If there a Guiness record for things that were banned, literature, movies, books, then India would be a topper. The latest one is Mani Sankar's movie Tango Charlie which is based on the terrorism in various parts of India, mainly the North-East. Director Mani Sankar talks about his motivation behind the film:
I actually traveled to various parts of the country and saw the violence first-hand. One had to take it in totality. Thereâ??s no peace in any part of the country. Forget peace, our country is going into pieces. And Iâ??m not talking about simple law and order. Iâ??m talking about insurgency in various parts of the country.Iâ??m talking about the Border Security Force guys who actually take the bullets out there. I tried to develop a character (played by Bobby Deol) who holds on to his innate innocence in spite of all the killings around him. Iâ??ve tried to show humanism is more important than politics.
We as a nation have to take charge of these wars of attrition being fought all over. Otherwise weâ??ll end up losing the country. The nation en masse chooses to ignore these violent reminders of separatism.
When I wrote Tango Charlie I based it on gut-wrenching facts of separatist violence. When I went to Tripura I got to know the extent of brutality in the North East.
Chopping off of the victimâ??s ear is a common occurrence. To my horror I got to know that in many villages fathers disfigure their daughtersâ?? faces when theyâ??re 14-15 so that insurgents donâ??t attack and destroy the village just to abduct a beautiful girl. When I saw the disfigured faces of these innocent girls, I was provoked into writing a sequence in Tango Charlie where BODO insurgents brutally wound a BASF soldier and use him as a bait to capture his colleagues.
Such things happen right under our noses! I know of so many tales of brutality in Kashmir. But I didnâ??t use them in Tango Charlie. Thereâ??re so many terrorist groups operating with impunity in Tripura and other parts of the country for the sake of a nebulous â??freedomâ??. [Gut-wrenching facts of separatist violence: Mani Shankar]
And the Assam Govt bans it. Now I got to watch this movie.
Comments (1)
Tackling insurgents in the North East is just the first part of the movie. Despite some near-sickening melodrama, it was gut-wrenching but kept one interested.
Then there is a brief prelude that lets Bobby Deol dance around trees. Bobby is usually ridiculous in these type of scenes, and he lives up to that image here.
From there the group fights the PWG/Maoists in Andhra Pradesh, rioters in Gujarat (post Godhra), the full blast of the Naxalbari movement and then Kargil. Part of it is in flashback of course.
Apart from Bobby's romance, there wasnt a dull moment in the movie, and I was really surprised that it flopped. Definitely one of the better movies, and worth a watch (just in case you needed some more motivation!)
Posted by Kiran | April 20, 2005 8:28 PM
Posted on April 20, 2005 20:28