Britain ruled India during the time Sam Manekshaw, also called Sam Bahadur, or “Sam the Brave,” was born. In order to defend British-Indian interests, he enlisted in the army and fought Japan during World War II. After the division of Pakistan’s armed forces in 1947, he was put in a different unit. He later oversaw India’s involvement in the war with Pakistan that led to the creation of Bangladesh. In 1973, he became the first Indian army officer to be promoted to the rank of field marshal, just before he retired.
This historical backdrop could provide a rich foundation for a Colonel Blimp-style examination of how politics and values change around a person as they get older, but that is not how the makers of this biopic approach their subject. Director Meghna Gulzar’s approach is rather more straightforward, no doubt in response to the current wave of nationalist sentiment in India, and it includes input from Manekshaw’s family. Manekshaw is portrayed throughout as a hero who is always right, noble, witty, and forgiving; whether he is confronting politicians, sparring with an adversary, or courting his future wife, he can do no wrong. The endearing Vicky Kaushal is a great fit for the role.
The film is most engaging when it dramatizes humorous anecdotes from Manekshaw’s life. When a machine gun bullet hits him in the chest, for instance, nobody thinks he is going to survive. Manekshaw tells a doctor that a mule kicked him and that is what happened to him . It concludes that any man with such a sense of humor needs to be saved.
This method gets the movie into trouble with the drama’s overall shape; while the incidents and set pieces are well done, the structure is a bit episodic. This is a common issue with biopics: how to give events the momentum of fiction when the underlying narrative is fact? The movie ends up feeling like a demonstration of the widely disregarded axiom that history is just a series of disasters.