By: Unmana Chakraverty
Rom-coms, action, and thrillers are popular genres in movies and web series. There’s an intriguing new movie genre. Spy thrillers are my genre. R&AW agents, or “intelligence officers,” and Indian defense officials have been featured in many recent Indian films and web series. The 2023 film Pathaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham, was criticized for Padukone’s orange bikini in the song “Besharam Rang.” The film’s Khan and Padukone characters are overlooked. Deepika Padukone plays an Indian soldier, while Shah Rukh Khan plays an R&AW field agent. I was amazed to see all these days how people were protesting against the movie just because Deepika’s attire in the song “Besharam Rang” was hurting some people’s religious sentiments, but the real anomaly was somewhere else.
In “New India,” where real issues are just brushed under the carpet with the help of unnecessary victimization of people from different communities at the time of convenience, people have overlooked the fact that it is unfair to always present an R&AW agent’s life in such a glamorous way as if they are having a very fantastic life abroad. Bollywood has always depicted spies differently. As a 2000-born person, the first two spy films I watched were Ek Tha Tiger and Agent Vinod, both released in 2012. Both showed the lives of R&AW agents and ISI agents as extravagant. The funniest and most impossible part of these films is the love stories between the male R&AW agent and the female ISI agent. Back then, I had no idea about intelligence agencies, agents, and their whole functioning process and purpose. I honestly have no issues with these two movies because they were made at a time when technology wasn’t very advanced and people probably didn’t have much knowledge about how intelligence agencies work, but now it’s high time that filmmakers realize these things, and either stop making films about spies or show the truth, keeping in mind certain aspects like security and confidentiality of information.
Lt. Gen. Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, expressed his dissatisfaction with spy and military films in a recent interview. He criticized Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam’s 2019 Bollywood film Uri: The Surgical Strike. He advised filmmakers to do their research before making military films and to take their military characters seriously. “The Quint” interviewed ex-R&AW Chief Vikram Sood about his 2012 film Ek Tha Tiger, starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. In that interview, Sood said he had watched the film for fun and that the most amazing part was that the Indian R&AW agent got the Pakistani ISI agent (referring to Salman and Katrina’s love story), implying that these are “make-believe stories” and that this kind of love story doesn’t exist.
If we analyze the matter from an entertainment perspective, then there is nothing wrong with adding a peppy song in an espionage or military movie or showing a romantic angle in the movie; after all, it is Bollywood. But gone are the days when audiences used to believe that spies might lead lives as depicted in fiction. Now, people are much more aware of the realities due to social media. They know that the intelligence officers are doing a job that requires courage, training, and sacrifice of an incomparable sort. It is not an easy task to leave your home, family, and motherland behind, live in other countries and pass important and confidential information to the agencies of their own countries. Roles like these should have more depth, and they should also be played and portrayed more seriously.
I’d like to switch from movies to web series, which have wreaked havoc on our entertainment industry during the lockdown. After India’s first lockdown, I watched the 2021 espionage action thriller “Special Ops.” This is my favourite web series. Friday Storytellers produced the series, directed by Neeraj Pandey and Shivam Naik. I think the filmmakers did their homework and picked a great cast. The cast included Kay Kay Menon, Karan Tacker, Sana Khan, Sajjad Delafrooz, Meher Vij, Saiyami Kher, Gautami Kapoor, etc. Its best feature was its underrated actors. Everything was subtle and natural – acting, dialogue, and storyline. The cinematography, though larger than life, didn’t lose the plot, and the characters showed the subtlety of real intelligence officers.
My impression is that the creators of web series continue to depict the characters in a very serious light, and they make an effort to steer clear of overly dramatic and implausible love plot points. The fact that online series don’t cast the huge names of Bollywood or our so-called star kids, but rather great underappreciated performers who aren’t getting much recognition in the cinema sector of our entertainment industry, makes it all the more relatable for the audience. In addition to the plot and the cast of characters, one of the most notable aspects of web series is the absence of item songs and romantic songs. This provides the creators of the series as well as the actors with the opportunity to conduct research on the plot, the characters, and their histories and make better preparations before the shoot.
Returning to the “Pathaan” debates, it was amusing to watch and listen to people talking about just the song and a few famous people and political parties urging audiences to avoid the film and ban it. These political parties and people have overlooked how those in that field will feel when they see Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone playing agents and soldiers, respectively. Filmmakers must understand that intelligence agency jobs are serious, sensitive, important, and challenging and that their employees deserve the same respect as defense officials. R&AW agents working abroad will never dance on the beach with women or date ISI agents. All in all, stop making a mess of things that shouldn’t be a problem and start fixing the real ones. (The author can be reached at chakravertyu91@gmail.com)
