Page 11 - Seniorstoday Aug 2024 Issue

Cover Story - Films

Image Courtesy: upscprep.com

When the People Awaken

Hardly any Hindi filmmaker has looked at popular uprisings, writes

Deepa Gahlot. She picks 10 films that portrayed the mood of the masses

The people of India participated in large There are, however, a handful of films that
numbers in the Independence movement, portrayed the mood of the masses.
which has been seen in various forms A pick of 10:
in Hindi cinema, along with the tragedy Neecha Nagar (1946):
of Partition. The filmmakers who made
movies soon after Independence saw it as
their duty to bring various social issues to
light, but many of them were about victims
of injustice, or about one man’s rebellion.
There have also been a fair number of Image Courtesy: DialyO
political films produced in Bollywood, to
the extent censorship allowed, a smattering
of films about campus politics, a few about
the Naxal movement, and quite a few about Chetan Anand’s film is about the stark
vigilantes seeking their own brand of division of the poor who live in a squalid
violent justice. However, hardly any Hindi shanty called Neecha Nagar and the rich
filmmaker has looked at popular uprisings Sarkar (Rafi Peer), who lived in the enclave
– like the Narmada Bachao Andolan, of the wealthy and wants to get rid of the
the Chipko Movement, the Reservation poor, so that he can grab their land. Sarkar
Struggle, or various tribal uprisings. means government, so he represents

SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #62 | AUGUST 2024 11