Patriotism, which appears to have been left behind in our struggles of day-to-day life, seems to come alive only twice – either during an Indo-Pak cricket match or during an Indo-Pak relation movie.
Bollywood movies seem too much obsessed with the Indo-Pak diplomacy.
Yes, our patriotism and love for the nation awakes when we watch movies where our gallant actors playing soldiers fight with honour and chivalry. And when movies combine these emotions and present it to us on the silver screen, they become epics.
Usually action movies have never been hits, unless and until it has been tried by Salman Khan or Akshay Kumar to name a few, but when it comes to patriotism, Bollywood has, almost every time, made a mark.
Meanwhile, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, a film which touches the sensitive topic of Indo-Pak relations while telling the story of a mute Pakistani girl, who gets lost in India and whom Salman reunites with her parents, has already created a lot of buzz.
Let’s take a look of the some of the movies based on Indo-Pak equation over the years.
Border
Considered as one of the best war movies ever made in Bollywood, Border recites the story of Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. The Battle of Longewala is extensively depicted in the movie.
The story, directed by JP Dutta, starring Sunil Shetty, Sunny Deol, Akshaye Khanna and Tabu, was released in 1997.
Gadar: Ek Prem Katha
Gadar was directed by Anil Sharma, starring Sunny Deol and Amisha Patel, which hit the screens in 2001. The film was set in 1947 and is a love story between a Jatt Sikh and a Muslim girl with the India-Pakistan partition as its backdrop.
LoC Kargil
This war-based film was directed by JP Dutta and was released in the year 2003. It had a large ensemble cast of Bollywood actors and was based on 1999 Kargil conflict.
The movie was an attempt to showcase the battles fought by several soldiers who lost their lives during Operation Vijay in the year 1999. Capt Vikaram Batra, Anuj Nayyar, Manoj Kumar Pandey and Sanjay Kumar were some of our gallant soldiers portrayed in this movie.
Veer-Zaara
Directed by Yash Chopra, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta in the lead, ‘Veer Zaara’ described the story of an Indian Air Force Squadron Leader who falls in love with a Pakistani lady during India-Pakistan crisis in 1971. The movie was released in 2004.
Pinjar
Directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi and starring Urmila Matondkar and Manoj Bajpai in the leading roles, Pinjar is a story of a Hindu woman kidnapped by a Muslim family. The girl, however, manages to escape but her family refuses to accept her and she had to return back to the kidnapper. The movie was released in 2003.
Lakshya
‘Lakshya’ was released in the year 2004. Starring Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta, Sharad Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Om Puri and Boman Irani, the film was directed by Farhan Akhtar.
This war-based film revolved around the life of Karan Shergill from his college days to the Acting Captain in India Army. Though the movie is a work of fiction, it had the Kargil war as its backdrop.
Tango Charlie
Directed by Mani Shankar, the movie had Ajay Devgan, Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Shetty and Bobby Deol in lead roles and revolved around Tarun Chauhan (played by Bobby Deol) who started his journey from a new recruit to one of the bravest war soldiers of the country.
Mission Kashmir
Revolving around the India-Pakistan conflict, ‘Mission Kashmir’ was directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra and starred Hrithik Roshan, Jackie Shroff, Preity Zinta and Sanjay Dutt in the lead roles. The movie told the story of children who affected by wars. The film was released in 2000.