There seems to be a very thin line demarcating the war films, the historical films or even the patriotic films of the Hindi Cinema, in a way all these 3 categories are totally interlinked. As the real or even the reel life warriors have always fought the varied battles out of sheer patriotism, for the intense love for their country and have then become historical figures in the process.
So some of the earliest Black & White Patriotic Films, steeped in extreme patriotism, of the Hindi Cinema have been made as early as the year 1925 onwards for i.e. Charkha & Veer Kunal in the year 1925, Bhagwa Jhanda alias Saffron flag in the year 1926, Flag Of Honor in the year 1929, Patriot in the year 1930, The Battle, Martyr & Sword Of Allah in the year 1931, Shan – E - Hindustan & Hindustan in the year 1932 & Bharat Veer in the year 1933 to name just a handful of them.
And then with the advent of the color era it was Manoj Kumar, more popularly known as Mr. Bharat, who had totally dominated the patriotic scenario in the 60's & the 70's decade firstly by acting in a Black & White film titled Shaheed in the year 1965, in which even the Late Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had made a cameo appearance, and 2ndly by going on to make more & more such patriotic films in color like Upkar, Kranti, Purab Aur Paschim, Roti Kapda Aur Makaan et al and of course all his films not only emphasized but also reflected his intense patriotic fervor and even his deep-rooted love for his motherland, India. In fact, Manoj Kumar was to Patriotic films, what the Ramsay’s were to Horror films.
Then it took a Hollywood director like Richard Attenborough to rekindle the patriotic loyalty of the Indian's by making a Celluloid Masterpiece film Gandhi starring who else but a Hollywood actor Ben Kingsley in the title role. No wonder then, that the Indian directors followed suit with Shyam Benegal leading the brigade, when he made a film titled The Making Of Mahatma Gandhi starring Rajat Kapoor in the title role of Mahatma Gandhi.
Thereafter the decade of the 60's also saw a few classic yet very successful Patriotic Films made by the late Producer - Director Chetan Anand titled Haqueequat {Not to speak of the Ajay Devgan starrer of the same name but made in the 90's decade} starring Dharmendra & the Late Priya Rajvansh besides a host of other stars of that era. Then there were also films like Hum Hindustani starring rank newcomers & Producer – Director Mehboob Khan’s film Son Of India also starring newcomers.
While some of the other such patriotic films of the 40's & the 50's decade include Pyara Watan, Hum Dono starring the evergreen the Late Dev Anand in a double role, Sher – E - Watan, Hind Ke Lal, Hamara Watan, Hamara Desh, Hindustan Hamara, Bharat Ke Lal, Bharat Ki Beti and the most talked about film of that era namely Dharti Ke Lal. And a series of films, of the funster duo the late Mehmood Ali – the Late I. S. Johar starrer like Johar Mehmood in Goa, Johar Mehmood In Hong Kong et al. Yet all these films were like just a few drops in an ocean.
Cut to the decade of the 60's to the 90's where apart from the Manoj Kumar brand of Patriotic Films there were other notable films too like 5 Rifles, Leader, Jhanda Ooncha Rahe Hamara, Desh Ke Dushman, the Late Rajesh Khanna starrer Apna Desh, Azaad Desh Ke Ghulam, Bharat Ke Shaheed, Mithun Chakroborty starrer Watan Ke Rakhwale, Kamal Hasan starrer Mayor Saab {Dubbed version of the original Tamil film} and then even the mighty Big B had acted in a couple of such Deshbhakti oriented films like Desh Premee, Inquilab, Main Azaad Hoon, 7 Hindustani, Hindustan Ki Kasam, Major Sahab & Khuda Gawah. Besides how can one forget the midget hero Aamir Khan’s earlier film Sarfarosh and the last released patriotic saga Lagaan albeit being a little off the pitch.
Besides how can one overlook the Punjabi Jat Dharmendra & director Anil Sharma's contributions in this field as together the duo have given quite a few of such hit films like Elaan – E - Jung, Hukumat & Tehelka, While Dharmendra on his own did Ramanand Sagar's film's like Aankhen & Lalkar. Next, patriotically following in the footsteps of his father even Sunny Deol has served his own doses or rather sometimes overdoses of patriotism from time to time with a few notable films like Indian, The Hero, Zor, Gadar - Ek Prem katha and many more besides the dud caper Jaal - The Trap. So what if terrorism had also seeped in, in some of them, by raising its ugly head.
In between there were other such highly impressive films too like the Nana Patekar starrer Krantiveer directed by Mehul Kumar, Krantishetra & Sardar. While one more released patriotic film turned out to be Subhashchandra Bose. Incidentally the last 2 films both directed by Shyam Benegal had also given a great insight into the life & times of these patriotic leaders of our Nation.
A special, well-deserved mention at this juncture should also be made of the Vidhu Vinod Chopra film 1942 - A Love Story starring Anil Kapoor & J. P. Dutta's film Border & LoC – Kargil starring a galaxy of Bollywood stars. But the earlier mentioned film had also claimed quite a few of the casualties in the Capital State New Delhi, a result of a bomb explosion allegedly planted by some anti-social elements, while the devout & the patriotic patrons were engrossed in watching the same film Border in Uphaar theatre out there.
And finally in the new millennium one also witnessed a new trend of patriotic filmmaking, in fact a mad rush to jump onto the bandwagon of simultaneously making films based on one subject, on one particular patriotic figure and this time around and in this case it was our nation's most revered martyr Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Hence as many as 5 films were made on the legendary cult figure namely Tips films The Legend Of Bhagat Singh starring Ajay Devgan, Dharmendra's home production banner Vijeta film’s 1931 Shaheed Bhagat Singh starring Sunny Deol as Chandrashekhar Azaad & Bobby Deol in the title role, Shaheed – E - Azam Bhagat Singh starring the then rank newcomer Sonu Sood, besides 2 other unreleased films with inane titles which incidentally also got dumped into the trash cans of the cine laboratories of Mumbai.
Not only this, as believe it or not there were as many as 5 films being made on another legendary political figure the Late Indira Gandhi. But nothing of those films was heard after its initial launch with a big fanfare.
Besides not to be left behind and out of the rat race of this patriotic wave even the small screen at that time had dabbled with its own version of the patriotic brand of teleserials like Kashmeer on Star Plus channel which was also later on unceremoniously pulled off the air midway and then there was Mulk on Zee TV Channel which had also suffered the same fate.
To round it off on a patriotic note all the Satellite Channels are now in the mad rush of being one up on each other, as each one of them are drawing up their own schedules & plans to telecast most of the past patriotic films of those times, no doubt, to commemorate the eve of the republic day on the 15th of Aug this year. Besides even reams & reams of paper-mâché would be insufficient to recount each & every Indian patriotic film till this date. Period!