Meet Damayanti Tambay. She is an icon of this whole struggle of these 54 families in their search for their loved ones.Damayanti spent just one year with her husband after marriage. But the memories are too sweet and cherished for her to give up the struggle. She has lived the life of a single woman all these years, her national badminton championship now a thing of a forgotten past. When filmmaker Supriyo Sen asked her how she could wait for such a long time, much longer than Winnie Mandela waited for Nelson, she said, “it is the unconditional love for the person that drove me to walk for such an endless journey. I believe as long as love is there, hope is there and hope dies last in the war!” He was journeying with her on December 5, 2004 towards Ambala Cantonment from where her husband Lt.V.V. Tambay took off for the last time 33 years ago on that day. “That was the moment I realized that I have to tell this love story to the world, love that survived through and after the war because as long as there is love, there is hope. And hope dies last in war!”

Hope Dies Last in War narrates the struggles of the families of some of the 54 Indian soldiers taken as Prisoners of War during the Indo-Pak war of 1971 who are yet to return home. Some parents died waiting in vain, some children lost the last ray of hope bending under the pressure of bureaucratic and administrative non-cooperation, some wives married again to open a fresh page in their lives, while some committed suicide. But the story of this film is a tribute to the tremendous zeal and determination of the few that did not give up. Their lives have reduced to a perennial struggle between hope and despair. They refuse to give up the fight that has evolved into a crusade for the restitution of basic human rights - the right to live and die in one’s own country, the right to come back home, the right to a national identity. Their fight has been on for nearly four decades and none of them are about to give up. Hope Dies Last in War is a saga of their individual and collective struggle, spanning three generations, to get their men back. It records a tragic stalemate, sufferings of love and shining moments of humanity, courage and hope.

Photographic albums are brought out and lovingly caressed by a doddering old mother who has never seen her son for 37 years, her voice choking over her words as the young man’s father sits back, resigned to their tragedy. Damayanti asks at an organised meeting, “How is it that ministers’ and politicians’ sons do not join the defence services in our country?” attracting an angry remark from Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee. Damayanti talks about the brief honeymoon they had after their marriage, refusing to accept all claims that her husband’s plane was shot down and fell into the sea almost as soon as it took off. The camera closes in on medals and certificates adorning the walls of some of these homes. Damayanti also takes Sen on a trip to the hangar where defence planes are still kept. The torturing wait at the Wagah border for the prisoners to return home reveals one returnee who has gone completely crazy during his internment. No one knows who he is. The others keep waiting, in vain, but with hope.

More than 92,000 Pakistani soldiers were taken prisoners by India and in the Western sector, while 500-and-odd Indian defence personnel were captured by Pakistan during the 14-day war that began on December 3, 1971. Following the Shimla agreement (1972) between Z.A. Bhutto and Indira Gandhi, prisoners of war (POWs) were exchanged.

Over two hundred Indian soldiers were repatriated from Pakistan. Alas! The last train expected to bring the last lot of Indian soldiers from Pakistan did not arrive at all! While Pakistan claimed that there were no more POWs left in Pakistani jails, the Indian government advised the families to presume that the missing soldiers were dead and to accept monetary compensation in lieu of the missing persons!

The painstaking and long research that went into the making of this film - field research, documentary research, first-person interviews, traveling back and forth with some active members of the “Missing Defense Personnel Relatives Association” invests the film with that rare blend of research, emotion, commitment and honesty not easily witnessed even within the documentary format. While getting into grips with the emotional reactions of the family members, Sen defies the slotting of this film into any definite genre. It is an anti-war documentary. It is an investigative film. It is also a scathing attack on the inertia and callous attitude of the government of both countries towards the lives of 54 gallant soldiers who were prepared to sacrifice their lives but whose lives were allowed to hang in suspended animation of suspense. It is a personal saga of families who are still fighting what seems to be a losing battle in their search not only for their missing family members, but also to assert the right to restore to these soldiers, the dignity they deserve. It is a human rights film as well. Last but never the least, Hope Dies Last in War is a tragic journey into nostalgia as much as it is a tribute to the triumph of the human spirit.