Kavita spearheaded a movement highlighting the obsolete technology used in these aircraft, termed by critics as 'flying coffins', simultaneously fighting a personal battle to clear her son’s name from accusations of professional incompetence leading to his accidental death. However, once her 'individual-taking-a-stand-against-thesystem' story started attracting the interest of Bollywood filmmakers, the selfish realities of a mammon-dictated world came knocking on the doorstep of the martyr’s mother, who is hurt over the ungratefulness of the most petty kind.

Rang De Basanti is the talk of the town today; director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s second take has been toasted by critics and the audi ence alike for its sensitive and pertinent high lighting of one of our defence sector’s most embarrassing bloomers, the frequent and fatal MiG-21 plane crashes, brought to telling effect in the film by Madhavan as Flight Lieutenant Ajay Rathod and Waheeda Rehman as his mother. But they are not mere cardboard cutouts, instead, are based on Kavita and Abhijit Gadgil, who ironically have been conveniently ignored by the film’s makers after drawing the sript from their life’s story.

“Rakeysh Mehra had first met me around mid2003, along with many others who came to meet me in those days, including members of the media and concerned citizens. Since we both wanted to highlight on the larger issue of the use of obsolete technology and spurious parts leading to the MiG21 causalities resulting in the loss of lives of many young pilots, I extended full cooperation to him in form of pictures and inputs on Abhijit, press clips and my letters and correspondence with the various governmental bodies,” recalls Kavita. “But they never bothered to got back after that and we got to know of the content of the film only when the controversy around its portrayal of MiG-21 crashes appeared prior to its release this month. We never went to them, but we got drawn into the issue when people started calling us and asking about parallels to our story in the film."

That’s when Kavita decided to meet Mehra and UTV, nearly two-anda-half years after their first meeting. "They reacted only when confronted. The film’s makers may not like to admit that their story is inspired, but no element of fiction can stand without a seed of truth," she says. Kavita next requested Mehra for a charity show - under the aegis of the Abhijit Air Safety Foundation - for a national memorial in honour of the pilots who died in active flying duty.

"They kept vacillating and on January 23 told me to organise a show at 11 am in Pune on January 26. While a charity show after the release would be meaningless, it wouldn't have been feasible to organise a show at such short notice."

Partly bitter, partly resigned to the ways of Bollywood, Kavita signs off, "They cheated the faith and trust of a martyr’s mother. All this show about patriotism and concern is mere bunkum. It’s all about making money. When the controversies surrounding the depiction of MiG-21 crashes first appeared prior to the film’s release, Rakeysh had requested me not to speak to the media. I kept my word, but he never kept his. Forget acknowledging our help, they didn’t even have the decency to invite us for the film’s premiere in Mumbai even after promising to do so. Now it’s all out of my system. I am concentrating on the unveiling of the memorial scheduled for April 26, because that will be forever, films can come and go."

- Piyush Roy, Mumbai, Jan 30, 2006