Portrayal of Today's Nationalism

Rang De Basanti has been nominated as India's official entry to the Oscars.

A bunch of angry youngsters shooting the defence minister, capturing a radio station and forcibly going on air as part of their agenda to expose high level corruption is the theme of Rang De Basanti. In the film, it is Sue, the white girl, who is inspired by the freedom struggle. Her enthusiasm transforms the lives of a laidback bunch of friends, who are representatives of an Indian generation who have lost all serious interest in the nation. It has a heroic and forward looking character. The path chosen by the youth to fight against all odds was of a stream of thoughts to free India from British by Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekhar Azad and many more patriots.

Another very near contender for the Oscars was "Lage Raho Munna Bhai". Here also we had nationalist ideal, the Mahatma, writ large. Like Rang De Basanti, it becomes part of youth culture. A common and arrogant Mumbai (Munna) bhai gets paranoid illusions of the Mahatma preaching the way of Ahimsa and Satyagraha (non-violance and truth follower) to fight the odds in common life. This path itself is the other stream of thoughts to free India from British.

These two cases show how the nationalist imagination still reigns when it comes to facing the world (the Oscars) or in todays world the nation is under scrutiny? But they do have a message to everyone of us Indians.

cheers...