Heroes (Hindi)

Two city slickers set out to deliver letters from dead servicemen to their far-flung families, and in the process, discover themselves.

The premise of Heroes is interesting. And in parts Samir Karnik’s film does manage to say what it set out to: that pride (the Hindi ‘garv’ is a better word) keeps the families of the deceased soldiers going, that we civilians sleep peacefully only because someone has given up his life for us, and that we have a country only because we have a brave ‘fauji’ guarding our borders. But the director falls for the easiest trick in the book: he wrings tears out of so many situations that everything — even the supreme sacrifice that the soldiers make — turns trite.

Heroes needed a radical change in treatment, but it falls through halfway between keeping things low-key and going full-tilt at melodrama. What can you do if pretty Preity is a war-widow, speaking flawless Punjabi, keeping it together for her old in-laws and a young son? And Salman her bluff Jat hearthrob who says : “Teri liye lakh jawani, par yeh jawani desh ke naam”, or words to that effect. Sunny plays a rum-swilling disabled airman who loses younger brother Bobby, who carried a torch for the Army. Mithun is an embittered father who hasn’t forgiven son Dino for dying. And the two boys-who-turn-into-men on their road journey, armed with a camera and alarming naivete, are Sohail and Vatsal.

The subject deserved a better film.

shubhra.gupta@gmail.com