Deewaar

Purporting to reflect the unbreakable spirit of the imprisoned soldier, this is yet another Bollywood ‘pop anti-Pak patriotic’ movie. Gaurav (Khanna) smuggles himself from India to Pakistan to rescue his father Ranvir (Bachchan) and other prisoners of war captured during the 1970 Indo-Pak war. Will he, along with his friend Khan (Dutt), be able to ‘bring our heroes home’? As a prison escape movie, it is a slick, violent and effective thriller. Luthria has obviously seen the ‘Rambo’ trilogy. What is disturbing is the use of the formula – a saucy ‘item’ number, a wet sari song sequence, the usual separated family and an inevitable and contrived romantic subplot – to evoke uncritical Indian Hindu macho nationalism, juxtaposed against an unbalanced portrayal of Pakistan as ‘the enemy’, where life is ‘tough for Hindus’ especially ‘the girls’. This populist xenophobic ideology is particularly evidenced by the PoWs breaking into song with the contentious Indian war cry ‘Vande Mataram’ or ‘Victory to the Motherland’. They really should not make them like this any more!