Calling Sehmat – The Bach

Generally, I do not get involved in the business of comparing the movies against the Book based on. The primary reason for that is that I will have to read fiction for the comparison. And I hate reading fiction! Nevertheless, here is an attempt. This is more of a fictionalized biography rather than a novel, hence the exception 🙂

The movie in the discussion is Raazi starring Alia Bhat. She is a nepo-kid with reasonably good acting skills amongst a truckload among quintessentially bad actors and movie makers. For a change, the movie is loaded with decent actors; songs are brilliant with excellent lyrics. Its quite old movie by now and you would have seen it already. The book is based on “Calling Sehmat”, authored by Harinder Sikka penned on fictionalized biographical narration based on what he gathered from actual Sehmat.

On an overall and surface level, the movie captures the essence and sequence of events described in the Book. However, there are a few fundamental differences, which could be deliberate or creative. I will leave you to decide:

The movie does not capture the first chapter of the Book. The chapter is an essential part of the storyline, but the film chooses to leave behind. The book takes its own time, deservedly, to define Sehmat, her love interest, passion, etc. The movie does not care about any of that.
The movie Sehmat is a weak girl who flinches with the pistol backfire, the book’ Sehmat is a cold-blooded determined soldier who is willing to kill, lie, kidnap, and blackmail for her nation which was at war. The Book’s Sehmat does things as her conscious directs her, while the movie’s Sehmat does it as obligations to her Indian handlers.
The movie ultimately leaves put last few chapters, which most probably is to avoid hurting sentiments of a rowdy family lived terrorizing a village in rural Punjab. Also, they probably do not want to show Sehmat owes her newfound sanity to a hermit.

Also read: Letting Meghna Gulzar direct Raazi was the biggest blunder, rues Calling Sehmat author Harinder Sikka

Apologies for having misled you in believing that Soorarai Pottru post has good plot and script. My readers have pointed out that I was wrong, and I was indeed wrong. In my defence, I was not aware of the socio-political and economic background of the story depicted in the movie, fiction or otherwise, which quite possibly, be propaganda.

I had reviewed it as ‘a movie as an artform’ rather than a socio-political statement. I am aware that I stand against almost an entire internet, who probably did exactly the same. You will have to talk to someone from the region to understand the movie from different perspective.

Okay. Here are the things I had missed:

Name of a character as ‘Che’ was not an unfortunate coincidence, rather quite possibly, it was deliberate.
Even without reading the biography, you can google and find out the creation of airlines did not encounter sabotaging attempts from bureaucrats and competitors. In fact, It was told that Chief Ministers like SM Krishna and Chandrababu Naidu stood behind the airlines when it got into trouble.
The protagonist is seen in a black shirt, or shades of it, for almost the entire movie, including his wedding ceremony. I do not know what it means as of yet, but apparently, it does have a statement.

I have already ordered the book “Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey” by GR Gopinath, let me read through and let you know. From what I have told, the movie has a minimal relationship with Autobiography.

Apart this, I already have “Calling Sehmat” in my queue which supposedly inspired the movie Raazi .