Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta: Our unit has not been granted battle honour

Pippa

For Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta, Pippa is the realisation of a promise he had made to his unit. In 2015, he wrote the book, The Burning Chaffees, as an ode to their bravery in the 1971 India-Pakistan War. As the story is retold on the screen with the Ishaan Khatter and Mrunal Thakur-starrer, Mehta says the valour displayed during the Battle of Garibpur must reach people.

Balram Mehta

"It was a battle fought for the freedom of another country. Over 10,000 refugees came to India and they needed a land that they could call their own. The battle had been launched by Lt Gen AAK Niazi [of Pakistan] to teach the Indian Army a lesson," he recalls, before delving into the details. "The story goes that the then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was kept waiting in the White House, despite an appointment, for 40 minutes. This couldn't be taken lightly. She returned from the tour and allowed the Indian Army to cross 10 kilometres into the borders of another country. The Pakistan Army's sophisticated artillery confirmed the doubts of USA's involvement. Our victory at Battle of Garibpur became breaking news. But even though we created Bangladesh, [our contribution is] not recognised by the Government of India. The unit has not been granted battle honour on the simple premise that the war had not been declared by Pakistan."

For Mehta, it took one lunch with producer Siddharth Roy Kapur to set Raja Krishna Menon's directorial venture into motion. "I had written The Burning Chaffees as a promise made to the tank troops in 1971. Siddharth believed it was a story that had to be told. I was present at the Durgapur schedule and saw the director's motivation [to tell the story with authenticity]."

The war veteran, who is played on screen by Khatter, remembers his first encounter with the leading man. "I could size him up in the first few minutes, and he fitted the role of a cavalier captain." While the war drama premièred on Amazon Prime Video yesterday, the makers had held a special screening for military veterans earlier. At the screening, he says he was too intently looking at the reactions of army officers and highly placed bureaucrats of MoD. "They were transfixed," he smiles.

It's hard to root for a war drama when Ukraine and Russia have been at war all year, while Israel has reduced Gaza to rubble, amidst cries of freeing Palestine. As a military veteran, Mehta says Pippa will trigger conversation about the futility of war. "What's happening in Ukraine and Gaza, these wars are only destroying humanity. The [stakeholders] will eventually have to sit across the table and work out terms of learning to live together. War is a loss for all, mostly humanity. The sooner it ends, the better."