India, Oct. 10 -- Almost all the films that are celebrated as war movies in world cinema are from Hollywood or Europe. Retrospectively, one is tempted to ask the question: Whose world and war do these feature?

Some distinct features mark the war movie genre. A majority of them are about the two World Wars, mostly World War II. They revolve around the bravery and sacrifice, the tactical manoeuvres and strategic failures of white men and their armies. The rest of the world constitutes the white man's war arena, where the natives are part of the background, either as informants and helpers or, more often, as mere fodder.

For instance, over a million Indian troops served overseas during World War I and around 2.5 million in World War II, of...