Shershaah
Shershaah’s release is now almost a week away and fans are pretty excited to witness what is the actual story of Captain Vikram Batra, who is hailed as a hero of the Kargil War. Shershaah isn’t the first movie in the history of Indian cinema that has been inspired by real life events and it definitely won’t be the last. Real life stories have been one of the biggest inspirations behind war based movies in Indian cinema. These stories are hailed as one of the most inspiring stories and its content now, at this point always is able to attract audiences irrespective of what genre of movie they usually love.
Here’s a list of 6 movies that too are inspired by events of real-life army officers or war stories of some kind. Some that went on to become etched in the history of this country.
Kesari (2019): Amazon Prime Video
Kesari is one of the most legendary movies of recent times. Kesari starred Akshay Kumar, Mir Sawar, Vikram Kocchar, Parineeti Chopra in the lead role. The movie is about a time before the independence of India. The movie retells the legendary battle of Sarhagari, which has now gone down in history. It tells the story of how a battle ensued between 21 soldiers of the 36th Sikhs of the British Indian Army and 10,000 Afridi and Orakzai Pashtun tribesmen back in 1897. It went on to be known as one of the greatest land wars ever fought. Those 21 soldiers never stood a chance but the way they protected the fort and didn’t make them go ahead is the basic story of the movie.
Uri: The Surgical Strike (2019): ZEE5
The latest and biggest hits of the recent time, Uri tells the real life account of India’s surgical strike against Pakistan as an answer for killing soldiers in the bomb blasts and shoot out carried out by Pakistani militants in the military base situated in the town of Uri. The movie doesn’t really show the real characters but it very well describes how this mission was carried out and how they went on to kill the militants, using some of the most latest technology in military intelligence. The movie stands as a landmark point for modern war movies.
Rustom (2016): ZEE5
Well, Rustom isn’t really a story of war but it definitely involves the story of a Naval officer. The movie stars Akshay Kumar, Ileana D’Cruz, Arjan Bajwa, Esha Gupta in lead roles,. the movie is loosely based on the real life story K.M. Nanavati and the case of K.M. Nanavati vs. People of Maharashtra. The movie shows how a naval commander went on to murder his wife’s lover. The movie though doesn’t really focus much on war or navy for a matter of fact, but this definitely is one must watch movie that includes the story of a naval officer and how he went through various trials before the final verdict.
1971 (2007): YouTube
1971 is one movie that didn’t really make any buzz in the box office when released, but thirteen years later once it was digitally released on YouTube, it instantly became a super hit. So is the story of this unique movie, the digital platform brought a whole new life into it. The movie stars some of great stars like Manoj Bajpayee, Ravi Kishan, Piyush Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal, and others, the film won the National Film Award at the 55th National Film Awards. The movie is based on the real life stories of prisoners of war. The movie is the story of the escape of six soldiers of the Indian Army who were taken as prisoners of war by the Pakistan Army amidst the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. It shows how the six prisoners planned and came back to the nation and what went down during that time. This movie is a definite must watch for everyone.
Haqeeqat (1964) : ZEE5
The movie is considered as one of the greatest black and white war movies ever made. The movie stars Dharmendra in the lead along with Balbir Sahni, Priya Rajvansh, Sudhir, Sanjay Khan, and Vijay Anand in major roles. The movie is based on the 1962 Indo-Sino war and specially focuses on a small platoon of soldiers. The movie focuses on a small platoon of soldiers and the fight in Rezang La in Ladakh. It fictionally tells the real story of the last stand the Ahir Company had. 13 Kumaon soldiers led by Major Shaitan Singh, went on to fight a large group army and they were heavily outnumbered, but they all fought till their last breath.
Gunjan Saxena (2020): Netflix
The movie stars Jahnvi Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Angad Bedi in lead roles. The movie is the story and dream of a young girl named Gunjan Saxena, whose only dream was to become a pilot. She pursued her dream and got into the most prestigious batch, but she was the only woman there. She not only had to fight enemies but also had to fight the people of her own nation, who pulled her down for doing what she loved. Gunjan Saxena was one of those pilots in the Kargil War, who helped evacuate and rescue soldiers from various high points. She played a crucial role in saving the lives of many Kargil war soldiers.