Defence and Police forces in Indian Cinema

Chandragupta · Post by **Chandragupta** » 12 Jan 2010 14:12

CalvinH wrote:
Brando wrote:Its been a while since I've seen any recent Bollywood movies but in the movie Border, I remember clearly that one of the "heros" carried actually carried an anti-tank mine and placed it behind a retreating tank in the midst of a hail of gunfire and bombs. That scene was truly hilarious!
Its logical. One can carry a land mine and do it. The illogical part was that the puki tank commander sees the guy carrying a landmine coming towards the tank and orders the driver to reverse (in fear) as if the guy will lift the tank and put the landmine under it.

Hahaha, that was hilarious. "Iske hath me to anti-tank mine hai!! Tank peeche lo, tank peeche lo!"

I can watch Lakshya over & over again. I get goosebumps everytime that song comes on screen ("Han yehi rasta hai tera"), what a motivational song that is & the brilliant depiction of the IMA.

As far as police movies are concerned, though Sarfarosh was more entertaining (with a hot Sonali Bendre as the eye candy

), Sehar was extremely well made I thought. A relief from the regular Bollywood nonsense where policemen are always wearing their tinch uniforms in a surprise encounter.

atreya · Post by **atreya** » 12 Jan 2010 14:15

On another note, does anyone know whether R&AW has ever been realistically portraryed on the big screen??

There is one movie starring Milind Soman, called "December 16", wherein, he is some intelligence agent who wears NSG uniform!

And whom do they use to crack codes? A schoolboy who is a video game addict!!

God help us all, if THAT is the reality!!

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 12 Jan 2010 14:43

RayC wrote:
I liked the TV serial Fauji since it was near perfect except officers of his rank could not have lived in such palatial houses. I wondered if even Generals can!

Only in Pakistan

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 12 Jan 2010 15:11

Singha wrote:and Vijeta was mid 80s

Totally agreed. That was a well made movie. And perhaps a bit of "National Integration" to boot. A Sikh boy meeting a Mallu Christian girl in Hyderabad

. Amrish Puri did a splendid job as Wg.Cmdr Varghese.

Among the recent ones I watched I liked Lakshya.

ASPuar wrote:2. Sarfarosh (The writer didnt know the difference between a Mumbai Police ACP and an IPS officer, but other wise the movie was fantastic).

Cant an ACP be a new IPS recruit? ACP (Assistant Commissioner of Police), the three star chap generally would be a Dy S.P from the state police service. But an entry level IPS officer can also be posted in the same place. If my understanding is correct entry level IPS chaps generally take charge as Sub.Divisional Police Officer (SDPO). The senior IPS chap would be the Addl.CP (Additional Commissioner of Police) who is like two ranks below the CP.

In the police movies I also liked Satya (and the no non-sense Inspector Khandelkar). Heard that the movie Ardh Satya (starring Om Puri) is also a good police movie, which also shows the dark side of the force (policemen-politician nexus).

Aside: In Malayalam there is one actor Suresh Gopi (many call him "Gopi Saar") who specialises in police action movies. The best part is that he regularly gets promotions as well. He started of as a "Police Commissioner" (eq. to Supt. of Police), then slowly picked up ranks and has crossed the DIG and now is in the IG rank

. Guess if this goes on, he would soon be at the DGP level

.

ASPuar · Post by **ASPuar** » 12 Jan 2010 16:28

Sachin,

.

Yes, it was a minor nitpick, but youre right of course. It is completely possible that Aamir Khan was a trainee IPS officer, posted as SDPO, but in practical experience, it is unlikely, because Mumbai police almost never has ACP's from the IPS. If you check the civil list, you will find that all of the IPS trainees/SDPO's are posted in the districts. And the sort of investigations he was undertaking seemed to be of the type that at least a fairly seasoned case officer would handle.

Finally, he mentioned in the film, that he took training under "Saleem", a Maha Pol Inspector. I would imagine that this could happen only at the Maharashtra Police Academy....

But yes, it was a minor nitpick, and as you say, it is entirely possible that he could be an SDPO. Either way, it was a great movie.

Aditya G · Post by **Aditya G** » 12 Jan 2010 21:51

I watched "Shootout at Lokhandwala" with some interest, which centred around real events that led to establishment of the Mumbai ATS. It was a masala movie.

Aditya G · Post by **Aditya G** » 12 Jan 2010 22:26

sum wrote:Even now, the scene of the tricolour being hoisted on the peak( at the end) with the background music playing brings tears to my eyes ( even big B,a.k.a, Col Damle sheds a few tears seeing that). Amazing movie.

I have heard from a close friend whose relative was in SF about how he went miles into Paki territory during Kargil war for a ambush and returned after the mission shot multiple times( not sure if the mission was successful or failure ) with him stopping his guts from from spilling out using his bare hands. Maybe, the grass scene is a picturisation of some such mission?

*sniff* you can almost feel the breeze in your face when that flag flutters. I have even saved screenshots from the movie!

By vayusena at 2010-01-12

anishns · Post by **anishns** » 12 Jan 2010 23:05

Speaking of Police movies....I am surprised no one mentioned the Nana Patekar starrer "Ab Tak Chhappan"
That was a well made movie as well....

kaangeya · Post by **kaangeya** » 13 Jan 2010 00:00

Before Top Gun there was Vijeta While we don't know if the latter inspired the former, it definitely inspired the maker of Fauji and more than a few TV serials across the border. Lakshya of course is the most polished war movie to be made anywhere in the last 10 years. It was v. well scripted and plotted, and if you ignore the side plot about all that dancing etc., it is taut without being tense and has the right amount of drama. And yes this is a flag that means a lot. It is one thing, that is almost everything to about 1.2 billion people

Airavat · Post by **Airavat** » 13 Jan 2010 13:39

anishns wrote:Speaking of Police movies....I am surprised no one mentioned the Nana Patekar starrer "Ab Tak Chhappan"
That was a well made movie as well....

I second that. Very well made movie.

Another good movie on police work was Gangajal.

atreya · Post by **atreya** » 13 Jan 2010 22:49

Has anyone seen "Yahaan"? I think it gives a pretty good idea of the situation in Kashmir. I like the encounter scenes, specially the one in which they are captured. One guy is even shown fighting with a sniper rifle!

Amit J · Post by **Amit J** » 13 Jan 2010 22:58

There is this film maker Major Ravi from the malayalam film industry who was an IA officer and was the team leader of the operation One Eyed Jack which was the operation undertaken to nab the Rajiv Gandhi assasination perps, he after leaving the army was consulting for movies like Pukar and movies of Kamal Hassan and Mani Ratnam. He made a movie Keertichakra (keerti chakra) which was a movie about an NSG team in CT ops in Kashmir, also he made a movie Mission 90 days which picturised the One Eyed Jack ops and also a movie on Kargil called Kurukshetra.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » 14 Jan 2010 02:25

Kuridhippunal was a good police movie. Kamal and Arjun battling with Nasser and Naxalites. Has great interrogation scenes.

Kaakka kaakka was also a good police movie.

Other than these, the vast majority of Tamil movies show cops in very poor light.

And then the cops go ahead and prove that this depiction is probably deserved.

abhishekm · Post by **abhishekm** » 14 Jan 2010 03:02

Slightly off topic- but here are my favourite military-themed songs of the last decade:

1. "Kandhon se milte" from Lakshya: inspiring enough to make anyone scale vertical cliffs and charge at Pakistani machine gun nests!

2. Title song of Lakshya picturised against the backdrop of Hrithik Roshan training in the IMA

3. "Ek saathi aur bhi tha" from LOC: a 9 minute song but very moving nonetheless

While we are still on the topic of cinema and entertainment, why not check out the very best that Pakistani cinema has to offer - this is a very soul stirring song & dance performed by elite troops of the Pakistani armed forces just prior to battle, in order to frighten the Taliban in the North West Frontier Province

:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0pFF3VU ... re=related

kaangeya · Post by **kaangeya** » 14 Jan 2010 06:48

Kaakka kaakka was also a good police movie.

Yes. The actors looked like real SF cops, well built and athletic. No, because of how some scenes were stretched out and the story lost its way after the 1st half. Yes, because it is one of the few times they showed how to use a handgun correctly (hold it with both hands, cock your arm, aim and fire - most of the time)

He made a movie Keertichakra (keerti chakra) which was a movie about

Much as I admire Mohanlal, an awesome actor, a pudgy guy can't really be an NSG can he?

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 14 Jan 2010 08:00

That Major Ravi dude claims lots of stuff about Konanakunte incident. Claimed in an interview that D Karthikeyan and the entire team housed in "Malligai" are publicity craving idiots and he himself would have bagged Sivarasan and Dhanu with some chewing gum, a malabar parotta and a burlap sack (dont remember his exact words, but some McGuyver meets Karamchand crap)

Kaangeya, unfortunately for malayalam movie aficionados, Mohanlal is like an off-season jack fruit. Doesnt fall off the tree, but continues to get bloated and inedible

The guy who can convincingly act out an NSG role in malayalam is Prithviraj and hope someone makes one with the chap.

a_kumar · Post by **a_kumar** » 14 Jan 2010 09:09

RayC wrote: I liked the TV serial Fauji since it was near perfect except officers of his rank could not have lived in such palatial houses.

This is the first series that left quite an impression as a kid! Amazing. Infact, I have adored SRK of those days (not sure if folks remember Circus and another short movie where he plays a educated bank manager in a very backward village)

Another well made series was "Param Veer Chakra".. Great episodes.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 14 Jan 2010 09:28

a_kumar wrote: Another well made series was "Param Veer Chakra".. Great episodes.

Yoohoooo Jagan.

negi · Post by **negi** » 14 Jan 2010 09:41

Shiv ji do you or Jagan have the series recorded on VHS tapes ?

Just curious you usually have have most of such stuff recorded.

I really liked the title song very well composed and written.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 14 Jan 2010 10:25

hnair wrote:Kaangeya, unfortunately for malayalam movie aficionados, Mohanlal is like an off-season jack fruit. Doesnt fall off the tree, but continues to get bloated and inedible The guy who can convincingly act out an NSG role in malayalam is Prithviraj and hope someone makes one with the chap.

That's a new one. x-posting in nukkad.

Amit J · Post by **Amit J** » 14 Jan 2010 11:14

kaangeya wrote:
Much as I admire Mohanlal, an awesome actor, a pudgy guy can't really be an NSG can he?

No his fitness level isnt suitable for the image of an NSG officer or any armed forces officer for that matter. However he played the role with elan and was convincing. He has been accepted as a Lt Col in the Territorial Army though

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 14 Jan 2010 14:19

Amit J wrote:There is this film maker Major Ravi from the malayalam film industry who was an IA officer and was the team leader of the operation One Eyed Jack

\
Keerthichakra was quite good, except for the high level of jingoism and dialogues which reminded me of old dramas. This was also a movie which showed pretty much the actual situation in Kashmir. And it was an eye-opener for many Mallus who are still getting "high" thanks to communism, socialism. I will not blame Major Ravi to for choosing an actor like Mohanlal (who is obese, when it comes to depicting Army standards). But remember the movie had to run in theatres, and it had to placate the so called "Mohanlal fans". An unknown actor would have caused a disaster for this movie.

also he made a movie Mission 90 days which picturised the One Eyed Jack ops

It was after seeing Mission 90 days that I decided to ignore Major Ravi for good. Mission 90 days was nothing but a fantasy of Major Ravi. First of all, it was a police case. Rajiv Gandhi was assasinated and a special team (SIT) was formed to investigate this case. This team was led by Mr. Karthikeyan and assisted by Radha Vinod Raju IPS (chief of NIA today). Major Ravi's only job was to provide assistance to the investigation team. LTTE chaps had the uncanny ability to commit suicide by consuming cyanide, and the only agency which could conduct "storming in" operations was the NSG. And NSG had doctors who could be try to stop cyanide poisoning. In the movie the character played by Mamooty seems to be conducting the investigations, and naturally the police officers are shown in bad light. And add to it the standard melodrama of "officer being called back, when on leave", the usual ego issues with policemen (police men=bad, army officers=good). When has any Army officer (still being part of NSG, Army) conducted a police investigation? Are they even trained to do an investigation? That is not their job.

To put it quite bluntly my opinion of Major Ravi's movies is quite low, especially after seeing Mission 90 days, and reading reviews of his latest movie Kurukshetra. I would not even watch his movies, unless some one offers me a DVD/VCD at his own expense. Going to the movie theatre, totally ruled out.

PS: As for the Konanakunte operations, Karthikeyan and Radha Vinod Raju in their book have clearely admitted some lapses. The Karnataka Police (especially one officer) had made some faulty moves, and surrounded the area, with policemen in full uniform. The then director of CBI wanted to be physically present when the storming began. This caused delays. When LTTE cadres see fully uniformed policemen surrounding them, what they do next was obvious.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 15 Jan 2010 06:24

Sachin, am sure you must have read this article on entire team housed in "Malligai", Chennai? As kick ass a team as they come. Must be an honor to work with them. I had to explain this to a friend of mine who was railling against Shree D Karthikeyan. I had to point out that if Shree DK was Mohanlal's Sethu in Kireedom, Maj Ravi was Haidros, his idiot henchman who chases his own ass half the time. Finally got the point across.

Btw, no luck with tracking down Shree Rameshan Nair (the KP Librarian)

Not yet

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 15 Jan 2010 09:21

negi wrote:Shiv ji do you or Jagan have the series recorded on VHS tapes ? Just curious you usually have have most of such stuff recorded.
I really liked the title song very well composed and written.

Yes and no.

Jagan had the tapes (VHS) sent to me but the tapes are of severely degraded quality (from age, fungus and storage) that makes only 25-30% of each episode watchable. I transferred whatever was salvageable on to DVD so what is left on record is more durable.

Incidentally I missed the entire series because I was away in poodlestan (I went to buy a VCR but stayed too many years). However the same VCR came in useful

a_kumar · Post by **a_kumar** » 15 Jan 2010 09:50

Another movie I vividly remember in Telugu is called "adavilo abhimanyudu" (Abhimanyu in Jungle) 1989 starring Jagapathi Babu.

Basically, its about an army commando on a official mission to rescue his ex-girlfriends husband!!! My memory could be wrong, but I don't think it had any any songs (or maybe just 1). Simple plain movie that was all about the mission. Well made movie.

negi · Post by **negi** » 15 Jan 2010 10:49

Shiv ji if I may can you just clip the title song and post it here on an appropriate thread ? I have been searching for the complete track for quite some time now. Btw speaking of VCR you reminded me of good old days when anyone who used to embark upon a videsh yatra used to return with a Panasonic/National VCR or SONY's stereo/walkman even close and dear one's used to hand over a list of consumer electronics (yashica camera , rechargeable flashlights etc etc) .

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 15 Jan 2010 10:53

Fauji with SRK, Rajshri has uploaded the series.

sum · Post by **sum** » 15 Jan 2010 11:19

One of my all time goosebumpy scenes. When will we see a similar scene with the captain of the Arihant/Chakra giving a superb pep-talk?

PS: Why am i not able to link the youtube vid directly?

PPS : thanks a ton, pgbhat avare.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 15 Jan 2010 11:25

sum-ji, just post the part after the "v=" in the original link.
For eg.
From

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPCdwJAq3SA

use only.

RPCdwJAq3SA

and replace quote with youtube tag.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 15 Jan 2010 12:55

hnair wrote:I had to explain this to a friend of mine who was railling against Shree D Karthikeyan.

The sad part is that any non-sense shown in a movie is generally taken as the absolute truth. Especially with these jokers, who just cannot think beyond what their super star role models think or do. I had got into an exactly similar situation with a good friend of mine, who unfortunately was a Mamooty fan. For him what ever Mamooty did in Mission 90 days was Gods own words/deeds. The only way I could get him out of his denial mode was to prove that Army officers just dont investigate police cases.

Major Ravi's crap gets good recognition, because it is easy to watch a 2 1/2 hours movie, but it takes more pains to walk down to a nearby library and read up the book written by Radha Vinod Raju.

Btw, no luck with tracking down Shree Rameshan Nair (the KP Librarian)

He had retired long time back from KP (as an SI). Heard that he is now part of a research team which is researching place names in Kerala. I mean how the name of the place might have been coined (eg: Thrissur->Thiru Siva-Perur->Land of Lord Shiva).

Picklu · Post by **Picklu** » 15 Jan 2010 13:06

Before Lakshya, the only film scene I have seen that can compare in terms of visual and audio effect came from the very first few moments of the move Roja.
The worst also comes from around the same period. Anyone remembers the role of Sunny Paaji in the famous 'K-k-k-Kiran' Darr?

negi · Post by **negi** » 15 Jan 2010 13:17

And what about Steven Segal + chuck norris + James Bond all rolled into one Sunny Paaji's "The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003) "

. He makes a quick work of an entire Paki batallion in a jungle scene using just two handguns (Glock 17s ) and then yells in his trademark voice "Aur koi hai" ?

. Btw did I mention that during the fight he was carrying Priety Zinta on his shoulders.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 15 Jan 2010 13:33

pmund wrote:Raja Ji, I doubt if Nana 'trained' in Belgaum. Some of the scenes were shot in NDA during a term break, and some in Belgaum. He may have learnt a few things, like monkey crawling (he did it very well...i confess, a tough thing to master) and the dreaded confidence jump, but did he 'complete' the junior commando course? And the stories that I can tell of the filming of Major Saab at NDA are hilarious, but let that be. Btw, has anyone had the misfortune of watching a movie called, Paramvir Chakra?? Well, we had to bcos it was a must-attend at Habibullah Hall. It is so pathetic that we could not help laughing IN SPITE of a threat by the Adju. The whole academy spent the next few hours running to Gole Market and back

By training I meant a few "sessions", not the 30+ odd days of the complete course

I doubt Nana did the actual Ledo jump - that damn plank is foot or so wide.

I had the misfortune of watching Paramvir Chakra (the movie, not the DD serial which was one of the best ever) as part of a school sponsored trip to the neighborhood rat-infested cinema hall. One of the worst military movies even by Bollywood's melodrama standards. Particularly remember the IAF chappie failing to bomb a fragile looking RADAR+TV station (

) despite multiple bomb runs and finally crashing his jet kamikaze style into the building. I wonder if the director even thought of how insulting that singular scene was to the real IAF pilots. Finally, IAF chappie and IA chappie conveniently die in each others arms so that the Navy chappie who survives (a hardy Bong no less!

) can marry the chick.

Picklu · Post by **Picklu** » 15 Jan 2010 13:54

negi wrote:And what about Steven Segal + chuck norris + James Bond all rolled into one Sunny Paaji's "The Hero: Love Story of a Spy (2003) " . He makes a quick work of an entire Paki batallion in a jungle scene using just two handguns (Glock 17s ) and then yells in his trademark voice "Aur koi hai" ? . Btw did I mention that during the fight he was carrying Priety Zinta on his shoulders.

But ..but ... the entire credit goes to Preity Zinta off course!!!
On the shoulder of any man, she is definitely deadlier than a bazooka ..... Just one look (whether mark1 eyeball or scope or binoc or nvg, does not matter) at that shapely posterior and the enemy drops dead. What is the credit of Sunny Paaji, I ask you.

pmund · Post by **pmund** » 15 Jan 2010 16:34

I meant Paramvir Chakra movie onleee. The serial was superb. Not technically, of course, but it was the first time anyone tried to deconstuct the legends and bring them to our drawing rooms. The episode on Arun Khetrapal was the impetus for my joining NDA. As for the movie, it should be banned along with Major Saab. I remember one scene when the three jokers are crawling on (Khetrapal) parade ground as punishnment and chatting among themselves

A real cadet'd have had his skin flayed if he even thought of anything funny there. And the last Kamikaze scene... my god... and the bugger even gets out of the inferno IN HIS CARDBOARD PLANE and dies in his friend's arms. And why, pray why, does the navy bloke always get the girl in the end

the army and air force chaps do all the hard work and the chap on the ship gets to ogle the gal at sunset

Jagan · Post by **Jagan** » 15 Jan 2010 17:35

pmund wrote:I meant Paramvir Chakra movie onleee. The serial was superb. Not technically, of course, but it was the first time anyone tried to deconstuct the legends and bring them to our drawing rooms. The episode on Arun Khetrapal was the impetus for my joining NDA. As for the movie, it should be banned along with Major Saab. I remember one scene when the three jokers are crawling on (Khetrapal) parade ground as punishnment and chatting among themselves A real cadet'd have had his skin flayed if he even thought of anything funny there. And the last Kamikaze scene... my god... and the bugger even gets out of the inferno IN HIS CARDBOARD PLANE and dies in his friend's arms. And why, pray why, does the navy bloke always get the girl in the end the army and air force chaps do all the hard work and the chap on the ship gets to ogle the gal at sunset

hear hear - . the PVC movie was plain 'orrible.. total junk. I remember the cardboard mig21.. Hema Malini produced it IIRC.

PVC serial OTOH is a classic. I will be first in line if they ever release a DVD of the series.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 15 Jan 2010 17:39

sum wrote:[youtube]RPCdwJAq3SA[/youtube

One of my all time goosebumpy scenes. When will we see a similar scene with the captain of the Arihant/Chakra giving a superb pep-talk?

at least the dialogues are all there on BRF for future (bollywood) arihant captains to copy from.

http://forums.bharat-rakshak.com/viewto ... 55#p793455

jamwal · Post by **jamwal** » 15 Jan 2010 17:56

I remember one movie on a Sikh(?) air force pilot. He goes MIA or crashes his plane. Can anybody tell the name?

Shameek · Post by **Shameek** » 15 Jan 2010 18:23

jamwal wrote:I remember one movie on a Sikh(?) air force pilot. He goes MIA or crashes his plane. Can anybody tell the name?

I think you refer to Vijeta. Funny how people remember different parts of the movie.

pmund · Post by **pmund** » 15 Jan 2010 18:45

My vote for Vijeta and the classic Haqueeqat (kar chale hum fida...). I remember the Vijeta boxing scene very well where the chap wanted to get beaten up to see how much he could take. Funny thing is, I had a coursemate who was the exact same cracked-up type. And a khalsa too. He didnt know a thing about boxing when he volunteered for the academy championships and decided the best way was to get himself thrashed about. He'd go into the ring and say, 'aur maar, aur maar'. He punched his way to the finals. The others just got tired of hitting him!!!! Great chap. Great soldier