You Can Be Patriotic Without Beating Your Chest: Director Robby Grewal On 'RAW'
Filmmaker Robby Grewal says his upcoming espionage thriller 'Romeo Akbar Walter (RAW)', starring John Abraham in the role of a spy, will not resort to jingoism to drive its point across.
Filmmaker
Robby
Grewal
says
his
upcoming
espionage
thriller
'Romeo
Akbar
Walter
(RAW)',
starring
John
Abraham
in
the
role
of
a
spy,
will
not
resort
to
jingoism
to
drive
its
point
across.
The
director
said
the
film
does
not
portray
Pakistani
officers
as
"bad
people",
a
stereotype
often
used
in
Hindi
films
made
on
the
theme
of
patriotism.
"Jingoism
and
patriotism
are
two
different
things.
It's
not
a
jingoistic
film
at
all.
You
can
be
very
patriotic
without
beating
your
chest.
My
attempt
with
the
film
is
to
make
you
feel
proud
to
be
an
Indian,
proud
of
the
man
who's
done
what
he's
done
in
the
film," the
director
told
PTI
in
an
interview.
Robby
said
one
does
not
need
to
"scream"
to
make
people
realise
their
love
for
the
country
and
filmmakers
should
be
able
to
capture
that
element
in
their
cinema.
"In
today's
time,
a
good
filmmaker
is
probably
the
one
who
doesn't
need
to
scream
and
shout
to
get
this
emotion
out.
You
can
do
it
without
that.
The
resonance
of
what
the
characters
are
going
through
is
loud,
not
in
terms
of
pitch
but
emotions.
I'm
saying
the
same
thing
without
any
chest
thumping,"
he
said.
The
director,
who
has
previously
made
romantic
films
such
as
"MP3:
Mera
Pehla
Pehla
Pyaar"
and
"Aloo
Chaat",
spent
six
years
researching
and
writing
the
film,
which
is
set
against
the
backdrop
of
1971
war.
"A
Pakistan
Army
officer
is
as
pious
as
an
Indian
Army
officer.
What
we
have
in
our
films,
mostly,
is
that
we
tend
to
trivialise
the
other
side,
make
them
caricatures,
'bad
people',
which
they
aren't.
They
are
doing
exactly
what
we
are
doing.
Circumstances
put
us
against
each
other.
They
are
not
the
bad
people,"
he
said.
Citing
the
example
of
Meghna
Gulzar's
"Raazi",
which
also
featured
an
Indian
spy
sent
to
Pakistan
but
did
not
trivialise
the
Pakistani
side,
Robby
said
his
is
also
not
a
good
versus
evil
narrative.
"Jingoism
comes
when
you
project
someone
as
bad.
'Raazi' didn't
have
a
good
versus
bad
story.
My
story
too
isn't
about
'we
are
good
and
they
are
bad.'
I
don't
enjoy
that.
I
like
to
keep
things
real.
The
drama
should
come
through
the
narrative,
not
through
over-dramatising
the
performances.
As
a
filmmaker,
I
don't
like
pitching
it
too
loud.
Now
real
is
commercial."
Romeo
Akbar
Walter
is
scheduled
to
release
on
April
5.