Nikhat Kazmi from the daily Times Of India wrote a very insightful article on patriotism and what it means in Bollywood. You can also read it here on the TOI website.
Article From TOI:
Patriotism sells like nothing else at the box office. Like Lagaan and Gadar in 2001, Chak De India too is all set to rewrite box office history, having already grossed Rs 20 crore in two weeks.
The film has stormed the consciousness of the average Indian, even as the team of young unknowns are spilling out from sundry TV channels, holding forth on any and everything that falls within the realm of desh-bhakti to women's hockey. As for Shah Rukh Khan, it's been a complete coming-of-age exercise, with both critics and viewers acclaiming his portrayal of Kabir Khan as his career-best performance.
Ever since Manoj Kumar devised the talisman of 'Mr Bharat' which worked its magic in film after film, desh-bhakti has remained the sure-fire pill for the pulp fiction voyeurs. But, the history of patriotism has indeed been a chequered one in Indian cinema. While most of the films have frantically waved the tiranga in your face, only a few have treated the emotion with the dignity and the sensitivity it deserves.
Thus, while there are the high-decibel films like Border and Gadar which have gone down in the BO records as some of the biggest hits while trumpeting their singular passion for the country — you also have gentler Love-India symphonies like Sarfarosh, Swades, Rang de Basanti which peddle nationalism as a cause that needs to be internalised rather than hollered about. Lagaan falls somewhere in-between with it's period tale of a bunch of losers who lent a whole new meaning to the Quit India movement.
So, where does Chak De India stand in this palette of desh-prem? The fact that the film has sent the upper middle class into a tizzy — along with the aam aadmi — bears testimony to the fact that this one's as sophisticated as it can get. Without beating its chest and crying itself hoarse, the film pleads the one-nation, mulk-above-all-else case and strikes an instant chord with the Indian who no longer likes to be seen as an underdog.
And, all it takes to transform us from a nation of losers to winners is belief in our own selves and an ability to shed the binds of artificial class, caste, region, religion divide.
The stupendous success of Chak De at the box office truly proves that apart from Bollywood, it is the Indian who has come of age too. Politicians, beware! Time to change your policies for the new, complete Indian.
And no, Bollywood isn't really worried with two of its stars behind bars. Kyunki, as a trade pundit points out: "Imagine the response to their films which will be riding high on a sympathy wave."
Yes, both Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan might just emerge as bigger heroes, AK-56's and black bucks notwithstanding. Meanwhile, there are a spate of big releases lined up — Ram Gopal ki Aag, Om shanti Om, Laga Chunari Mein Daag,Saawariya, Aaja Nachle — to keep the cash registers ringing, till the duo can pick up their unfinished products.
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