Patriotism in Tamil cinema – F’day Spl. Article by Naveen

Tamil cinema has played an important role in spreading patriotism among the people. Several movies about patriots have released in the past few year. Movies like Veerapandiya Kattabomman, Kappalotiya Tamilan, Jai Hind, Hey Ram, Indian and Bombay are earlier movies that spoke about patriotism. Ahead of Independence Day, let us take some of the most iconic movies based on patriotism.

Ratha Thilagam is based on the Sino-Indian border dispute of 1962. It was directed by Dada Mirasi who also wrote the screenplay.

Kumar is a graduate who decides to enlist in the Indian Army, following news of Chinese invasion in the country during the midst of the Sino-Indian War, only to find out that his love interest Kamala was working against the Indian Army.

The Portuguese want to set up an army base in Vasanthapuri, a territory in Tamil Nadu, India. They approach Diwan, a corrupt ruler of the area and decide to make him the king if he agrees to carry out the plan. He subsequently agrees, but none of the local people are happy and protests against this. Hence he starts killing them in large numbers. Ananth, who lost his father in the shootout, swears that he will have revenge for the outrage when his friend Bharat, son of the Inspector General Chandrasekar, returns from abroad. Directed by C. V. Sridhar. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan and Kanchana, with S V Ranga Rao, M N Nambiar, Muthuraman, Nagesh and Sachu in supporting roles. Sivandha Mann was the first Tamil film to be shot extensively in foreign locations. Filming took place largely in Europe in places like Switzerland, France and the Alps. A river had been created at Vauhini Studios for Sivandha Mann.

Bharathi:

The film Bharathi was a biography based on the life of Mahakavi Subramaniya Bharathiyaar. The movie went on to become a successful film at box office and also won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil in the year 2000. The movie stars Sayaji Shinde, Devyani and Nizhalgal Ravi. The film depicted the life and times of renowned poet Subramaniya Bharathi and his quest to propel people to fight for their rights.

Critically acclaimed film Madrasapattinam is a love story of a young South Indian boy and a British girl. Starring Arya and Amy Jackson in leads, the film also stars Nassar, Cochin Hanifa and Alexx O’Nell playing other prominent roles. The film was nominated for several awards as well. The film is a simple story of a South Indian launderer and a British girl who eventually fall in love with each other during the independence period.

Jagdish (Vijay), an army captain returns to Mumbai for a 40 days’ vacation. He has a loving family, comprising two sisters and his parents, who wish to get him married to an appropriate girl. Along with his romantic escapades, he also has a greater task at hand as he has to eradicate sleeper cells that are out to bomb and terrorize Mumbai across 12 prominent localities. Did Jagadish succeed in his mission and neutralise the sleeper cells forms the main story.

Subhash (Vishal) is an army officer who is the son of a CM. One fine day, his father announces Subhash’s brother as his successor and when all this is happening in a meeting, a bomb blast occurs and most of Subhash’s family gets killed. Upon investigation, Subhash finds out that some international terrorist is behind all this. The rest of the story is as to how Subhash goes on a mission and finds the culprits.

Kathir (Suriya) is a part of the Special protection group of the Indian Prime minister Chandrakant Varma (Mohanlal), and along with Joseph (Samuthirakani) and Prem, protects the PM from deadly situations. However a corporate conspiracy leads to unfortunate events, and the blame falls on Kathir, who now has to prove himself sincere and find the real evil, protect Abhishek Varma (Arya) from the threats, expose the corporate Kingpin Mahadev (Boman Irani) and protect farmers. How Kathir succeeds is what Kaappaan is all about.

Circus performer Aravind (Suriya) runs into genetic researcher Subha Srinivasan (Shruti Haasan) and is smitten. During a visit to the circus, his family members tell him that Subha had met them some months ago as part of a research project into the Bodhidharma, a Pallava prince who had travelled to China around the 6th century AD and taught martial arts and medicine to the people there. Aravind confronts Subha to learn the truth about her work, but then they find out that they are the targets of an assassin, Dong Lee (Johnny Tri Nguyen), sent to India by a neighbouring government to start a biowar in the country. What happens next is the crux of the story.

Kamal Haasan and Mohan Lal taking the chief roles in the film, Kamal Haasan as a commoner and Mohan Lal as Raghava Maraar who informs about parallel blasting of bombs. He wanted four terrorists to be liberated who were responsible for terror attacks in India. The Inspector General was impelled to release the terrorist for the welfare of the nation but Mohan Lal is perplexed when Kamal kills three of the terrorists. What is Kamal’s motive and why he killed the terrorists is the main theme of the story.

The period is 1920. A tribal girl is snatched away from her mother by Britishers, who employ her as a slave. It falls upon the tribals’ protector Komaram Bheem (Jr NTR) to rescue the child and restore her to her mother. The site of action shifts to a location near Delhi. In a counter operation, the British enlist Alluri Sitarama Raju (Ram Charan), a gutsy cop, to prevent Bheem from wreaking havoc. The movie directed by Rajamouli has patriotism written all over it.

Dulquer Salman is Lieutenant Ram of the Madras Regiment. He stops a riot orchestrated by the Pakistani Army in Kashmir sometime in 1985. The radio talks about his valorous deeds and we learn that brave officer has no family. At which point, people from all over India offer to be members of his family. One letter writer offers to be his brother, another his son and so on. One letter writer offers to be his wife and is signed, Sita. Ram is intrigued enough to try and locate her. There are some excellent dialogues about patriotism and religious beliefs in the film that convince you, that Sita Ramam is more than just a love story.