई में तीन हज़ार चीनी सैनिकों से भिड़ते हुए उन्हें पीछे हटने पर मजबूर कर दिया था। उस लड़ाई में मात्र 6 सैनिक जीवित बचे थे और मेजर शैतान सिंह समेत बाकी वीरों ने मौत को गले लगाया था। बाद में मेजर शैतान सिंह को मरणोपरांत परमवीर चक्र और उनके सिपाहियों में से आठ को वीर चक्र, एक को अति विशिष्ट सेवा मैडल, चार को सेना पदक व अन्य सम्मान दिए गए। अगर उस दिन ये लोग वहां डट कर नहीं रहते तो चीन भारत में काफी अंदर तक कब्ज़ा कर चुका होता। उन्हीं वीर अहीर सिपाहियों और राजपूत मेजर शैतान सिंह भाटी के अदम्य साहस को सलाम करती है निर्माता फरहान अख्तर की यह फिल्म ‘120 बहादुर’। फरहान अख्तर इसके लिए प्रशंसा के हकदार हैं।

Partly by choice, partly through circumstance, 120 Bahadur is out of sync with the times. Razneesh Ghai’s film, about a famous battle in the Sino-Indian war of 1962, chooses to be stirring, even square. Most Hindi war films adopt a very different tone now. Some viewers might be reminded of the wholesomeness of Lakshya, directed by Farhan Akhtar, 120 Bahadur’s lead actor. That film was made 21 years ago but it may as well be 40 considering how little it has in common with hard, cynical, triumphant films like Uri and Shershaah and Fighter.

It’s heart piercing when sole survivor Sepoy Ramlal Yadav (Ankit Siwach) makes it back to camp. But debriefing will be made credible only when the weather clears for facts to be verified. There are certain stories of valour that must be documented and the martyrdom of Major Shaitan Singh (Farhan Akhtar) who defended and saved India’s Chushul airfield from the Chinese, falls into this category. A cinematically unchronicled victory on the 1962 war with China, 120 soldiers put their lives on the line against a 3,000 strong enemy bent upon dining at Chushul the next evening.

Shorn of jingoism, free of gratuitous frills and delivered with fitting deference to the memory of the Indian soldiers (many of them unsung) who laid down their young lives in the battle of Rezang La in 1962, 120 Bahadur is a Bollywood war movie of a refreshingly different timbre. Directed by Razneesh “Razy” Ghai and written by Rajiv G. Menon with dialogues by Sunit Arora, 120 Bahadur strikes a balance between emotion and action in its fictionalisation of a military face-off that took a heavy toll of lives but helped India stop China from marching into Ladakh.

You want to believe 120 Bahadur is a different historical drama. It’s from the makers of Lakshya (2004). The enemy is not Pakistan. It’s inspired by a passage of the 1962 Sino-Indian war. The optics speak to a more modern movement of resistance. The regiment in question is made up almost entirely of the Ahir community, a telling choice in the aftermath of the Indian farmers’ protest. The landscape is Ladakh. The film even addresses that there were doubts about the authenticity of the fabled Battle of Rezang La, where 120 Indian soldiers are said to have defended a pass against more than 3000 Chinese soldiers; both countries had their own versions. You also want to believe it knows the distinction between patriotism and jingoism. You just want to believe.

As civilians, most of us are not familiar with war fields. We hear stories from folklore, listen to ballads of valour, and then there is cinema. When you think about such a space, what’s the most heartrending image that appears in your mind? To me, it’s a soldier’s wallet – the one he carries into battle. However dramatic that might sound, it usually has a picture of his loved ones – spouse, children, parents. In Razneesh ‘Razy’ Ghai’s 120 Bahadur, too, we get a fleeting moment like that. For once, I thought to myself, why is it important to show it? The answer is more of a question rather. As we live safely nestled in our homes, catching the war news bulletin with our loved ones, do we think about a soldier’s family or his or her life at all?