Anirudha Dasgupta

Engl 4081
Dr. Mary Adams

Modern Gladiator

It is the winter of 2050, A bloody civil war has wrecked India
for the past few years. The separatist militants in Kashmir, the
paradise on earth turned valley of death, are the last enemies,
left to fight. The army of the government of India is under the
command of a brilliant army general named Maximum. If the battle
is won, it could be the last battle of this terrible war, it can
ensure peace in the nation, the civil war could be over and the
nation can return back to a democracy. The war has been
devastating. Many lives have been lost. Cities have been
destroyed. Villages have been ravaged. The soldiers have been
forced to kill their own people. Most of the army is tired of
the war, unmotivated and exhausted, yet they have to fight, yet
they have to win, to ensure peace. General Maximus, devises a
plan to catch the enemy off guard and defeat them. He decides to
surround the valley of Kashmir with the army and then attack the
militants with his own private aerial battalion. The plan has to
work, for peace, for democracy, for unity and for freedom. The
general knows that. The general has to motivate his army. He
cheers them up. He tells them that this last fight is for the
ultimate glory, for ultimate freedom and they have to win it to
ensure their children live in a free country in peace and
harmony. Sri Nagar, the capital of Kashmir, is being controlled
by the militants and their last stronghold. The army wins the
city, the war is over. A strong army surrounds and attacks Sri
Nagar, but the militants troops are well prepared to take them
on too. The continuous snow fall and the harsh winter aid the
militants. Yet, what they don't foresee is the surprise aerial
attack by the General's forces. The surprise bombings massively
hurt the enemy and the army steamroll the remaining enemy troops.
The militants surrender and the Indian flag finally waves
throughout the nation again. The sovereignty of the nation is
restored and the bloody war is finally over. After his
successful victories over many battles, general Maximus is now a
decorated war hero. The whole nation reveres him. Maximus is
happy that the nation will be peaceful again, totally unaware
that it is just a false dawn.

India, for the first time after the turmoil of 1970s, is under
President's rule. The old President is the commander in chief of
the army and the de-facto ruler of the whole country. The
parliament doesn't hold any power any more and the democratic
system has been eliminated due to the civil war. Yet, the old
President wants to return to democracy but he knows the whole
nation is too fragile for an election. He is dying, he is sick
and he has to give his powers to someone who is strong enough to
rule the great nation but is selfless enough to give up power at
the right time and bring back democracy. He trusts no one in his
cabinet. He only knows one man, who could do this. The savior -
Maximus!

The President asks the general to take over the presidency for
the time being so when the time is right, he can return the
government back to parliamentarian democracy. The president
shows Maximus the uniform of the commander in chief. He tells
him that the uniform is the most important piece of cloth in the
nation and with it, it brings infinite power and prestige but
also infinite responsibilities. The President tells Maximus that
he is the only one worthy enough to wear because he is the only
one who will not use the powers of the uniform to control the
people, frighten them or to rule over them, but will only use
them to protect the people and to ensure their freedom. He
reveals to Maximus that he is dying and asks him to promise that
he will accept the responsibility and uphold the sanctity of the
uniform and will eventually end the state of emergency and let
the people elect their government once again. Maximus takes the
uniform, says nothing, and leaves silently. He needs time to
think.

The President's son, Shaurya Goenka, hearing the war is over,
returns from the United States with his widowed sister. He is an
ambitious yet cowardly man who wants to use the present
situation to take control of the government and set up a
totalitarian state with himself as the head of state. It's a
cold December night in Delhi. The war has had terrible effects
on the city. The houses are riddled with bullet marks and are
crumbling and most of the roads are destroyed by bombings. Just
a few years ago, at this time of the night, the whole of Delhi
would be shining but now it is dark, cold and silent. The eerie
silence which doesn't bring peace to the troubled soul but the
fear of an even worse storm. Shaurya comes to his father's room.
After a warm dinner, he asks his father to elect him as the next
president. He tells his father that it is time that a young
fierce leader takes over and makes an empire out of the fragile
war ridden nation. He tells his father of his powerful and
ambitious dreams, dreams to conquer the world, dreams to wave
the flag over every capital of the world; yet in him, his father
just sees a monster who would lead the nation to an even worse
disaster.

To his dismay, the president informs Shaurya, he has already
decided to appoint Maximus as the new president. In a moment all
his dreams crashes down. He All these year's in America, he
dreamt of being the President and ruling not only the country
but the whole world someday. He feels betrayed, unloved and
hated. A murderous rage creeps in his heart. He turns icy cold.
He cannot accept someone else stealing away his beautiful dream.
He decides he cannot let this happen and in a fit of rage kills
the President.

It is quite early in the morning, and a disciplined general
isn't normally awake at this hour, yet Maximus has no sleep. He
keeps on imagining the uniform. He is nervous, winning wars is
different, ruling a country very different. Is he worthy enough
to wear the uniform, will he do justice to the powers he will
receive. Will he become too greedy or will he will bring back
democracy. He won the war in the battle field but now this is a
complete different war to win. A war even more dangerous than
the one he fought. Only this morning, he had emailed his family
he will arrive back home soon, but now it seems he would be away
from home for some more time, a long time. Maybe he will not go
home ever. Suddenly the silence of the night and his train of
thoughts is broken by the ring of his cell phone. The president
has died, he hears in shock, and he has been summoned to the
Rashtrapati Bhavan immediately.

At the Rashtrapati Bhavan, he is received by Shaurya who informs
him that the President died in his sleep and he has decided to
declare himself the President to the huge media gathered outside.
Shaurya asks Maximus for his army's support and tells him that
together with Maximus' support, he will conquer the world.
Maximus realizes that the President has been assasinated and
Shaurya wants to establish a dictatorial state, something
against the dead president's wishes. He refuses to support
Shaurya and leaves. Shaurya, knowing how dangerous a threat
Maximus can pose, issues a shoot at sight warrant for him
immediately.

Maximus decides to call up the media and inform them the real
truth about the assassination of the President and Shaurya's
takeover plans. He plans to use the uniform of the commander in
chief to prove his point. But before he can do anything, a
bullet crashes the window and flies just past him and within a
minute they're bullets flying all over the house. He can see two
police officers firing, he realizes, they have been ordered to
kill him. Maximus desperately jumps to the cupboard to grab his
gun but a bullet hits his hand. He is wounded but still too well
a trained an army officer to handle two hitmen. He easily kills
them, and then he wears the uniform given to him by the slain
president and drives off to his home to protect his family.

His family lives a thousand kilometers away in Calcutta, blood
is dripping steadily from his wound, the cops are after him, the
whole city is barricaded but he has to reach home, before
Shaurya's men kill his wife and son. So, he drives on. Somehow,
he does reach home, but it is too late, and he finds his dead
wife and son and a totally ravaged and burnt house. He collapses.

Maximus opens his eyes, where is he? Aah, his hand hurts. He
gets up. Some strange men looking at him. Which is this place?
Was it a bad dream? What is going on? These questions flood
Maximus' mind. He is given the newspaper and some water by one
of the "strange" men. The president has died, General Maximus
has been killed in an unfortunate attack and Shaurya has
declared himself the President, the headlines say! It wasn't a
nightmare, it was the reality, but it was worse than a nightmare.
How could Maximus uphold the sanctity of the uniform the
President gave him? How could Maximus avenge his family's murder?
How can Maximus save his nation from this new enemy? He now,
even has no army, he is all by himself!

"I am General Maximus, father to a murdered son, husband to a
murdered wife, and a true servant of the nation and the slain
President. I will have my vengeance in this life or the next."
The whole nation wakes up to see the video of the presumably
dead general, in the uniform of the commander in chief, giving a
speech to the nation. Soon, the video is playing in every
television, mobile and laptop. The whole world is aghast.
Shaurya is shocked, dismayed and totally nervous! He knows his
time is limited if he doesn't kill Maximus soon. Shaurya
immediately orders his personal hit men to kill Maximus. The
people still love Maximus, he is the hero who won them the war,
and his battalion cannot yet reach him so he has to fend off the
assassins all by himself. In a week, he is attacked five times.
But he is a well trained army man. He easily kills his assassins
in the shoot outs. He is attacked several times. He is almost
fighting a do or die battle everyday with a new assassin like a
gladiator would thousands of years ago in Rome. The swords were
replaced by guns and the Coliseum replaced by restaurants,
streets or any place where the General could be killed. The
General, surviving all the shoot outs, reaches out to his
battalion and plans a coup d'etat.

Shaurya gets to know about the brewing coup and realizes that
Maximus will kill him, sooner or later. He also realizes if he
kills Maximus now, he will loose the public support. He secretly
intercepts the battalion and gets them arrested. He also gets
Maximus arrested but to appease the public decides to embrace
him in a public display at Red Fort, New Delhi. But, Shaurya
knows, Maximus has to die, he knows every day Maximus lives is
one day less in Shaurya's life. Shaurya has planned Maximus'
death. The next day, Maximus will be embraced by the President
in full public view and then shot by a secret assassin.

Maximus, under house arrest, gets ready to meet Shaurya. He
wears the uniform of the Commander in chief and conceals a
pistol. He is driven to Red Fort in a heavily armored car along
with the President. Thousands of people cheer Maximus as he
walks to the podium, and as he is about to step to the
microphone, he is shot and fatally wounded. Somehow, the great
war hero, takes out his concealed pistol and shoots the
president and the assassin. The president dies, the crowd is
stunned silent. In his dying moments Maximus grabs the
microphone and tells the crowd pointing towards his blood ridden
uniform, that he up-holded the sanctity by giving up his life,
he tells the crowd that everyone of them is wearing an invisible
uniform, everyone of them is capable of being the commander in
chief, so they should be ready to sacrifice for the great nation,
unite and not fight so that the war is never repeated. He tells
the people that the old president wanted democracy, he
reinstates the parliament and orders the freeing of all the
political prisoners. He appoints his deputy general as the prime
minister entrusting him to hold elections and then he falls to
the ground. The crowd cheer him, but he is dead, he is gone. But
he died as a hero, he won the war, he brought back freedom, he
brought back democracy, he ended the tyranny and kept his
promise! A modern gladiator.. A true hero!