India Uncut

I'll be rather surprised if this doesn't become the plot for a Bollywood film soon:

Small deeds of courage indulged in by the common folk have changed the complexion of battles all over the world. One such case of a civilian 19-year-old unsung hero, who laid down his life in the 1947 war, has come to light only now.

[...]

[Mohammad Maqbool] Sherwani was a gutsy boy of 19 who single-handedly thwarted the advance of thousands of raiders (Kabailis) from Baramulla, thereby giving valuable time to the Indian Army to land in Srinagar and prevent an ignominious defeat.

The nation may not remember his sacrifice, it may not even be aware of it, but the legend of Sherwani lives on in Baramulla.

His tactics to hold back the raiders were very simple, not the stuff case studies in military history are made of.

He went around on his bike telling the Kabailis, who stormed Baramulla on October 22, 1947, not to advance towards Srinagar as the Indian Army had reached the outskirts of Baramulla.

His bluff worked. [...] When the Kabailis came to know of Sherwani’s game plan, they shot him dead and crucified him.

So all they need to do is add a love interest, put in a few songs, and change the ending so that instead of dying our hero plays a part in the victory, heroically getting rid of a few dozen people despite being wounded. His love interest, who begins the film disdaining him, now falls into his bloodied arms while her daddy, who was a spy for the Kabailis, repents and blesses him before dying, declaiming haltingly but eloquently how the desh is lucky to have a sipahi as fine as our hero.

And ah, yes, there'll also be an item number by a vamp thwarted by the hero who contributes to his cause and distracts the Kabailis by doing a rather sexy dance in rather few clothes. She dies later, of course.