Once Upon a Cinema: India’s very own Top Gun, made six years before the Tom Cruise film

Tony Scott’s Top Gun (1986) was as much part of the 80s American zeitgeist as the Rambo films, the first Terminator movie or the Back to the Future Franchise. It was a global commercial success and made Tom Cruise a star to reckon with. It featured the trials and tribulations of an American fighter pilot codenamed Maverick (Tom Cruise), who is chosen for an elite naval fighter weapons school called TOPGUN. The film was partly inspired by an eponymous article by Israeli writer Ehud Yonay which came out in the California magazine in May 1983. It featured stunning aerial action sequences with shots of dogfights and aerial acrobatics.

Four years before Top Gun and a good one year before the article that inspired it, an Indian Hindi film was made on a similar subject, only this time it was about an Indian Air Force pilot. Angad Singh (Kunal Kapoor) didn’t have a callsign that we know of, but he might have been as old as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell when he joined India’s elite military school, the National Defence Academy (NDA). He’s not nearly as bratty as Mav. In fact, Angad is quite lost and confused when he enrols for NDA and tries to find his way. Much like Maverick, he has daddy issues. While Mav’s dad was tainted due to an incident during Vietnam War, Angad’s father had a troubled relationship with his son. Mav finds the love of his life in Charlie (Kelly McGillis), while Angad has Anna (Supriya Pathak). The film was Vijeta (1982) and though it didn’t have as many close-quarter dogfight sequences, the spectacular aerial shots photographed by Govind Nihalani might actually be a notch better than Jeffrey L. Kimball’s Top Gun cinematography.

Vijeta was conceived when Air Chief Marshall Dilbagh Singh met Shashi Kapoor in Delhi during the early 80s, and said he wanted a film made to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the Indian Air Force (IAF). IAF was officially established on 8 October 1932. Dilbagh Singh promised all support from IAF to shoot the film, which included shooting extended segments at the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad and the National Defence Academy in Pune. This was the first time IAF was officially attached to the production of a film. In its brief to Shashi Kapoor, the IAF said they wanted something new and inspiring, which would attract more young people to join its fold. They didn’t want the conventional narrative of a sacrificing military official who went the war and lost his life. They wanted a contemporary narrative.

Almost two decades before this, Shashi Kapoor had befriended a young assistant cinematographer named Govind Nihalani on the sets of Akhtar Mirza’s Mohabbat Isko Kahete Hain (1965).  Govind had been enamoured with the movies from a very young age, but his love affair with cinematography began when he encountered the work of the legendary cinematographer V. K. Murthy, who had photographed Guru Dutt classics like Kaagaz ke Phool (1959) and Sahib Bibi aur Ghulam (1962). Murthy had learned his craft from Jayachamarajendra Polytechnic in 1946. It was the first ever institute in India to offer courses in cinematography, a good 15 years before FTII was established. Inspired by his mentor, Govind Nihalani joined the polytechnic and graduated in 1962, having learnt not only cinematography but the ropes of filmmaking. The first major project that he landed after graduation was Mohabbat Isko Kahete Hain, where he assisted the cameraman Sat Prakash. The film starred Shashi Kapoor and Nanda. In a set dominated by old timers, Shashi may have found a kindred soul in Govind. Both had similar artistic leanings and were of the same age. Govind was 25, and Shashi 27. Soon after the film, both went their separate ways, trying to find their own unique voices in cinema. While Shashi consolidated his career as a leading man in mainstream Hindi films, Govind Nihalani assisted his idol V.K. Murthy in three iconic Pramod Chakraborty films: Love in Tokyo (1966), Tumse Achha Kaun Hai (1969) and Naya Zamana (1971). He debuted as an independent cameraman with Satyadev Dubey’s Marathi film Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (1973), before forming a rich, creative partnership with an up-and-coming director called Shyam Benegal in a plethora of films that changed the landscape of Indian cinema.

Shashi and Govind crossed paths again when Govind lensed Shyam’s Kalyug (1981) and Junoon (1978), both of which featured Shashi in major roles. Govind began his career as a director with Aakrosh (1980), an intense film with power-packed performances by Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah. The film made all the right noises in the film festival circuit, and Shashi was impressed with the output. By this time, Shashi had developed a parallel career in producing what could best be described as arthouse films. While he made a living working as a hero in mainstream Hindi films, he wanted to put his weight behind more meaningful cinema. By the time the IAF proposal came to him, he had already produced Junoon (1979), Kalyug (1981) and 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981).

Shashi roped in Govind to direct Vijeta, who in turn recruited the poet Dilip Chitre and playwright Satyadev Dubey, who had earlier written Shyam Benegal films like Ankur, Nishant, Bhumika and Junoon. It was Dubey ji who furnished the idea of a Sikh man and his Maharashtrian wife, the characters played by Shashi Kapoor and Rekha. Shashi suggested that his son Kunal Kapoor be given the lead role of Angad Singh. After a spate of films as a child artist, Kunal had debuted as a lead with Esmayeel Shroff’s Ahista Ahista (1981). The film didn’t leave any impact. According to Govind, Shashi didn’t force his son’s case while casting for Vijeta. It was a gentle suggestion, without any coercion whatsoever.

Rekha had just hopped on to the parallel cinema bandwagon with rip-roaring performances in Umrao Jaan (1981) and Kalyug (1981). With Vijeta, she turned in one of her most underrated performances ever. One doesn’t find Vijeta on any of her lists, which is really a travesty. In the film, she plays Neelima, the Marathi wife of Shashi’s Sikh immigrant Nihal Singh. Nihal is an alcoholic and a chauvinist, who defends having a one night stand because it was with a “bazaru aurat”. Neelima not only registers her protest with grace, but stands up for the other woman as well. She was just trying to earn a living, she says. Rekha builds Neelima’s quiet fortitude brick by brick, scene by scene. Shashi Kapoor has an equally fascinating role as Nihal Singh. The film begins with a shot of Nihal witnessing the bloodbath of Partition. Govind had himself witnessed the violence of Partition and it traumatized him, finding echoes in his work and finally culminating in Tamas (1988). Like Govind, the tragedy of Partition left a deep scar on Nihal’s psyche, and he still experiences violent nightmares. Shashi is spectacular in the role. Neelima and Nihal often find themselves locking horns over their son Angad.

Stuck in this tussle between man and woman is Angad (Kunal Kapoor), a troubled youngster who seethes with rage at the treatment meted out to his mother. He is not academically inclined and his father’s admonishments further infuriates and confuses him. A session with his uncle Arvind (Om Puri) who works in the Indian Navy nudges him in the direction of the National Defence Academy. While at NDA, his encounter with friends Venkat Raju (Madan Jain), Aslam Khan (Raja Bundela) and Wilson (K.K. Raina) makes him realise he’d like to be a fighter pilot. But that is no cakewalk either. Under the tutelage of a hardened Group Captain named Varghese (Amrish Puri) he learns how to fly.

The aerial shots depicting Angad’s flight training were some of the highlights of the film. Till then, most Indian films depicting fighter planes used stock footage or miniature photography. But here, assisted by real IAF pilots, Govind Nihalani shot those sequences himself, while being airborne. He didn’t have any of the sophisticated equipment and cameras that the Top Gun crew was privy to. It was a low-budget affair, and Shashi Kapoor had to face a lot of challenges getting funding. But certain shots, like the one of Angad soaring over the clouds, are priceless and considering the paucity of resources, more competent than similar sequences in Top Gun which came four years later. But Vijeta didn’t share the fate of Top Gun. The Hindi film was a commercial disaster. As Shashi Kapoor later revealed, the film lost about 40 lakhs. Today, Vijeta won’t be found on any of the major streaming platforms. One of the prints which exists is in pitiable condition, and retains none of the grandeur of Govind’s spectacular photography. But, in retrospect, Vijeta remains a Hindi cinema classic, which depicted the life of a fighter pilot with realism, tenderness and a touch of irony.

(Parts of the Vijeta origin story are taken from Aseem Chhabra’s brilliant Shashi Kapoor biography entitled Shashi Kapoor: The Householder, The Star)

Amborish is a National Film Award winning writer, biographer and film historian.

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