As Independence Day approaches, everyone is full of patriotism and their love for the country. There are as many Indians as there is India and our cinema reflects this diversity. From the passionate patriotism depicted in films like ‘Purab Aur Paschim’ and ‘Kranti’, filmmakers have been able to celebrate the strength of Indian citizens in the face of challenges. They don’t believe in being passive bystanders and venture into trading narratives.
Here are 5 films you can watch on India’s 75th Independence Day for good time heroes whose supreme love for their country, reality and justice, made all the difference. So, here are some pointers for you to watch this Independence Day with your family.
200 Halla Ho
This 2021 Yodley manufacturing and directed by Sarthak Dasgupta is basically based on a real-life incident that took place in Nagpur in 2004 where 200 oppressed Dalit women took the rules into their hands and beat Akku Yadav, the serial killer, to death in an open court. Thugs, hooligans and robbers. The movie brings to the fore many social inequalities that push the sensitive residents to the limits of their endurance and had a strong big-name cast of Amal Palekar, Rinku Rajguru and Saloni Batra.
Raazi
This 2018 espionage thriller was once directed by Meghna Gulzar based on real-life events at some stage of the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war and was an evocative adaptation of Harinder Sikka’s novel ‘Calling Sehmat’. At its heart was Sehmat (Alia Bhatt), a 20-year-old Kashmiri woman who decides to sacrifice her future by agreeing to marry a Pakistani officer (Vicky Kaushal). Along the way, he risks his lifestyle and even kills to find classified information that tilts the scales and helps India win the war.
Shershaah
How did a young boy raised in a beautiful hill town end up being the much-feared ‘Shershah’ in the Kargil War?This 2021 biopic chronicles that journey and pays tribute to the indomitable spirit of Kargil hero Captain Vikram Batra, who determined his lifestyle but surrendered an essential outpost from the enemy before victory.Directed by Vishnu Vardhan, the movie also deals with the personal life of Vikram (Siddharth Malhotra) and his relationship with Dimple (Kiara Advani).
Swade
‘Swades: We, The People’ was released in 2004 and is now a bona fide cult classic. Produced and directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, the movie imagines the transformation that countering the brain drain can bring about in India. Shah Rukh Khan plays NRI Mohan Bhargava, who temporarily visits a small village for a non-public purpose but then gets so inspired by the struggles of the people he arrives at that he sets up a micro-hydroelectric project to generate electricity and somehow returns to Mane. The film also stars Gayatri Joshi, Kishori Ballal, Daya Shankar Pandey, Rajesh Vivek and the late Lekh Tandon. It’s available on Netflix.
Rang de Basanti
Manoj Kumar played Bhagat Singh in 1965’s ‘Shaheed’ and brought tears to the eyes of residents of neutral India. In 2006, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra’s ‘Rong De Basanti’ did a similar job when it revisited the stories of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev and Chandrasekhar Azad and reminded Indians that their freedom should never be taken for granted. The film also traces the journey of some friends who encounter corruption and violence in the country and take inspiration from India’s freedom fighters to exchange their country. The film stars Aamir Khan, Siddharth, Sharman Joshi, Atul Kulkarni and Kunal Kapoor and can be seen on YouTube.
