Advani takes his ministry to watch Bollywood's take on Kashmir
AJAY SURI

NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 24: Gun-toting security personnel stood guard outside New Delhi's Sirifort Auditorium II as several Cabinet ministers watched every moment of action on the screen inside. On show was a commercial movie, waiting for the Diwali tide to take it to box-office success. The host and the hostess of the special private screening were Union Home Minister L K Advani and his wife, Kamla Advani.

Just back from a mission in Kashmir, Advani watched the movie Mission Kashmir with his colleagues and special guests this evening. Almost the entire top brass of the Home Ministry left office to watch Vidhu Vinod Chopra's patriotic potboiler. Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande, Special Secretary (Kashmir Affairs) T.R. Kakkar, Intelligence Bureau Chief Shyamal Dutta, former top cop and now Manipur Governor Ved Marwah and some dozen other senior Ministry officers were there. For full three hours, they all watched frames of pulp patriotism unspooling on the screen.

It is perhaps for the first time that a Hindi commercial film is getting the kind of treatment it did from the Government of India, the officials present admitted. Given Advani's penchant for anything concerning Kashmir militancy and the security forces' ongoing efforts in the Valley to match bullets for bullets, they said, it was understandable and justified.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj was the first to arrive. Soon, Sushma's cabinet colleagues started trooping in -- Pramod Mahajan, Jagmohan, Anant Kumar. BJP leader J.P.Mathur was there. Shatrughan Sinha, who found himself on the other side of the screen in this gathering, didn't let it show. Most of the guests, Advani and Pande included, had their family members in tow.

``It's a good movie,'' Pande responded to a query, but declined to elaborate. His Home Ministry colleague associated with Kashmir Affairs was less charitable. ``The Bollywood glamorisation has obviously won over the reality content. But this was to be expected. Vinod Chopra's primary aim is to make money for himself -- he is obviously not joining hands with Kargil Relief Fund,'' he said.

Many North Block officials talked about director Chopra's elaborate treatment of the making of a terrorist (Hritik Roshan), from the day in his childhood when his family falls prey to police bullets meant for hardcore militants.

They all wanted Chopra to show what they wanted. Another senior officer said: ``How come the filmmaker has shied from depicting the real violence being perpetrated by militants. A large number of instances relating to their committing rape and other atrocities on women is a fact known to several international bodies. Is it because an average Bollywood movie watcher brought up on a staple diet of photogenic actors and actresses will find this sort of reality too strong to stomach?'' On a working day, the Home Ministry officials obviously took a Bollywood movie a bit too seriously.