How Bollywood has re-invented films on desh bhakti over the years and made it more diverse — from war films to sports and now, social issues
BOMBAY TIMES (August 17, 2019)

The Hindi film industry has always managed to touch the hearts of cinephiles with films having a dash of patriotism and love for “desh ki mitti”. Over the years Bollywood has managed to invent and re-invent movies based on nationalism and patriotism, leading to a high success rate at the Indian box-office.

Down the decades, films like Kismet, Purab Aur Paschim, Shaheed, Upkar, Border, Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo, Kesari, Baby, Uri: The Surgical Strike and Lagaan have been but a few among many films that celebrated the essence of desh bhakti, evoking the love for the country among cinegoers.

Currently, Indian filmmakers are flipping through real stories to explore the genre. Apart from obvious instances such as recent war films (Uri: The Surgical Strike and Paltan come to mind) that let filmmakers tap the patriotism genre, stories of sportspersons (Dangal, Mary Kom, Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Gold to name a few) and real incidents, where commoners played the hero (Airlift, Raazi, Pad Man, India's Most Wanted) have come to be ready formula.


‘EVERYONE FEELS PATRIOTIC’
Actor Arjun Kapoor, who starred in India's Most Wanted, says patriotism in films should not be used to further personal agenda but to encourage love for the nation. “Everyone feels patriotic. To be able to speak about it without being jingoistic is great. Sometimes you have to be jingoistic to motivate and encourage, which is also great as long as it is not used for personal agenda. You should not exploit people’s patriotic notions for personal gains,” he said.

Actress Yami Gautam, who is on roll with the success of Uri — based on the 2016 surgical strikes that India conducted following a terrorist attack in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir — said that “gone are the days of chest-thumping patriotism”. New-age Bollywood films such as Uri seem to thrive on a maxim Yami herself endorses: “Apne desh se behad mohabbat karo, jee tod mehnat karo and desh ka naam roshan karo (love your nation immensely, work hard and make your nation proud).” She added that the success of Uri underlines the nation’s sentiment towards its soldiers.

Producer Sandip Ssingh, who has bank-rolled movies like Mary Kom, Sarbjit and PM Narendra Modi, believes that it’s the love for matrubhoomi that makes the movies strike a chord with the people. “Whether it was Manoj Kumar, who was known as ‘Mr. Bharat’, he made those films and people got emotionally connected to him.. These films will work as it already has an emotional chord attached to it, which is the nation,” he said.


WAR FILMS AND BEYOND
The war film in Bollywood really came of age with Chetan Anand’s 1964 classic, Haqeeqat, based on the 1962 Indo-China war, and probably the most accomplished war drama Hindi mainstream has ever made. The decades that followed saw Border, LOC Kargil, Lakshya, 1971 and Paltan explore various military themes, mostly highlighting patriotism.

Actor Harshvardhan Rane, who starred in Paltan, says cinema with a patriotic vibe involves the audience. This is perhaps the only aspect about the genre that has not changed over the generations. “Love for your motherland is a very strong emotion and motivation for a story to be told. Films made with a patriotic backdrop tends to involve the audience into the plot immediately,” he said. But with changing time, filmmakers realised that there is more to explore.

In 2001, director Ashutosh Gowariker made Aamir Khan-starrer Lagaan, in which a group of villagers fight the Britishers for tax reduction via a cricket match. The film set a trend of blending desh bhakti with the sports genre in new-age Bollywood. Then there was Rang De Basanti, which, beyond being a blockbuster, also drew a connect between today’s youth and their need to find a purpose and the freedom struggle of Shahid Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandrashekhar Azad. Bhagat Singh, in fact, has been a subject of numerous biopics.

Actor Sonu Sood, who has essayed Bhagat Singh in 2002’s Shaheed-e-Azam, said, “There is a lot of change in films that are being made on patriotism, because people are expecting it. People have got certain thinking issues towards patriotic films and the type of content provided to the actor and audience, is something which was needed for very long.”

It was just soon after that stories revolving around women made it through — Shah Rukh Khan’s Chak De! India, Alia Bhatt’s Raazi and Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansibeing some examples.

— IANS

Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 22, 2018)

His first role made Ghulu a hero in his mohalla but through endless rehearsals and costume trials, no one realized that the little boy was suffering from acute stage fright and was dreading his turn in the spotlight.

D-day dawned shimmering with excitement. His family took their place and the curtains parted. All the actors were in place on the makeshift stage, except one. Realization was collective: Where was Ghulu? Where was their Bhagat Singh? There was a mad scramble to find the star player who’d jumped over the wall and melted away into the darkness. His no-show meant that the show had to be eventually cancelled. No one ever let him forget it. Surprisingly, Ghulu grew up to be an actor who christened himself Manoj Kumar and at 22, picked up the pen to immortalize his childhood hero.

On March 23, 1931, Bhagat Singh had been hanged for the assassination of a British police officer, John Saunders. Manoj Kumar had grown up on stories of the martyr but when he asked his leading lady about him, she shocked him by saying blithely, “Of course, he’s a famous dacoit.”

Determined to set the record straight, the actor took four years to complete his script only to discover that after two disastrous, Bhagat Singh biopics, Shaheed-E-Azam Bhagat Singh and Shaheed Bhagat Singh, no one was interested in a third. It was only after Hariyali Aur Rasta had turned him into a star, that his publicist-friend, Kewal P Kashyap, offered to produce Shaheed with him in the lead.

Interestingly, Shaheed was also the title of Dilip Kumar and Kamini Kaushal’s 1948 tragic love story which Manoj Kumar had seen as a boy of 10. Kamini played Bhagat Singh’s mother in his Shaheed. The actress had been incredulous to learn that he wanted her to play his mother. “I don’t want you to play just anyone’s mother but Bhagat Singh’s mother,” he’d explained and she had come out of retirement to shoot for the film when seven months pregnant, radiating the glow of impending motherhood.

Shaheed premiered in 1965 with then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri among the guests. Thirty-seven years later, Rajkumar Santoshi’s 2002 biopic, The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, with Ajay Devgn, opened, as did Dharmendra’s 23rd March 1931: Shaheed with Bobby Deol as the 23-year-old patriot and elder brother Sunny playing Chandrashekhar Azad. It was a Bhagat Singh festival that year with a few more films, including Shaheed-E-Azam with Sonu Sood. But it was Ajay’s act that remains unforgettable. Ramesh Taurani had once confided that when Santoshi came for a narration, he refused to reveal which actor he had in mind for the lead but while he was outlining his story, the producer could only visualize Ajay in the role. When he told the director this, Santoshi admitted Ajay was his choice as well.

Ajay bagged the National Award for Best Actor for his performance, The Legend Of Bhagat Singh was also adjudged Best Film. Earlier, Shaheed had bagged Manoj Kumar three National Awards. The martyr’s real mother whom the actor fondly called Chaiji, was seated beside him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan during the ceremony and joined him on stage as the whole auditorium rose to its feet to give them a 10-minute standing ovation.

However, for Manoj Kumar the bigger reward came after the film’s release when during a shoot of Amaanat in Goa, he went to a government tea house for a cup of tea. When he asked for a bill, he was told it was already paid for by the sweeper who’d bought him his chai. The old man confided he had never heard of Bhagat Singh till he saw Shaheed and learnt of his sacrifice. “The least I can do is to offer you a cup of tea,” he said quietly.

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 18, 2014)

Eighty-three years ago, on March 23, Bhagat Singh was in his cell when jail officials arrived with his death warrant. The 23-year-old revolutionary, who had been tried and convicted for the murder of British police officer John Saunders, is believed to have quietly requested them to give him a few minutes so he could finish the last chapter of Karl Marx's book. Once done, he let himself be marched to the gallows with a smile playing on his lips.

Manoj Kumar who relived the martyr's short but eventful life in the 1965 patriotic drama Shaheed, insists that Bhagat Singh could have saved his life with an apology. In fact, Chandrashekhar Azad had planned the perfect escape plan for him. But he chose to be publicly executed because he believed his death would inspire the country's youth to rise up against British imperialism.

While reliving his idol's life, the actor and his unit stayed in Ludhiana jail for two months and interacted with the real qaidis. One of them, a Sardar sentenced to life for several murders, confided that he’d been a jail warden in Bhagat Singh’s time and nothing being filmed was exaggerated or out of sync.

“Even the gallows that Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru walk towards were real gallows,” asserts Kumar, who at the age of 10, had been chosen to play the fiery nationalist in a street play but ran away before the curtains went up, overcome by an acute attack of nerves.

Soon after, he accompanied his uncle for his first film, Jugnu. The film’s hero, Dilip Kumar whom he knew as Suraj, died at the end and the young boy cried all the way back home.

But a few months later, he spotted Suraj again on the posters of Shaheed (1948) and coaxed his uncle to take him for the film. On screen, he was amazed to see Suraj resurrected as Ram, fighting his father and the British, before dying a second time.

This time he returned home bemused and asked his mother how many times a man could die. In response to her “once” he prodded, “What if he dies twice?” To that beeji had replied, “Then he is a farishta, an angel.” That day Hari Krishna Goswami who was later rechristened Manoj Kumar for the silver screen, decided he was going to be a farishta too…. He went on to die a martyr’s death on screen.

Kamini Kaushal, who had played Dilip Kumar’s heroine in the 1948 film, played Manoj Kumar’s mother in the Shaheed that came 17 years later. The actress had retired and settled down to quiet domesticity since and was surprised when she discovered what Kumar had to offer. “You want me to play a mother?” she asked. “Not just any mother but Bhagat Singh’s mother,” he retorted. Kamini Kaushal agreed and shot for the film while being seven months pregnant.

The revolutionary’s real chaiji confided to the actor that he reminded her in many ways of the son she had lost to the freedom struggle and even started calling him Bhagat. She was at Rashtrapati Bhavan when Manoj Kumar walked up to receive his first National Award. He invited her up on stage and as the old lady dressed in white stepped in the dais, the auditorium erupted with thunderous applause. Reminisces the actor, “The standing ovation continued for a good 10 minutes.”

Indeed, some memories live on, forever.