Nikhil Gajendragadkar
Come August and India is gripped in a fever of patriotism. From 9th to 15th August nearly everybody feels a nationalist. This feeling presents a grand business opportunity also for filmmakers. Patriotism means big bucks, well, sometimes, for the celluloid world.
Nationalism, love for the nation; call it anything, but patriotic feelings are real. In India it has a background of freedom struggle. Fight for independence to becoming a Republic; the journey is fascinating. It evokes nationalist emotions in nearly every Indian; resident or non-resident. Naturally it is reflected through Indian cinema. Nearly all filmmakers will say their film is a nationalistic one. Who will make an ‘anti-national’ film? Every hero, righteous police/military officer, simple worker, all work/die for our beloved nation. Still, many films in nearly all-major languages can be classified as ‘patriotic’ films.
Patriotism in Hindi films did come much before Independence. ‘Kismet’ (1943) for instance, had a song -“door hato ai Duniawalo Hindustan hamara hai” (o world keep away [from us] Hindustan is ours) which was clearly directed towards the British power. We can see a map of India before partition, in the background in the scene. No wonder the song was a hit all over the country. “Shaheed” starring Dilip Kumar was made just after Independence.
British rule in India provided a good topic to filmmakers, so there are plenty of films, which are anti-British, from Shaheed (martyr) of mid 60’s (which launched Manoj Kumar as the patriotic son of soil- Bharat in later films) to the recent ‘Mangal Pandey’. The oppressive nature of British rule, people’s revolt and martyrdom of a hero is the common theme. Bhagat Singh is a well-known personality but history does not know much about Mangal Pandey. Of course, film people can rewrite history, don’t they? And they can create heroes/heroines too.
Nearly every region of India has a rich history and a person who is a national hero/heroine. ‘Rani of Jhansi’ (Queen of Jhansi) is a subject of Hindi and other regional language films, to name an example. ‘Historicals’ can evoke or whip up, nationalist sentiments. Such films use metaphor to define villains and heroes. So today’s corrupt politicians turn evil general, and so on. This genre was much in vogue till the mid 60’s. Though they tell a tale from history, these films can ‘hurt sentiments’ of some community or a group or an individual also. In today’s environment of ‘political correctness’ nobody is ready to attract wrath of any body. Hence, no more historicals.
In the late 90’s films on war started to hit theatres. War not only stirs up but also creates a kind of frenzied nationalism. India has seen it more than once. Filmmakers want to cash in on the mood. ‘Border’ was the first film that named Pakistan as the enemy State, which turned to be the main selling point of the film. Its depiction of war was an added feature. The film proved a hit. ‘Sarfarosh ‘was more into “espionage” genre with strong performances (by Nasiruddin Shah & Amir Khan) that caught viewer’s fancy. Same cannot be said about many other films released during 1998 -2002. Even after Kargil war, films dealing with terrorism, insurgency, prisoners of war etc. failed to attract viewers. Fida, Khakee. LOC, Kargil, Deewar are a few glaring examples.
‘Haqeeqat’ by Chetan Anand remains the best war and anti-war film (many years ago Kishor Sahu was making “Shikwa” starring Dilip Kumar and Nutan) which was anti war film, but unfortunately it remained incomplete). It shows many faces of patriotism and also takes a look at the lives of families of those soldiers we hail as ‘martyrs’. Partition was the single most important happening in modern India. How many films were made on it? M S Sathyu’s ‘Garam Hawa’ made in 1973 remains the only noteworthy film. ‘Tamas’ by Govind Nihalani was excellent as a TV serial, but somehow it failed as a film on theatrical release. But these films do not belong to the ‘pop patriotism’ but are more serious and take a realistic look at the history. There is only ‘Saat Hindustani’ by KA Abbas, which deals with struggle to free Goa from the clutches of Portuguese. Regional cinema dealt with nationalism and patriotism with much more seriousness compared to mainstream cinema.
Films like ‘Mother India’ and ‘Naya Daur’ – both made in late 50’s – are not only patriotic but they propagate some philosophy too. ‘Mother India’ speaks about sacrifice an ordinary citizen (in this case an old woman) can make for society and country. ‘Naya Daur’ is about conflict between man and machine. Of course that is a bygone era. (That is the reason colour version of ‘Naya Daur’ failed miserably). To attract new viewers now, filmmakers are ‘remixing’ the thought of old films and presenting these in a palatable manner. So we get ‘Rang de Basanti’ and ‘Munnabhai’, which retell stories of our martyrs like Bhagat Singh and thoughts of Mahatama ji though they are preaching; it is sugarcoated in styles young generation is familiar with and ‘Swades’ which openly propagates “do not go West, stay here and serve your motherland,” using a popular star and relating to present day difficulties faced by common man in India.
Perhaps patriotism has also become a seasonal activity in India. Like some religious fests, we celebrate Independence and Republic Day, listen to ‘Ai mere watan ke logon’ and enjoy the holiday. We are no more interested in reality of the past. So our films cannot be different. They will package and present Patriotism in a consumable way. Nationalism, Patriotism, is also commodities in the market. Aren’t these? — INFA
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