Odes to the nation

With the famous song <i>Ae mere watan ke logon</i> completing 50 years this Republic Day, here is a look at the political inclinations of lyricists of that time and how films nurtured nationalism.

January 28, 2012 05:29 pm | Updated October 18, 2016 12:39 pm IST

Patriotic notes: Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi. Photo: The Hindu Photo Archives

Patriotic notes: Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi. Photo: The Hindu Photo Archives

Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru could not hold back his tears as he listened to Lata Mangeshkar sing “ Ae mere watan ke logon, zara ankh mein bharlo pani... ” during a concert in New Delhi's Ram Lila maidan on January 26, 1963. That patriotic song remains moving as ever as it celebrated its golden jubilee last week. The early 1960s were a politically tumultuous period when the Indo-China war saw hundreds of soldiers perish in the barren wastes of Ladakh.

The many patriotic songs in films only show that the film industry shared the nation’s concerns and was a part of national development in its own way. Cinema was the most popular and powerful medium of that time and was highly useful in promoting national interests. Promoting deshbhakti as part of nation building was a prominent feature of films from that time.

Rooting for socialism

Leaders, like Pandit Nehru, enjoyed personal relationships with the politically savvy filmmakers of that time and this helped them present their point of view on nationally important issues. Most of the meaningful films of that time depicted protagonists as idealists who rooted for Nehru's model of socialism.

In 1960, S. Mukherji made “Hum Hindustani” that projects, among other things, Nehru's model of industrialisation. The title song Chodo kal ki batein, kal ki baat purani... exhorts Indians to leave the past behind and get busy with rebuilding the nation.

Songs are known to leave a lasting impact on the audience and hence continue to be an inseparable part of Hindi movies. Most well known lyricists in Hindi cinema were not strangers to nationalism; many had participated in the freedom struggle and also had deep rooted political convictions.

Kavi Pradeep, who wrote Ae mere watan ke logo, belonged to the pre-independence period and shot to fame for his anti-colonial poetry. He was the first to use cinema to propagate nationalism by challenging the British to quit India with Aaj Himalay ki choti se phir hamne lalkara hai, door hato ae duniya walo Hindustan hamara hai... from “Kismat” (1943). Lyricist Raja Mehdi Ali Khan’s Watan ki rah par watan ke naujawan shaheed ho... (“Shaheed, 1948) followed the same theme.

Kaifi Azmi and Prem Dhawan were members of the Communist Party of India. With Sahir Ludhianvi, they were known as the Socialist face of Hindi cinema. Nation building was a much-discussed subject among them.

“Pyasa”, Guru Dutt’s intense movie on exploitation and hypocrisy, brought some great poetry in 1957. Sahir Ludhianvi took a dig at the conscious-keepers of the nation through jinhe naaz hai Hind par wo kahan hai... , while praising the nation as Yeh desh hai veer jawanon ka... in “Naya Daur” the same year. In 1962, Nanha munna rahi hoon, desh ka sipahi hoon (“Son of India”) vocalised the aspirations of a young patriot.

Changing realities

Nevertheless, this was the time when political realities had changed drastically owing to the Sino-Indian war. Guarding the frontiers had replaced development as priority and the film industry changed gears accordingly. Chetan Anand's “Haqeeqat”, based on the war with China, was the first patriotic film to be produced in that time. Kaifi Azmi's lyrics are literary masterpieces especially Kar chale hum fida jan-o-tan sathiyo, ab tumhare hawale watan sathiyo...

More patriotic poetry flowed from the pen of Hindi lyricists during this period though the impact of the Sino-Indian war gradually faded. Notable are Shakeel Badayuni's Apni azadi ko hum hargiz mita sakte nahin... (“Leader”)

Rajinder Krishan and later Gulshan Bawra showered praises on the motherland in Jahan daal dal par sone ki chidiyan... (“Sikandar-e-Azam”) and Mere desh ki dharti... (“Upkar”).

All this, however, did not reduce the popularity of Ae mere watan ke logon... apparently because it came at a time when Indians were in dire need of a morale booster.

The 1970s saw a decline in the quality of poetry in films. Manoj Kumar's “Purab Aur Paschim”, on Indian emigrants, had two patriotic songs by Indeevar considered to be the last in the style of the old masters. In the 1980s, the industry shifted its focus to terrorism. Almost all patriotic movies from mid-eighties onwards deal with cross-border terrorism. If Anand Bakshi pledged Har karam apna karenge ae watan tere liye ... (“Karma”, 1986), lyricist P.K. Mishra swore Bharat humko jaan se bhi pyara hai... (Roja, 1992)

These songs were replaced by Mere watan... (“Fiza”, 1953) and Hindustan, Hindustan... “Border, 1997). The Israr Ansari song from “Sarfarosh”, Zindagi maut na ban jaye... caught the imagination of movie goers in 1999. The “Legend of Bhagat Singh” (2002) incorporated the old Prem Dhawan songs like Mera rang de basanti chola... with recast verses. “Swades” in 2004 had Ye jo des hai tera... portraying the beauty of the motherland.

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