Screening films the Army way

During our early years in uniform, an illiterate person could join the General Duty category in the Army. We lived through an era when ‘escort’, ‘scout’ and ‘squad’ were pronounced in an identical manner. We had to figure out the right word by relating it to the context.

In the late 1970s, I was commanding a battalion in Nagaland. We were co-located with the Brigade Headquarters at Chakabama, some 30 miles east of the capital, Kohima. There was a station-level cinema hall where a weekly movie was screened. We were responsible for keeping the hall functional for the screening. The movie reel came from Dimapur, where all battalions had their rear locations.

The Brigade Commander was very fond of movies and never missed any. As per the drill, when the vehicle convoy started from Dimapur, our radio operator there would pass a message to his counterpart in the battalion. It moved up the chain and, finally, the Subedar Major would let me know the name of the movie and its star cast. I would then inform the Brigadier.

One day, an English movie was to be shown. The Subedar Major gave me the name ‘Hybrit son’. The title didn’t make much sense. But there was no way to get more information. I made my own interpretation and told the Brigade Commander that ‘Hybrid Son’ was scheduled that evening. He jokingly commented that these Hollywood chaps could make movies on any subject under the sun.

After the hall lights were dimmed and the projector began to whirr, the credits showed ‘The High Bright Sun’. The Brigadier must have sensed my discomfiture. Before I could explain, he said empathetically, ‘Don’t worry, you should have heard my Gurkha Subedar Major’s English!’

Hindi movies passed off more smoothly. But not always. Subedar Major Bhanwar Singh, a Rajput from rural Jodhpur, who joined the Army as an illiterate, had never seen a film. His only recreation was playing football.

One evening, he was unduly late in giving me details. Having waited, I called him up. Rather worried, he said there had been an error and that he was rechecking the information. He asked, ‘Sahib, yeh kabhi ho sakta hai ki film mein donon hi abhineta hon aur ladki ho hi nahin?’ Having never seen a movie with a male-only cast, I shared his confusion and asked him the film’s name.

He responded in all seriousness, ‘Film hai “Khel Khel Mein” aur do ladke hain Rishi Kapoor aur Neetu Singh.’ Amused, I had to explain to him that not every Singh belonged to the male of the species.