ABSTRACT
Photography and cinematography are 19th century inventions which revolutionized the imagination of history. They made personal and social histories possible and realistic in many ways. Before commenting on some Indian war films a few remarks on Hindi cinema’s treatment of war and the military in general will not be out of place. Needless to add that this treatment ought to be viewed in relation to memory, myth and ideas of masculine nationhood mentioned in the large body of literature on the subject. The commercial and popular Hindi films which feature the military portray the armed forces as deeply masculine, straight, nationalist, self-sacrificing and ideal. The immaculate armed forces have been used as an exciting adventurous background against which innumerable bourgeois love stories have been picturized by Hindi cinema. Compared with films like the Deer Hunter and Saving Private Ryan the scope of Bollywood war films is restricted to showcasing official propaganda and jingoism.
