A daring escape from Pak jail !

Purnima Sharma

Taranjeit Singh with his actors

Taranjeit Singh Call it serendipity if you will. One day, as Taranjeit Singh Namdhari was browsing through some books on the 1971 India-Pakistan war at the Bangalore airport, he came across some passages about an escape attempt made by three young Air Force officers from a Pakistani jail in PC Lal's 'My years with the Indian Air Force'.
“Since this was something I was unaware about, having grown up in the years when the social media was still not big, my curiosity was piqued,” says the filmmaker who studied the craft from Department of Mass Communication University of Hyderabad and has also worked on films and TV shows like 'Dil To Pagal Hai', 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', 'Mohabattein', 'Asambhav' and 'Fear Factor', among others.
Needless to say, Namdhari picked up a copy of the book and read up all he could on three brave officers -- Flt Lt Dilip Parulkar, Flt Lt MS Grewal ‘Garry’ and Flt Lt Harish Sinhji 'Harry' -- the prisoners of war (POWs) who embarked on a lifethreatening mission to escape incarceration in the enemy territory.
“It was much later that I learnt that this attempt was deemed to be the most outrageous prison break in the history of the Indian Defence Services at the time,” says Namdhari who became intrigue enough to think in terms of making a film on it.

“It was a great learning experience for all of us working on the film as well. From flying into Pakistan and successfully bombing their designated targets, followed by their subsequent crash and capture, it was evident that these pilots had put their training to good use,” says the filmmaker. Life in confinement was not easy for those used to flying in the open skies.

“Yes, a couple of hours later as I landed in Mumbai, the story had found its way into my heart,” he reveals. And as he discussed it with his wife Bandna Preet Kaur and like-minded friends, what made this tale stand out was the fact that “apart from being a great escape story, the protagonists were Indian, and unlike criminals trying to break prison, they were IAF pilots who were POWs in a Pakistan that was still coming to terms with its partition and the loss of wars to India.”

Scenes from the film The more he thought of these officers and their escape, the more determined he became to meet them. And so the journey began.
But things didn’t pan out as easy as they may sound now. For, there was hardly any information available on the internet. But not one to give up so easily, he continued his research till “through sheer chance”, he came across a small blog on Flt Lt Dilip Parulkar (now Group Captain – Retd), the main architect of this escape, by someone who knew him personally. “I shot off a few emails to this writer and was lucky enough to get a response,” he smiles.
It was only a matter of time then that the filmmaker found himself on the doorstep of Grp Capt Parulkar. “My heart was pounding and my excitement knew no bounds as the door opened and the much-decorated officer shook my hand. After all, here I was meeting a real-life superhero,” remembers Namdhari.

And it was only a matter of minutes that he broached the idea of a film on Parulkar and his fellow officers’ daring escape. “But to my utter surprise, he laughed out loud saying it’s been almost 45 years since they did that. ‘Who’d be interested in seeing it now?’ And my response was just a simple, one-liner: Every Indian.”

Parulkar soon put him in touch with his fellow officers including Wg Cdr Garry Grewal who now lives in Uttarakhand and the family of Gp Capt Harish Sinhji in Bengaluru since he, unfortunately, had passed away earlier in October 21, 1999.

Namdhari also met the officers’ other jail mates who had helped them escape. Air Cmde Bro Bhargava (Panchkula), Gp Capt Tejwant Singh (Noida), Wg Cdr Vidyadhar Chati (Hyderabad) and Wg Cdr Dhirendra Singh Jafa (Delhi) had chosen to stay back because of a variety of reasons ranging from the fact that they were either physically incapacitated or were married so were told not to take the risk of getting killed in the escape attempt.

“All of these officers were a mine of information. And here I must mention that Wg Cdr Jafa, despite being dependent on an oxygen cylinder all the time, managed to speak to us at length - - for almost six hours -- about his experiences. This was just a little before he passed away and we were lucky to have screened the rough cut of the film for him just a little before that,” lets on Namdhari talking about his film entitled ‘The Great Indian Escape – Khulay Asmaan Ki Oar’ that took him four years to complete.

“It was a great learning experience for all of us working on the film as well. From flying into Pakistan and successfully bombing their designated targets, followed by their subsequent crash and capture, it was evident that these pilots had put their training to good use,” says the filmmaker.

Talking about his actors Namdhari mentions how two of the three actors he had earlier signed on for the protagonists’ roles had walked out of the film citing other commitments. “During an earlier casting call, Raghav Rishi and Raaj Singh Arora with their impressive built and ability to deliver lines had caught my attention and I had thought of giving them the roles of Pakistani officers. But later, they became the face of Dilip Parulkar and Garry Grewal. We also got the talented theatre actor Asheesh Kapoor to play Harish Harry Sinhji,” he adds.

Life in confinement was not easy for those used to flying in the open skies. “It was fascinating learning about their experiences – the trials and tribulations they faced in the initially hostile incarceration that also had its share of a typical Air Force bonhomie in the camp – not just with fellow Indian prisoners but even with their enemy officers.

All this while the politics of the creation of Bangladesh was being played across three nations and watched by the whole world,” says Namdhari who is happy to have put the spotlight on officers who, post retirement, had moved to a life of anonymity.

But making the film wasn’t as much of a cakewalk as Namdhari had envisaged it would be. To tackle the problem of finances, he set up a Facebook page asking for support from people all across. He also started making presentations for independent investors on why they should become a part of the film and, within no time, had an enthusiastic and committed team of people on board, both behind and in front of the camera.

Talking about his actors Namdhari mentions how two of the three actors he had earlier signed on for the protagonists’ roles had walked out of the film citing other commitments. “During an earlier casting call, Raghav Rishi and Raaj Singh Arora with their impressive built and ability to deliver lines had caught my attention and I had thought of giving them the roles of Pakistani officers. But later, they became the face of Dilip Parulkar and Garry Grewal. We also got the talented theatre actor Asheesh Kapoor to play Harish Harry Sinhji,” he adds.

And then, earlier this year, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, downed an enemy jet during an aerial combat with Pakistan and was held captive for three days in that country. “Abhinandan’s story played out pretty much the same way the story of our officers did, except for the fact that he was back home sooner than expected while these heroes of the 1971 war had to endure a year of hardship.

And with the help of others in jail, while Parulkar, Grewal and Sinhji did manage to escape, they got caught just a little before the border and were sent back to jail. It was only later, on December 1, 1972 that they were released by PM Bhutto and returned to India.

And now, post the film’s release Namdhari says many viewers told him how they've been 'educated' about the trials and tribulations our defence personnel can face in enemy territory. "And the film has made them salute all those who suffered such ordeals and also those who were not lucky enough to return home," he adds.