Imparting patriotism the filmy way
Tourin Talkies [January 25, 2008]
The land of myriad culture, India, embraced cinema as a part of it culture just 90 years ago. But where has the journey taken us in terms of nation as a whole? I am talking about patriotism that some films impart in us still.
At the beginning, the sole purpose of the films in India was to promote the newfound independence. Of course, there was a heavy bit of mythological based film too but one has to acknowledge the huge part that films had to play in India post-Independence. Many will recall the film ‘Mother India’ with fond memories; it was the super hit film of that era. Soon many films following the same formula came on to the screens and generally parted a heavy dose of patriotism. And after some years, we saw the emergence of a new trend in the Bollywood cinema; I am talking about the war movies. Mostly thee movies had a huge star cast and often had our reel life hero imitating the real life hero’s fight in Kargil. These movies sure inducted the youth of India into awareness about one’s country. This was paralleled in the Tamil cinema industry with films like Roja. The legendary scene of the hero throwing himself on the burning tricolor flag left many with their hairs raised. I think we can safely say that this particular scene conveys more about patriotism than that a textbook can ever convey.
With the external enemy taken care of through these films, the focus shifted toward the religious enmity existing within the country with films like Bombay. These movies brought the nation to recognize it enemy who was hidden in plain sight. The film made us realize that it takes just a moment for us to forget differences and hold hands. The scene where a person identifies himself as an Indian, when asked about his religion and the final scene where everyone holds hands did touch the hearts of many.
Currently the trend we see is films based on the life on youngster who want to do do something for their nation. This has inadvertently caused a wave of self-realization among every Indian youth. Here, I am talking about the movies which were made on a much more revolutionary scale like Rang De Basanti and Ayudha Ezhuthu. Both these movies reportedly sparked off many youth activist groups across the country, including the highly sensational Lok Paritran started by a group of young IITians who contested in the election.
But at the same time we saw another movie hitting the screens, which also promoted patriotism in a subtle way and this film also promoted the Gandhian way of life. Yes, I am indeed talking about the film Lage Raho Munnabhai, which instilled in many what our nation stands for and makes us recall our roots.
Another genre of movie worth mentioning is the sports-based films, which spurns the patriotism. Typical example of this genre, Lagaan and Chak de India. Let’s admit it, the season when our patriotism is at all time high is during a one day match between India and Pakisstan. And these movies have put that to good use.
India now home a billion but for 20 million NRIs spread across the globe the way they connect with the nation that they belong to is mostly films.
But do these movies impart patriotism? Or do they attempt it and fail?
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