As the Indian soldiers make their way into the Galwan Valley and Rezang La to take on the Chinese, they have little to be hopeful for. Outnumbered 125 against 3,000 Chinese soldiers; they do not have enough ammunition, not to mention adequate clothing to weather the bitter cold.
While the Chinese flaunted modern machine guns, the Indians have to depend on World War II vintage 303 rifles. In case you were wondering, this is 1962: The War in the Hills, a war drama, and not the present kerfuffle in the Pangong Lake area. Showing on Disney + Hotstar, the series is directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and stars Abhay Deol, Sumeet Vyas, Annup Sonii and Mahie Gill.
Vyas plays the role of Ramkumar Yadav, who is short-tempered and a single father. His character loses his wife to childbirth, and raises his son on his own.
For Vyas, who found out that he was going to be a parent during the shoot, it was an emotional role. “Also, I love the fact that I got to play someone who’s not like me.
"I’m not generally short-tempered, but Yadav is a guy who reacts at every situation, wants to pick up a fight and will be the first one to charge on with his gun. It was nice to let out the emotions,” says Vyas.
Deol plays Major Suraj Singh, who leads the soldiers. In a reunion of sorts, the war series also stars Mahie Gill, who plays Shagun Singh (Deol’s wife).
Gill reunites with her Dev.D co-star after 12 years. “I had wanted to work with Abhay for a long time and then, of course, Mahesh Manjrekar was directing the series. He’s a fantastic actor and a fabulous director. When you’re working with someone like him, things become very easy. My character is a very emotional person who’s brave and also knows that army life is very demanding, it comes with a lot of pleasure and pain. She realises that her husband is a soldier first and then a husband. I can relate to this character because my grandfather was in the army and I also know a lot of army wives,” explains Gill, whose last cinematic outing was Durgamati (2020) on Amazon.
The series was shot partly in Ladakh, but had to be later shifted to Panchgani as September onwards Ladakh becomes almost inhabitable. For the cast, shooting in Ladakh—even in comparatively better weather—was tough. Since they were playing soldiers and keeping true to the story, they had to make do with only one sweater and canvas shoes. Also, it took the cast and crew almost four days to acclimatise in the dark, only after which the shoot could be started.
Like Gill, Vyas too was overwhelmed at working with Manjrekar and remembers being a little star-struck by the actor-filmmaker. “He’s a lovely person and a good actor himself and so understands where the actors come from, and what they are going through. He’s very liberal when it comes to your performance, he just lets you be. As he comes from a theatre background, I had even more respect for him,” says Vyas.
Full of valour and patriotism of the men taking on the might of the enemy for the love of their country, the series shows how the Indian soldiers looted the well-equipped Chinese of their ammunition and then used it against them. At a time when Indo-China relations are far from friendly, it is expected that a lot of people would tune in to watch the series which will serve as a memorable flashback to the bravery of these soldiers forgotten over time.