If you have the courage to face the truth then see – Bastar: The Naxal Story

After ‘The Kerala Story’, Sudipto Sen has made another bold attempt to present terrorism in its true form through the film ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’. In India, efforts have been made to hide the blood stained hands and faces of Communists, Naxals and Maoists (the entire Communist family). The urban Naxalites sitting in the academic, literary, art-cinema and media fields wearing the cloak of left liberal always defended the Red Terror by creating stories and presented its revolutionary image. Whereas ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ has done the work of showing what is the truth. Films awaken the senses as well as moisten the eyes. The scene with which the film begins leaves the audience shaken. When I was watching the special screening of ‘Bastar’, I saw that many women and young men also ran out of the cinema hall crying after watching the first scene. Just imagine, the scene which we are unable to see on screen has been experienced by a woman and her daughter. Some scenes in the film may be disturbing. If those scenes were not shown, the audience would not have been able to imagine the violent mentality of the communists. The depiction of the incident of burning 76 soldiers to death, the scenes of killing innocent forest dwellers with axe, the incident of picking up innocent children and throwing them in the fire, all this requires courage to see. This film should be seen and shown to as many people as possible. Salute to Sudipto Sen that he has boldly shown the truth of Red Terror. However, there are more brutal stories of communist violence that should have been shown but there is a limit to the time in the film. It is expected that Sudipto will bring a webseries on this.

The scene from which ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ begins, the film captivates the audience from there itself. For the ‘crime’ of hoisting the tricolor flag of India, Naxalites cut a woman’s husband into 36 pieces in front of her eyes and tied his body in a bundle and handed it over to her. It cannot be imagined how that woman was able to walk when she was going towards her home through the dense forest with her husband’s dead body (36 pieces) on her head. That burden on his head was heavier than any burden in the world. Other stories also run concurrently around this central story, showing all shades of the Red Terror. The film also exposes the network to the society, which extends from forests to cities and from Naxalite camps to education campuses. How an atmosphere is created in favor of Naxalites and their supporters in the debates ranging from media to courtroom, this is also seen in the film. If we watch the film carefully, we will also understand that Naxal ideology is not limited to the jungle only, it is flourishing around us also. In this context, the incident has also been shown, in which Naxalites brutally murdered 76 CRPF soldiers while they were sleeping and it was celebrated in the prestigious university of Delhi, JNU. Every patriotic citizen will have to play his role in understanding this anti-India ideology and stopping it from spreading.

There is a dialogue in the film – “The roads of Bastar are not made of asphalt, but of the blood of soldiers”. 41 soldiers have been sacrificed to build a 55 kilometer long road in Bastar. Naxalites neither allow schools nor hospitals to be built in their areas of influence. The film also tells that the communists are doing the business of extorting money by pushing the forest dwellers into violence. They are taking funds worth crores from anti-India forces and building their own houses. Looting the mineral wealth of the Red Corridor is also the agenda of the communists. Remember that wherever communists have been in power in the world, they have killed millions of innocent people. Communist terror killed 20 million people in the Soviet Union, 65 million in China, 10 lakh in Vietnam, 20 lakh in North Korea, 20 lakh in Cambodia, 10 lakh in Eastern Europe, 1.5 lakh in Latin America, 17 in Africa. Lakh, 15 lakh people have been murdered in Afghanistan. About 10 crore people have died due to communist experiments in the last 70-75 years. After Boko Haram and ISIS, Naxalites are the most dangerous terrorists in the world.

In the present times, Indian cinema has taken a new turn. Cinema is playing its important and essential role. This is the reason why producers and directors are able to muster the courage to make films like ‘The Kashmir File’ to ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’. Indian cinema is now showing the courage to bring out the truth which was either hidden or glorified for years. Director Sudipto Sen has done a wonderful job in ‘Bastar’. This film succeeds in keeping the audience engaged till the end. The director has been successful in conveying the truth to the society through the film. Adah Sharma has once again made an impact in her role. He has played the role of a courageous and responsible police officer. Along with Ada Sharma, artists like Indira Tiwari, Shilpa Shukla, Yashpal Sharma, Raima Sen and Anangsha Viswas have also left their impact. Vipul Amritlal Shah, producer of ‘The Kerala Story’ is also the producer and creative director of ‘Bastar’. ‘Bastar: The Naxal Story’ is coming to theaters on March 15, 2024 to tell the entire truth about the undeclared war that India is facing. If you want to see the truth then muster up the courage and watch this film.

– Lokendra Singh

(The author is a litterateur and journalist.)