A Rebuttal of ‘Gunjan Saxena – The Kargil Girl’ by a Kargil Veteran
I’m proud to have been a combatant of Indian Air Force, and the Kargil war in which I flew 13 live missions, and was awarded Mention in Despatches by the President of India.
An Opinion by Wg Cdr ROHIT BERI (RETD)
While I remain proud of the opportunity I got to serve the country, I’m dismayed at how media projects these realities.
I am awfully sad that IAF has been depicted in poor light in a Bollywood style movie -Gunjan Saxena – that is streaming on Netflix.
The alleged gender situations shown in the movie are ridiculous, false, and downright disturbing. All soldiers: women or men; Air Force or Army, have never and will never face discrimination on basis of sex, caste, or creed.
The operational accuracy in the movie is even worse, but that’s a story for another day .
I don’t understand movie contracts but would like to believe that the main protagonist wasn’t aware of how the movie will turn out in the end.
She was an exceptional officer and a professional during her time in the IAF.
I would like all the young citizens to know that Indian Air Force will be a very rewarding career choice should they be inclined to choose it anytime.
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This post first appeared on Linkedin.
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Nicely put across. I saw this movie only because so much controversy erupted around it. So, controversy pays and film people knows that. I agree that the film has been distanced from real life in the IAF. But in my humble opinion we should not pay too much attention to it. It would not dent the image of IAF in any way. I doubt if people would ever judge an institution by what they see in main stream cinema.
It is a typical and unfortunate case of the moviemakers running for TRPs rather than stick to the fact. Unfortunately, public perception is moulded in these soft ways at times.
Absolutely agree. Unscrupulous movie makers running after TRPs and adding tit-bits to the script to make it controversial is in bad taste.
To read another reaction to the film by an Air Force veteran, CLICK HERE
Sir, U r right but the issue is that the movie has been portrayed as a biopic of a real person & she has endorsed the film in a way by keeping mum on the controversy that has erupted. If the movie had been titled & made on some fictitious character with a addendum somewhere stating that it’s just based on Gunjan Saxena, then all this brouhaha would not have taken place with all involved parties at peace. But when u title the movie as such, then all picturised events in it r construed as real time happenings in the person’s life, by the common public.
Totally endorse the view. When a ‘reel-life’ biopic claims to not just inspired by, but a retelling of the ‘real-life’, it hurts the services the maximum. The gender biases and the discrimination in the movie are downright blasphemous, to say the least.
Bollywood must be made to appoint a senior veteran as a Guide/Ombudsman whenever they are planning a movie based on military events/personalities. Getting the ethos of the service wrong or portraying it in a bad light is even worse than getting the uniform badges and brevets wrong.
To read another reaction to the movie by an air Force veteran, CLICK HERE