Nandita Das in Bawandar and (below) Manisha Koirala in Escape From Taliban

Cinema is always inspired by life’s facts. The good ones, and the bad ones. Who’s the true hero of Indian cinema? Shah Rukh Khan? Nope. Salman Khan? Naah! Amitabh Bachchan? Afsos! Yeh galat jawaab hai...! You are! We are!

Cinema has always been a mirror image of our own lives, our own world. Remember those trips to the museums where we saw the convex and concave mirrors? We looked like footballs in one and matchsticks in another. It’s the same way with films. They have always been about us in this way or that. They sometimes make our idiosyncrasies look excessively ridiculous, and our sufferings unbelievably enormous. But they are our idiosyncrasies, our sufferings all the same.

Every filmmaker looks around himself for inspiration. Of course, some of them are so totally ‘inspired’ by the inspirations of others that they simply make the same films again! Well, at least the actors are different and sometimes the language! But we digress.

Quite a few films have been made on real-life heroes. The name that instantly springs to mind is Kabeer Kaushik’s recently released Sehar. It is based on SSP Arun Kumar’s handling of a shootout against a mafia don in Lucknow. Arun Kumar is not the first police officer who has served as subject material for a filmmaker. Shimit Amin’s Ab Tak Chhappan was also based on the life of an encounter specialist in the police force, Daya Nayak.

We’re human, so we err. And if you want to be famous, your error had better be a big one, buddy! Ram Gopal Varma is planning a film on the infamous South Indian dacoit, Veerappan. The film will be based on a chapter, The Grand Plan, from the dead dacoit’s biography. Another dacoit, Phoolan Devi, had created ripples when she protested against Shekhar Kapur’s depiction of her life in his sensational film, Bandit Queen.

Incidentally, most real-life films are about people whose lives have been messed up in some way. As early as the 40s, V. Shantaram made Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, a moving account of the sacrifice an army doctor made as a prisoner in the Japanese camp. Says Tapan Sinha, of his film Ek Doctor ki Maut, “I based the story on the suicide of a young scientist in Delhi.” The film was about a doctor who gave his life to find a cure for leprosy and lost his battle against the powers that be.

Shyam Benegal’s Nishant was the story of feudal oppression in rural India, where the poor were not ? still are not ?their own persons. Ashwini Chaudhary’s Dhoop showed Om Puri as a father fighting for his dead son’s right. This quiet film was based on the ‘no-noise’ battle that S.K. Nayar, father of late Capt. Anuj Nayar, who died in Kargil, had to wage against the corruption infesting the roots of our system. The film poignantly indicated that this one man’s triumph could be ours, too. “I am just one of the living examples of individuals who chose to fight against corruption rather than to compromise with the circumstances,” says Nayar.

Sometimes it’s sensation that lures filmmakers to the real world. If you thought only the Salmans and the Mallikas could cause rounded eyes, well, then you haven’t followed the dailies. Ramesh Sharma’s New Delhi Times was based on journalist Arun Shourie’s sharp nose that caused an uproar in the political circuit. Recently, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday, about the 1993 Mumbai blasts, had to remove the ‘true’ tag as per court orders, but in reality that’s just what it was. Faizal Saif’s Pick Me is about Kamalahasan’s makeup assistant, a gay gigolo who committed suicide. Sadly, if that isn’t sensation, nothing is.

But more than anything else, it is women being tortured that create historic true-life films. Those tiny newsitems about some woman being physically abused even in some obscure corner of the world never escape filmmakers. Aruna Raje made Rihaee, inspired by a woman who had the courage to refuse abortion of a child that did not belong to her husband. Ujjal Chattopadhyay’s Escape from Taliban was about one Sushmita Banerjee who tried to flee Afghanistan, her husband’s homeland and lived to tell her story in a bestseller.

Jagmohan Mundhra seems to be a specialist in this genre. His upcoming film, Provoked, starring Aishwarya Rai is about Kiranjit Ahluwalia, a lady who tolerated physical abuse at the hands of her husband for years, before she finally got provoked. With Bawandar, he projeceted the plight of a villager who is gangraped and then revoltingly humiliated when she asks for justice. Bhanwari Devi, who faced this tragedy, lives in a village of Rajasthan, her head still held high. “I was making a film inspired by her courage,” says Mundhra.

The cops, the dakus, the soldiers of justice, the wronged women. No astronomically different premise, folks. So, what makes these ‘real’ films special? Perhaps, the fact that we know this is about one of us. Or, maybe, that it brings out our winning streak, the hero in all of us. The true hero.

The Holly trail

Some of the foreign flicks which grabbed true stories

erin brockovich: Starring Julia Roberts, this film made a smalltime legal assistant by the same name, very famous. A single mother of three at that time, Erin won a lawsuit against a utility corporation, forcing them to pay as compensation $333 million to 650 victims. She herself got a bonus to the tune of $2million. Julia was $20 million richer thanks to Erin’s do-gooder streak and the film won an Oscar.

BOYS don’t cry: Hilary Swank played Teena Brandon in this dramatic portrayal of the trauma of a girl who pretends to herself and to the world that she is a boy. Hilary won an Oscar for Best Actress but slipped up in her thank-you speech. JoAnn Brandon, Teena’s mother, accused Hilary of not having explained her daughter’s condition adequately in the film and of referring to her as the male alter ego Brandon Teena in her Oscar speech.

schindler’s list: The Oscars have a little something for the ‘real’ stories it seems. This one got seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director (Steven Spielberg). Liam Neeson played Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who drank heavily and regularly cheated on his wife but saved 900 of his Jewish workers from the Nazis. It is the most expensive black-and-white film to be made to date, even though Spielberg did not accept any salary saying it would be ‘blood money’?

Catch me if you can: Leonardo DiCaprio plays the conman of the century who passed $6 million in bad cheques across 26 countries and went on to become an FBI consultant for white collar crimes, no less! Frank Abagnale Jr did not think our cutesy Leo was ‘suave’ enough to play his part onscreen. But when he saw the results, he changed his mind.

calendar girls: A sensation in real life as well as reel. This one’s about a women’s group that poses in the nude for calendar pictures, in order to raise money for leukemia research. Yes, this is a true story! Wait till you hear the tagline! “They dropped everything for a good cause.” Uh, huh?

The aviator: Biopic on industrialist, filmmaker and aviator Howard Hughes. It is believed that Leonardo got into the character’s skin so well, that he developed symptoms of the same disorder that Hughes had suffered. The obsessed old man even counted and sorted the peas on his plate according to size. Jim Carrey was first considered for this role?

Frida: Salma Hayek plays the Mexican painter who was always looking to shock. Whether it was her paintings, her dressing or her choice of lovers ? male and female ? Frida Kahlo left gaping mouths in her wake, every single time. Madonna, who is an enthusiastic fan of Frida’s, wanted to play the part. Laura San Giacomo was also considered but rejected. The lead was then given to the sultry Mexican siren who also received one of Frida’s necklaces as a gift from Frida’s neice because she was delighted with the film.

goodfellas: Martin Scorsese’s racy flick based on the life of gangster Henry Hill. The film has set a record of sorts by using the ‘f’ word 246 times in the script. Henry is believed to have said that he wanted to be a gangster ever since he could remember. It’s better than being the President of the United States, he said?

A beautiful mind: This beautiful film accounted the life of Nobel Prize winner, math prodigy John Forbes Nash Jr. A memorable performance from Russell Crowe playing Nash, who struggled for many years with schizophrenia to come out a winner not just of the Nobel but also of life. It was shot sequentially to help Russell deliver a progressive behavioral performance. The film won four Oscars.

Pooja Tolani