Just another year?

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything

Documentary - 8 episodes

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14544732/

1971 could have been merely a non-discrete year, but the creators of this docu-series believed it marked a watershed moment. They considered it the year when the carefree values of the 1960s began to shift. It represented the onset of revolutions. The generation born in the post-war years, once content, has aged, and their offspring now find themselves in a world rife with turmoil and uncertainty. 

In the late 1960s, America witnessed its sons returning in body bags from defending a country that did not wish to be defended. The Americans saw no reason to uphold the free world against a perceived communist threat. 

The hippie movement created a new cocoon for disillusioned youths to escape into weed, and rock and roll. In relation to that, the cult killing by the Manson family took centre stage. 

The hierarchical and patriarchal order of society was shifting. The introduction of oral contraceptive pills provided women, for the first time in their lives, an opportunity to control their fertility and potentially their sexuality as well. This was particularly significant, as they gained more self-confidence after emerging en masse to support the economy when men went off to fight in World War II. 

1971 must have seemed meaningless. With the Beatles breaking up, Lennon and Yoko engaging in their eccentric activities, and the great musicians Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, and Jimi Hendrix having passed away, the youth must have felt that music was dead. A new wave of performers emerged, bringing fresh messages and revolutionary ideas. 

Marvin Gaye belted out protest songs with 'What's Going On?'. Aretha Franklin joined the movement of Black Consciousness, and Tina Turner became an icon of female empowerment following her publicised abusive relationship with Ike. The Rolling Stones attempted to fill the gap left by the Beatles, but were often busy rolling dope in the South of France. David Bowie was making his mark on the scene with his androgynous appearance, dressed in a full gown. 

The Black Power movement was in full swing. Angela Davis, a UCLA professor and an unapologetic, card-carrying member of the US Communist Party, was in the spotlight. The gun she had acquired was used in the courtroom killing of a judge. Numerous musicians rallied behind her. James Brown's soul music empowered Black men and women. 

1971 was also when the world realised that our minds can be fickle and suggestible. The Stanford Experiment taught us an invaluable lesson that remains relevant today—anonymity caused people to behave in a despicable manner. The Charles Manson trials revealed how impressionable, naive young minds can be manipulated into committing outrageous acts. The US Army massacre at My Lai in Vietnam demonstrated that the Americans were no different from the Germans in Auschwitz and the Japanese in Nanking.

It was a time of political awareness, social change, and musical experimentation. It was also the birthplace of many fantastic singer-songwriters, such as Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Music was explored using electronic devices, such as synthesisers, as exemplified by the band The Who.

1971 witnessed the UK's longest obscenity trial, which involved a 1960s counterculture publication, Oz. In one of its editions, schoolchildren were invited to edit the Schoolkids' Issue, which included pasting a cartoon mascot from the Daily Express into a sex strip illustration. The editors received jail sentences. John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who were themselves embroiled in controversy over nude album covers, came to their defence by organising protest marches and dedicating a song to this cause.

Logically, not everything changes in a year. Many of the things mentioned evolve over time.

 

1971 could be merely a random year. Every year contributes slightly to the transformation of our life on Earth. 1971 might serve as just a talking point, much like the story of how the Hardy-Ramanujan number came about. When visiting mathematician Ramanujan in the hospital, Professor Hardy, unsure of how to break the ice, mentioned that he took a taxi with the number 1729, which he considered dull. Ramanujan responded by stating that the number was interesting because it is the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways. [1729 can be expressed as 1³ + 12³ = 10³ + 9³]

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And they call it puppy love!

Melody (1971)
Director: Waris Hussein

I watched this movie just because the Bee Gees made its original soundtrack, and two of their hit singles graced it. The songs 'To Love Somebody' and 'First of May' seem appropriate to showcase puppy love, the main subject. It tells the story of a co-ed British school in which a young teenage boy falls in love with his schoolmate and wants to get married, not in the near future, but ASAP.

The story is told from the point of view of children. The child actors are the main stars, whilst the adults play mere supporting roles. The adults (i.e., parents and teachers) are painted as flawed, ugly, unimpressive, brash, boring, and disassociated from reality. The children are painted as full of life, mischievous, and imaginative in how they want to live their lives.

This is the exact reason why the lovebirds want to get married there and then, not when they are old and boring like the adults around them. Besides creating a whirlwind among the parents and teachers, the boy's best friend is unwilling to share his friendship with this girl. In. the vein of light comedy that the movie is, all the school kids get together in private to organise a mock wedding.

Well, the conservatives amongst us in this country would have acted exactly the same way as the school kids decided to do. Rather than doing all the sinful things their hormones make them do, these full-thinking adults have no qualms about child marriages. There is no question of exercising self-restraint or willpower. They would just let their animalistic instincts dictate their lives! All the modern sociological knowledge of the dangers of child marriages goes down the sewer. It happened centuries ago, and all was well, they justify.

To Love Somebody

The song First of May comes on annually, not for Labour Day, but to commemorate Bee Gees' trio. Three of four Brothers Gibb have since passed, but the remaining Gibb, Barry, has lost his mojo without his twin younger brothers. They had been belting hits after hits from the mid-60s to early 2000s.

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A coward dies a thousand times, a valiant but once!

The Ghazi Attack (Hindi; 2017)

Director, Screenplay: Sankalp Reddy

The diesel-powered Pakistani submarine, PNS Ghazi, started life in the USA as USS Diablo, serving the US Navy between 1945 and 1964. It was decommissioned and downgraded in 1964. It was then loaned to Pakistan to beef up their defence as they were planning to start another conflict with their neighbour in 1965. In other words, it was a watered-down unmodernised submarine, having lost much of its killing prowess when Pakistan acquired it. Nevertheless, it was the first submarine in South Asia, and Pakistan was its proud owner. India received its first submarine, INS Kalvari, in 1967, a Soviet-made diesel one. The day Kalvari was acquired is called 'Submarine Day' - December 8.

1n 1965, as the Pakistani and Indian armies were concentrating on Kashmir, the Pakistani Navy decided to carry out a 'nuisance raid' on Dwarka, seeking to destroy radar installations and Indian vessels using its submarine PNS Ghazi. What actually was the outcome depends on whose version you hear. Whilst the Pakistanis boast of colossal damage to the Indian side, the Indian claimed to have lost only a single casualty, a cow. The shells missed their intended target. Probably reeling from their pre-independence stance of non-violence, the Indians decided not to retaliate.

Unrest started when East Pakistani political parties won the 1970 general elections. The Urdu-speaking West Pakistanis thought they were too high and mighty to be ruled by the dark-skinned Bengalis. Pakistani military marched into Dhaka to systematically suppress dissidence via Operation Searchlight. What followed can be equated to genocide.

PNS Ghazi

The West Pakistanis had to send supplies to their army in Dhaka. Unfortunately, sending supplies via land proved impossible as it involved cutting through India. The only feasible way to do that was by sea. Unfortunately for them, India had the East Naval Command, via its ports of Madras and Vaisakapattinam, controlled the Bay of Bengal and nicely blockaded entry to East Pakistan ports. They decided to attack and destroy India's modern aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. Their other plan was to set mines in Visakhapatnam port. PNS Ghazi left Karachi on November 14 1971, for this mission. Five days, she was spotted around Sri Lanka was the Indian Navy was alerted. Unbeknownst to the Pakistani Navy, INS Vikrant had been sent off to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In its place, an ageing WW2 vessel, INS Rajput, was masquerading.

The confusing radio signals from INS Rajput made Ghazi believe that INS Vikrant was indeed at Visakhapatnam. By November 27, Ghazi was planting underwater mines near the port. On December 4, a loud explosion was heard off the coast. A few days later, local fishermen found floating debris and remains of the submarine and its crew.

What followed afterwards was quite confusing. The Pakistanis alleged that they had lost communication with Ghazi after it entered the Bay of Bengal. They later said that Ghazi had accidentally entered its own minefield and had an accident. The Indian Navy, on the other hand, had asserted that Rajput had engaged two depth charges upon noticing water disturbances of the sudden plunging of the submarine. In essence, the Indian Navy said that it torpedoed Ghazi or at least ignited the mines causing Ghazi to hit the seabed!

What actually happened is anybody's guess. The Pakistani do not mind being labelled incompetent when they accidentally hit the mines they had laid out for the Indians. As long as they were not killed by their nemesis. The Indians, on their side, had destroyed all logs on the sinking of Ghazi.

Chief of Staff of the Indian Army General Jagjit Singh
Aurora and Lt. General AAK Niazi of the Pakistani
Army signed the papers on December 16, 1971, that
ended the war between the two countries and led to the
creation of Bangladesh.

Lately, somebody proposed the idea of a Russian submarine secretly patrolling the Indian waters as part of an Indo-Russian protection pact. The gunning down of Ghazi must have been by them. The Pakistanis think it is more honourable to be killed by a Caucasian power than to die in the hands of his brown brother!

With so many uncertainties surrounding the sinking of Ghazi, the filmmakers took the liberty, with much cinematic licence, to tell their version of what could have happened, with much drama and characters who carry their baggage to war. Instead of an aircraft carrier, the filmmakers decided to make it a one-on-one full-length feature film of underwater warfare, showcasing a clash of submarines between two nations. It is probably the first of such films coming out of India.

A good movie that helps to form the basis to read into the dealings surrounding the 1971 Indo-Pak war and Bangladeshi war of Independence.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.