The
Hero: Love Story of a Spy, directed by Anil Sharma, takes
nearly three hours to explain why Arun Khanna (played by
Sunny Deol) receives an award in Toronto at the beginning
of the film. The film then goes back to the time when,
as an intelligence officer in the Indian army, he is posted
to Kashmir. Although his predecessor was harsh on the local
population, he begins his tenure by distributing sweets
in order to curry favor with the Moslem population. Among
those impressed with his kind gesture is Reshma (played
by Preity Zinta), whom he ultimately needs to serve as
a spy across the border with Pakistan. The two gradually
fall in love, providing dramatic tension at a personal
level while the political situation grows tense. Meanwhile,
a plot in Pakistan has been hatched by Ishak Khan (played
by Amrish Puri) to make a nuclear bomb in Kashmir as a
ploy to gain independence for the divided, disputed land.
Although the Pakistan government pretends that Ishak Khan
is in prison, he is very active in the nuclear bomb plot,
which requires certain inputs from a chemical factory in
Canada run by a Pakistani named Zakaria (played by Kabir
Bedi). Risking her life, Reshma reports on the arrival
of Ishak Khan on the Pakistan side of the border, but she
flees when she is discovered by the Pakistanis and ultimately
is saved by Arun. At a New Year celebration, when the two
are united as betrothed lovers, the Pakistanis set off
a bomb at the pavilion where festivities are being held;
the two barely escape, but neither knows whether the other
is alive. Officially declared dead, so that he can go undercover,
Arun is reassigned to Canada in order to track down Ishak
Khan. Soon, Zakaria's daughter Shaheen (played by Priyanka
Chopra) is so infatuated with Arun's charm that Zakaria
suggests marriage, a move that will bring Arun closer to
the inner circle among those trying to build the Kashmiri "Moslem
bomb." Reshma, meanwhile, paralyzed from the waist
down due to the New Year bombing, is cared for by some
very kind Pakistanis, who fly her for better treatment
to Canada. A love triangle results when Reshma inevitably
runs into Arun, but of course duty is more important to
him than love, and a thrilling climax to the political
saga is tempered by an unexpected outcome to the love triangle.
Before the film begins, titles tell filmviewers that the
plot is not based on actual events, and that there is no
intention to belittle any government or religion in the
story. Despite an excellent musical score, however, the
film is a crude effort to discredit Pakistan. The propagandistic
themes are many--that Moslem terrorists dishonor Islam,
that those who lived in India before the partition of 1947
suffer discrimination in Pakistan today, that Kashmiris
prefer just rule by democratic India rather than tyrannical
rule by Pakistan, and that Indian government officials
are compassionate despite engaging in brutal acts. Who
deserves an award in Toronto for that? MH
I
want to comment on this film
