This post is prepared as a humble response to the discussion on movies and patriotism. Was gathering ideas for this post, hence the delay. Sorry about that. I have kind of mixed my passion for memory studies in this post.
The first feeling that a land needs to fight against an enemy for its existence happened to me while watching the movie Omar Mukhtar - The Lion of the Desert. The movie had one of the stellar performances of Anthony Quinn. Initially, I thought that the man who played the titular hero is a Libyan but later I realised that it is a gift which Anthony Quinn possessed. Like Mohanlal, he had the gift of ‘Parakaya Prevesha’. He can transform into that character naturally. I remember Anthony Quinn playing the part of Zorba the Greek (based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis who is also the author of the book - The Last Temptation of Christ) which again made me believe that he is a Greek. As a child, I have always felt sad watching the death of Omar Mukhtar in the hands of the Italians.
In the year 2006, I left India for Libya for a teaching assignment. Finally, I landed on the soil where Omar Mukhtar fought the Italians and died. When the Royal Jordanian flight took off from the Delhi Airport, tears welled up in my eyes as the Delhi airport faded away. I felt I was moving away from something which was mine. Is this a feeling of patriotism? I Don’t know. Upon arrival, we were given 1000 dollars as salary advance. The University took some time for processing our papers and our regular salary was delayed. I and my friend decided to involve the Indian Embassy in this matter. We decided to visit the Indian Embassy in Tripoli and I remember standing outside the embassy and looking at the fluttering tricolour atop the building. Both of us stood there and we saluted the flag. Libyans were strangely looking at us. Is this patriotism? I don’t know.
I left for Libya from Chennai, a place famous for its varieties of dosai and the tricolour chutneys. In Libya, getting Indian rice was difficult and we had to visit the few Pakistani stores in the capital to gather our grocery items. The only rice that was available was the Egyptian rice. One fine morning, I got up after dreaming about dosai. They were flying in the air. That was a sure sign that I missed my land and its food. The best part of my stay in Libya was when I visited the Omar Mukhtar University and I felt that a circle in life was completed.
While watching these movies, I felt patriotic are Gandhi, Lakshya (starring Hrithik Roshan) Lagaan, and Rang De Basanti. I have also felt sad watching the Malayalam flick 1921, which is based on the Malabar Rebellion (Next year, there are plans to commemorate the event - a new movie is announced starring Prithviraj Sukumaran) Recently one movie which kindled in me the spirit of patriotism was Manto starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui and directed by the ( Azhagi and Fire) actor Nandita Das. The most recent movie which made me feel patriotic was My Name is Shabana starring my favourite actor - Taapsee Pannu. Movies like Manikarnika with ‘the intellectual actor’ Kangana Ranaut fails to inspire me. They are part of the propaganda machinery and an agenda. We all stand up and respect our country and its anthem inside a movie theatre. I sometimes compare the way I stood in that scorching afternoon in Tripoli saluting the Indian flag and the air-conditioned ambience inside the theatre. I wish that they played some informative newsreels which they used to do instead of playing the ad for some jewellery and the in-house menu cafeteria ad. At the same time while watching the Beating Retreat Border ceremony at Wagah Border I didn't feel patriotic.
The latest release in Amazon Prime is a straight life from the movie Searching ( it is good to be informed about hyper-reality from a movie like C U Soon a movie directed by Mahesh Narayan who is famous for his movie Take Off which was about the rescue of the Indian nurses from Iraq. His movie Malik is kind of delayed because of the pandemic. He was also recently involved in a verbal spat with the accomplished actor Parvathy Thiruvoth. The word Islamophobia was the keyword in these verbal altercations.
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