Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl was released on 12th August 2020 digitally on Netflix. The movie tells the story of real life Indian Air Force (IAF) officer and former helicopter pilot Gunjan Saxena. She took part in the 1999 Kargil War, making her the one of the only two women to be part of the Kargil War and the first female IAF pilot to ever go to war.
The movie shows Gunjan (portrayed by Janhvi Kapoor) getting selected along with 24 other female officers into the IAF. It portrays the many gender-based challenges she faced in the Air Force such as having makeshift changing rooms until new ones were built for women and harsh ostracization. But Gunjan eventually overcomes these odds and stays in the IAF. She goes on to provide aid to the wounded soldiers in Kargil.
It is a moving narrative, a woman facing incredible odds but has come out on top against a masculine dominated force. Rooting from the under-dog has been a fan favourite among movie goers and the sexism rhetoric pulls in the audience as it is still a prevalent thing.
But on August 12th, the day the movie released, the IAF sent a heavily worded letter complaining about their depiction in the movie, to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). They said they were wrongly depicted and always treated their women officers with respect. Karan Johar (the producer of the film) had promised them authenticity in the portrayal of the IAF but the film was misleading.
Now even Gunjan Saxena has said that the parts of the movie which depicted gender bullying had taken up quite a bit of artistic license. There were only mild altercations and undertones of sexism during her time. Issues such as tenure rights and uniforms were there, but they were the first batch of women entering the IAF. A transition period was always necessary. She also said that she got equal opportunities as her male counterparts.
National Commission for Women’s (NCW) head Rekha Sharma has asked the makers of the movie to apologize for depicting IAF in a negative light and to stop the screening of the movie. Portrayal of our forces in a bad light, especially since it has come to light that a lot of the gender discrimination portrayed is not true is not right according to her.
This begs the questions – why portray it in that way? How many artisitic liberties can a film maker make? There was a good enough story available that any good director or script writer could have made a gem out of without the need for the (apparantly) manufactured misogyny.
Is it because of us? Do we, the Indian audience demand unnecessary drama even in biopics? Are we at fault for the way this movie is created? The Indian audience has always craved masala-drama but even we wouldn’t take lightly to manufactured lies. The Indian movie goers are always growing and have the maturity to accept the truth, no matter how mildly ‘boring’ it maybe.
Also due to such a portrayal, the movie could cause many children to expect this level of toxic masculinity in any field. While sexism is still prevalent in a lot of circles of society and keeping young children informed is a good thing, spreading misinformation through movies, especially about the people that sacrifice their lives so that we may be safe is never a good thing.
We’re hiring!
We are hiring two full-time junior to mid-level writers with the option to work remotely. You need to work a 5-hour shift and be available to write. Interested candidates should email their sample articles to [email protected]. Applications without a sample article will not be considered.
