Bollywood tackles Hitler

MUMBAI: Indian history has been revised time and again on celluloid, but debutant director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar moves into a global canvas with Dear Friend Hitler, in an attempt to capture the last few days of the Nazi dictator in his Berlin bunker and Germany after his downfall in 1945.

Kumar is not the first to make a film about the German politician as World War II and Hitler have been subjects of enduring fascination through the decades. Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) was one such film which depicted the days leading up to the Fuhrer’s suicide. The film starred Alec Guinness and Simon Ward and opened on Hitler’s 56th birthday and ended 10 days later with his suicide on April 30, 1945.

Downfall was released in 2004 and is a German-Austrian epic drama film which again depicts the final 10 days of the dictator’s life in his bunker in Berlin and Nazi Germany, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 2008 came Valkyrie which was set in Nazi Germany during World War II and shows the July 20 plot by German army officers to assassinate Hitler.

The movie featured Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise as Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, one of the key plotters.

The obsession about Adolf Hitler is not only limited to serious films or political dramas. A number of comedic spoofs have been made which use the dictator as the main character.

These include clips that are taken from the film Downfall, and are reworked with different subtitles.

Gems such as Hitler finds out he has been rejected from LUMS, Hitler wants to vote for “American Idol” Lee Dewyze, Hitler reacts to news that Susan Boyle did not win “Britain’s Got Talent” and Hitler hates iTunes became huge hits.

However, Kumar’s movie takes a serious note, “My film aims to recapture the last days of Adolf Hitler. It shows Hitler in his underground bunker and portrays his relationship with his close associates. It aims to capture the personality of Adolf Hitler and his insecurities, his charisma and his paranoia during the last few days of his life,” he added.

Kumar has roped in the versatile Anupam Kher to play the lead role and Neha Dhupia will portray Hitler’s wife, Eva Braun, who was 23 years younger than him.

He maintains that the film also shows how Hitler contributed to India’s independence and what happened to soldiers in Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Legion in Germany.

“It shows Hitler’s love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence. It also depicts the struggle for survival of the lesser known Indian Legion soldiers who were left in Germany by Subhas Bose to fight for India’s independence and Germany’s prestige,” said Kumar.

Though volumes have been written about the dictator, very little information is available about his wife Braun, who was a model before she met Hitler. Dear Friend Hitler focuses on this aspect of his life as well.

“The film will not show the love life of Adolf Hitler. It will show Eva Braun who has rarely been spoken about in history. Eva had been Hitler’s girlfriend since she was 17 years old. The film shows how she enters his life in his last days. They got married 42 hours before he died,” said Kumar.

Though the backdrop is World War II, Kumar insists his is not a war movie.

“By the title, people might take it as a periodic or war film, but we have portrayed neither. Rather it’s a war of conscience going on in the mind of Hitler,” he said.

WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING FROM NEWS DESK

Published in the Express Tribune, June 11^th, 2010.