Later this month, it will be a 100 years since the outbreak of the First World War. Despite the passage of time, fascinating stories continue to emerge from the theatres of the war.
In his upcoming documentary, titled “Mademoiselle France Pleure” (Miss France is in Tears), Paris-based filmmaker, scriptwriter and novelist Vijay Singh tells the story of the 1,40,000 Indian soldiers and civilian workers who defended France's freedom. The film derives its name from the placards French women are said to have held up as these soldiers left the country.
The film is being made with the support of the Embassy of France in India. At a press meet recently, Singh presented some of the material of the film as well as the process by which he came to acquire it – in France, India Belgium, Germany and the UK. Explaining why he decided to make the film, he said, “In some sense, the participation of these soldiers has not been saluted at all...”
Singh, who has previously written the novel “Jaya Ganga, In Search of the River Goddess” and made the films “India by Song” and “One Dollar Curry”, chose to tell the story of the soldiers as a documentary because “Fiction might add something to an incident, but the facticity of documentary has its own hit.” “To do an honest documentary also means you salute another person rather than saying I have a better story than you,” he said.
Through archival material, the film underscores what it was like for the soldiers who lived in France and Belgium, to fight in battles at Ypres and Neuve Chapelle. It shows the rousing welcome given to them by Frenchmen in Marseille in October 1914, their hospitality, as also their bemusement at the sheep, goats and cattle the soldiers had brought along. It also documents the afflictions of the Indian soldiers, their specific situations within the British army and hospitals.
Of the 1,40,000 soldiers who went to France and Belgium, it is estimated that 10,000 never came back. Underscoring the contribution of their effort, Singh said, “There is an English historian who says that if the Indian soldiers had not reached there at that time, maybe the outcome of several battles would have been very different. Perhaps they were used as cannon fodder, but even that gave the British time to send in reinforcements.”
Additionally, through interviews with descendants of the soldiers, the film excavates what the director calls a “beautiful Indo-French love story”. In France, the filmmaker found a 71-year-old lady, the granddaughter of an Indian soldier and a Frenchwoman, who was overcome with emotion on seeing the director, mistaking him to be a family member.
In Haryana, he found a song that used to be sung to encourage people to join the war effort. In Chamba, Uttarakhand, the director witnessed the Gabbar Singh Negi Mela, which has been held for the last 94 years, in memory of the soldier who received the Victoria Cross for his services.
The film, which has been researched for over three years, is expected to be completed by March 2015, in time for the centenary of the battle of Neuve Chappelle, in which over 4000 Indian soldiers lost their lives.
