The
word Poetic license if defined in the dictionary as “The liberty
taken by an artist or a writer in deviating from conventional form or
fact to achieve a desired effect.” Normally we do see this being
used my most works of fiction. Be it a poem, story or a novel: or
even visual 'Avatars' of the same in form of TV serials or full
length cinematographic films. An endless list of films have been
produced by Hollywood on specific battles of the second world war,
where heroic deeds of someone, have been interwoven with a love story
of some kind and possible intrigue, to come out with an interesting
plot. The cold war years have similarity produced a plethora of
novels and films based on secret spies and intelligence agents. James
Bond was one such well known literary figures that was born in the
fertile imagination of author Ian Flaming. A 1964 film; 'Behold a
Pale Horse' starring Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Anthony Quinn
similarly comes to my mind as it was based on the Spanish Civil War,
and a line of Spanish refugees crossing the border into France after
defeat by the Francoists.
Bollywood
producers have picked up this idea in recent years. Very few films
from earlier times, did have this kind of real life background. Only
film that comes to my mind was 'Doctor Kotnis ki Amar Kahani,' which
had a background of Second Sino-Japanese War in 1938. In a way, a
film produced in 1964 by Chetan Anand and titled as 'Haqeeqat,' could
be considered as the first Bollywood film based on a true war story
as it was based on India-China war of 1962. There have been few more
good attempts such as 'Border' based on India-Pakistan conflicts.
Coming
back to the subject of Poetic License, we have to agree that though
script writers had used full Poetic license to create imaginary
characters and their personal lives in all these creative works to
full possible extent, they have not deviated from the main line of
historical facts. In other words, they have not tried to distort
history. Viewers or readers of such works accept these
modifications/additions because firstly they do not distort history
and secondly only deal with personal lives of the characters in the
plot.
A
Bollywood film released recently, even though using the poetic
license in a scantiest or far distant kind of way, has caused much
heartburn in Bangladesh to such an extent that Bangladesh has
officially expressed disappointment over reported distortion of
historical facts and a Bangladesh spokesman of the Foreign Ministry
says that it has already taken up the issue officially and a “strong
protest” had been conveyed to Indian authorities. Bangladesh also
has requested the Indian Government to stop screening the movie with
immediate effect.
'Gunday'
is a Bollywood potboiler, produced by Yash Raj Films and has been
released in India on February 14, 2014. The movie, released in India
on February 14 and produced and distributed by Yash Raj Films
portrays the birth of Bangladesh as a result of a 13-day battle
between India and Pakistan. The funny part of it is that the film is
no way directly connected with the 1971 war at all, except for the
fact that the two main characters from the film have been shown as
orphaned by the 1971 Indo-Pakistan war that resulted in the formation
of Bangladesh. What has hurt the popular sentiment in Bangladesh is
that the film somehow projects an image in viewer's mind that
Bangladesh formation was the result of an India-Pakistan war and
undermines the fact that Bangladesh was formed because of the
nine-month-long bloody war, people of the then East Pakistan fought,
against Pakistani occupation forces.
Bangladeshi
cultural and social forums, from across the country as well as
Bangladeshis abroad appear to be upset and have expressed strong
disapproval on social media and demanded an apology from the
production company. Bangaladesh foreign ministry has issued a press
statement, which says that the Bangladesh High Commission in New
Delhi was trying to ascertain the veracity of the reported distortion
of historical facts.
Since
such bad publicity would affect his commercial interests, the
producer of the film has already offered an apology and says that the
film was and is meant to be a fictional work and does not in any way
project or intend to disrespect any particular segment of society or
persons or a nation. It also regrets causing disrespect to a nation’s
birth, which is always steeped in the sacrifices made by its freedom
fighters and martyrs and this can never be forgotten.
This
apology is unlikely to satisfy Bangladeshis and it is possible that
the producer may be forced to delete portions from the script, which
refer to birth of Bangladesh. Actually it hardly matters to the plot
of film, whether main characters of the film are shown orphaned just
by 1971 India-Pakistan war without any reference to Bangladesh at
all. It might be a good idea to do this to mend the ruffled feathers.
Poetic
licenses are not really all that open, in particular, when the
subject can offend some people from a foreign country.
26th
February 2014
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