Manoj Kumar and Akshay Kumar are similar in a several ways – it isn’t just that they adopted screen names with Kumar in them. Manoj Kumar’s real name is Harikrishna Giri Goswami and Akshay Kumar is actually Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia as many of us know. The two Indian leading men have done many movies with patriotic themes. If we know Manoj Kumar as Mr. Bharat, Akshay Kumar too has done many films where he has been a soldier, a commando or part of anti terror squads.
Patriotic movies over the times
Patriotic films in the 1960s and 70s were either historical or they portrayed the patriotic hero in a son-of-the-soil type persona. Manoj Kumar’s most memorable patriotic portrayals were in Shaeed in 1965, the story of Bhagat Singh, the iconic Upkar (the 1967 film with unforgettable songs such as mere desh ki dharti and kasme waade pyaar wafa) and Purab aur Paschim (1970 film with songs such as hai preet jahaan ki reet sada) and last of all the 1981 film Kranti which was about India’s independence struggle.
While Shaheed and Kranti were about the freedom struggle and hence historical in nature, Upkar had him playing the archetypal Indian farmer rooted in his land and his ethos. In Purab aur Paschim his role is that of an idealistic Indian bent on reminding the Indian Diaspora in the UK of their roots sending out the message to be proud of being Indian. Patriotism then was a cultural, notional concept based on high sounding phrases, sacrifice and grand gestures.
Patriotic movies now
Movies that we could view as patriotic today are based around actual problems that Indians are concerned with today. Stories feature themes such as the threat of terror attacks, external aggressions and corruption and depend upon dashes of realism rather than high minded philosophy, self sacrifice, and pride in the notion of nationhood.
Building on image as an action hero, Akshay Kumar has recently done several movies where he has played a soldier or a commando or police man. In Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, the movie with the self explanatory title, Akshay is an army officer who catches a terrorist and uncovers a terror plot. The movie was supposed to educate the public about the sleeper cells of terror outfits. In Baby, Kumar plays an Indian security agent who quietly and ruthlessly goes about his job of neutralizing terrorists and preventing attacks by capturing terrorists.
He plays a vigilante in Gabbar is Back, someone who will do whatever is necessary to root out the social evil of corruption. In his most recent release, Airlift, he plays a Kuwait based businessman who carries out the evacuation of Indians from Kuwait during time when Iraq had invaded Kuwait. The patriotic hero today is more believable, more realistic and more relevant to our realities. He is also cleverer, more wily and practical; has evolved perhaps the same way that the Indian audience itself has.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
