The depiction of patriotism on the silver screen has metamorphosed from a portrayal of passion into a mere plot device finds Subhash K Jha
Face the farce. Mahendra Kapoor’s ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti’ and
Manna Dey’s ‘Ae Mere Pyare Watan’ are dreams that have gone from the flag to flak. No one wants to watch films about a social awakening any longer. Raj Kumar Santoshi’s “Halla Bol” was proof of it. Films that once gloriously addressed the question of patriotism like Ramesh Sehgal’s “Shaheed” and Manoj Kumar’s “Upkar” are passé. Aggressive self-interest is in. “Rang De Basanti” marked the end of an Iraq.
‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ugley /Ugley Heere-Moti…’ - the man, Gulshan Bawra, who wrote this paean to patriotism is no more. And what we do have, laments Manoj Kumar that one by one, they’ve all gone. The man who wrote this lyric, one-half of the duo Kalyanji-Anandji that composed this immortal song and also the man who sang it.
A sobering thought. This isn’t the passing of an era. It’s the passing of an aura. Gone are all those guys who we thought could change the world and the way we look at it. There was a time when Manoj Kumar churned out the flag-waving hits in a swirl of patriotism.
Besides “Rang De Basanti” the most patriotic film in the last 15 years was Mani Ratnam’s “Bombay”. I remember Shekhar Kapoor saying after the violence erupted over Mani Ratnam’s “Bombay” that Hindu-Muslim love stories are a no-no at the box office. Happily the parameters of the permissible are changing. And today who knows what works, what doesn’t? What we need to understand is a movie mogul’s need to address an issue that should concern all of us.
Today patriotism is aligned to terrorism. Terrorism and its distending dimensions have been a matter of grave concern for filmmakers. At the height of the Punjabi insurgency Gulzar came forward with “Maachis”. Who but the awesome Gulzar Saab could combine violence and poetry? Tabu looking into an unidentifiable horizon in the distance singing “Paani Paani Re” in the divine voice of Lata Mangeshkar remains one of the strongest images of a world overtaken by deathly strife. Gulzar Saab attempted to explore the parameters of terrorism a second time in “Hu Tu Tu”. Ominously he hasn’t directed a film after that. Somewhere he failed to connect the story of a human bomb (the gloriously resplendent Tabu) with the audience.
Santosh Sivan desperately wanted to cast Tabu as the human bomb in “Terrorist”. Since Gulzar Saab beat him to it he settled for Ayesha Dharker who gave a ball-of-fire account of the hardcore Sri Lankan suicide bomber who has a change of heart at the last minute.
Manisha Koirala blew up not just herself but also Shah Rukh Khan in Mani Ratnam’s “Dil Se”. Guess it comes from being brought up in the laps of luxury. Mani has his terror trilogy “Roja”, then “Dil Se”, finally topped by the finest of the trio, “Kannathil Muttamital” in Tamil. Recently Tulip Joshi played a suicide bomber in Pooja Bhatt’s “Dhokha”. One aspect of Hindi cinema’s current tryst with terrorism that invites attention is the sheer volume of ‘action’ that underlines the drama. Characters somersault nimbly into the horizon to beat the baddies. And you wonder if terrorists are the latest villains in masala kingdom after smugglers rapists and politicians.
Filmmakers in our country have always been more committed to winning laurels and making a name than carrying forward the social message of their films. Manoj Kumar's films have always been about patriotism. But does his personal conduct anywhere suggest he believes in the ‘Meri Desh Ki Dharti’ theory that he made into a booming formula?
Face the farce. Mahendra Kapoor’s ‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti’ and
Manna Dey’s ‘Ae Mere Pyare Watan’ are dreams that have gone from the flag to flak. No one wants to watch films about a social awakening any longer. Raj Kumar Santoshi’s “Halla Bol” was proof of it. Films that once gloriously addressed the question of patriotism like Ramesh Sehgal’s “Shaheed” and Manoj Kumar’s “Upkar” are passé. Aggressive self-interest is in. “Rang De Basanti” marked the end of an Iraq.‘Mere Desh Ki Dharti Sona Ugley /Ugley Heere-Moti…’ - the man, Gulshan Bawra, who wrote this paean to patriotism is no more. And what we do have, laments Manoj Kumar that one by one, they’ve all gone. The man who wrote this lyric, one-half of the duo Kalyanji-Anandji that composed this immortal song and also the man who sang it.
A sobering thought. This isn’t the passing of an era. It’s the passing of an aura. Gone are all those guys who we thought could change the world and the way we look at it. There was a time when Manoj Kumar churned out the flag-waving hits in a swirl of patriotism.
Besides “Rang De Basanti” the most patriotic film in the last 15 years was Mani Ratnam’s “Bombay”. I remember Shekhar Kapoor saying after the violence erupted over Mani Ratnam’s “Bombay” that Hindu-Muslim love stories are a no-no at the box office. Happily the parameters of the permissible are changing. And today who knows what works, what doesn’t? What we need to understand is a movie mogul’s need to address an issue that should concern all of us.
Today patriotism is aligned to terrorism. Terrorism and its distending dimensions have been a matter of grave concern for filmmakers. At the height of the Punjabi insurgency Gulzar came forward with “Maachis”. Who but the awesome Gulzar Saab could combine violence and poetry? Tabu looking into an unidentifiable horizon in the distance singing “Paani Paani Re” in the divine voice of Lata Mangeshkar remains one of the strongest images of a world overtaken by deathly strife. Gulzar Saab attempted to explore the parameters of terrorism a second time in “Hu Tu Tu”. Ominously he hasn’t directed a film after that. Somewhere he failed to connect the story of a human bomb (the gloriously resplendent Tabu) with the audience.
Santosh Sivan desperately wanted to cast Tabu as the human bomb in “Terrorist”. Since Gulzar Saab beat him to it he settled for Ayesha Dharker who gave a ball-of-fire account of the hardcore Sri Lankan suicide bomber who has a change of heart at the last minute.
Manisha Koirala blew up not just herself but also Shah Rukh Khan in Mani Ratnam’s “Dil Se”. Guess it comes from being brought up in the laps of luxury. Mani has his terror trilogy “Roja”, then “Dil Se”, finally topped by the finest of the trio, “Kannathil Muttamital” in Tamil. Recently Tulip Joshi played a suicide bomber in Pooja Bhatt’s “Dhokha”. One aspect of Hindi cinema’s current tryst with terrorism that invites attention is the sheer volume of ‘action’ that underlines the drama. Characters somersault nimbly into the horizon to beat the baddies. And you wonder if terrorists are the latest villains in masala kingdom after smugglers rapists and politicians.
Filmmakers in our country have always been more committed to winning laurels and making a name than carrying forward the social message of their films. Manoj Kumar's films have always been about patriotism. But does his personal conduct anywhere suggest he believes in the ‘Meri Desh Ki Dharti’ theory that he made into a booming formula?
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
