ISLAMABAD: Indian defense analyst and former army officer Pravin Sawhney has criticized films depicting India’s wars with Pakistan, describing them as “unreal” and “hugely one-sided” and arguing that they are being used to promote hypernationalism and shield the military establishment from scrutiny.
In a post on X, Sawhney said he did not watch movies based on India’s wars with Pakistan but followed posts, reviews and video clips related to them. His X profile identifies him as a former Indian Army officer and author of books on defense and security.
“For one who understands these wars, all such movies are unreal, hugely one-sided with major shortcomings,” Sawhney wrote.
He said he understood why such films were being produced, arguing that they sought to portray the Indian military as superior to Pakistan’s armed forces, instil hypernationalism and indirectly convey that the military was above questioning.
“To do so would tantamount to sacrilege,” he said.
Sawhney further argued that many Indians had been living in a “fantasy world” for the past 12 years, while those who challenged the prevailing narrative were now labelled “Dimagi Naxals”.
“Folks, wake up from slumber. Times are changing — & pretty fast,” he wrote, adding that he expected things to change “for GOOD, before 2029.”
.jpg)
His remarks come days after India released a documentary that distorts the facts about Operation Sindoor.
In a separate statement, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) has also criticized what it described as Indian attempts to rewrite the history of Operation Sindoor through documentaries and cinematic portrayals.
The military’s media wing has questioned India’s claim that the operation was launched in response to the Pahalgam attack, pointing to what it described as contradictions in the timeline and rejecting New Delhi’s claim of “100% mission success”.
The ISPR has maintained that Pakistan successfully thwarted Indian aggression during the conflict and said the battlefield record, diplomatic contacts and statements by Indian officials provided a basis for assessing what actually transpired.
Sawhney has previously written critically about Operation Sindoor and argued that the conflict exposed vulnerabilities in India’s military capabilities.
In an analysis published by The Wire, he said the operation had exposed limitations in India’s ability to conduct campaigns across multiple domains, including air, land, electronic warfare, space and cyber operations.