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    The Indian Eye
             EYE ON BOLLYWOOD                                                          AUGUST 21, 2026                                      42

               Bollywood and the Freedom Struggle:

            How Cinema Has Remembered India’s

                                       Fight for Independence

               Over eight decades, Bollywood’s freedom-struggle films have therefore moved from coded resistance to

             patriotic celebration, from heroic biographies to political reinterpretation and psychological examination

            OUR BUREAU                                                                                            further back, portraying the sepoy
                                                                                                                  whose revolt became part of the larg-
            Mumbai
                                                                                                                  er uprising of 1857.
                 or generations of Indians, the                                                                       Perhaps the most interesting
                  story of the freedom struggle                                                                   transformation came with Rang De
            Fhas  not  been  confined  to  his-                                                                   Basanti (2006). Rather than simply
            tory books. It has lived on the screen                                                                recreating the past, the film connect-
            —  in  patriotic  songs,  revolutionary                                                               ed the revolutionary generation with
            heroes, village rebellions and stories                                                                disillusioned contemporary Indian
            of ordinary people confronting colo-                                                                  youth. Bhagat Singh, Chandrashek-
            nial power. Bollywood’s portrayal of                                                                  har Azad and their comrades be-
            India’s independence movement has                                                                     came mirrors through which young
            evolved considerably over the decades,                                                                Indians questioned corruption, po-
            reflecting not only changing cinemat-                                                                 litical apathy and their own respon-
            ic styles but also the country’s chang-                                                               sibilities as citizens. History was no
            ing understanding of its own past.                                                                    longer  presented  as  something  fin-
                Even before independence, Hin-                                                                    ished; it became a language for dis-
            di cinema found ways to challenge   Sardar Udham (2021) offered a sombre portrayal of Udham Singh and his response to the   cussing the present.
            colonial authority. The most strik-                                                                       Recent cinema has continued
            ing example was Kismet, released in                  Jallianwala Bagh massacre (File photo)           this process of revisiting forgotten
            1943, when the British Raj was still                                                                  or less prominently remembered fig-
            in  existence.  The  film  featured  the   a  freedom-struggle  film  in  the  con-  treating history only as a collection   ures. Sardar Udham (2021) offered
            unforgettable patriotic song “Door   ventional sense, captured the nation-  of  heroic  episodes,  filmmakers  be-  a sombre portrayal of Udham Singh
            Hato  A  Duniya  Walon,  Hindustan   al mood through its celebration of   gan experimenting with fictional nar-  and his response to the Jallianwala
            Hamara Hai.” Though carefully     the  soldier  and  farmer  —  reflected   ratives and alternative perspectives.  Bagh massacre. Unlike the more
            framed to evade colonial censorship,  in the slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan.”  Lagaan (2001) was ostensibly a story   celebratory nationalism of earlier
            its message was unmistakable. The   The message was that independence   about cricket, but beneath its sport-  films, it dwelt on trauma, grief and
            song became a popular expression of   was not simply an event in 1947 but a   ing drama lay a familiar colonial con-  the psychological consequences of
            defiance and demonstrated the polit-  continuing national project.  flict.  Villagers  challenge  an  oppres-  colonial violence.
            ical power of popular cinema.         By the 1980s, filmmakers began   sive British tax system by accepting   Over eight decades, Bollywood’s
                After 1947, cinema initially be-  attempting larger and more complex   an extraordinary cricket match. The   freedom-struggle  films  have  there-
            came a vehicle for remembering sac-  historical narratives. Kranti (1981),  film transformed resistance into en-  fore moved from coded resistance
            rifice and constructing a new nation-  starring Dilip Kumar, presented the   tertainment while making the larg-  to patriotic celebration, from heroic
            al identity. Shaheed  (1948), made   resistance to British rule as a sweep-  er point that colonialism operated   biographies to political reinterpreta-
            soon after independence, turned   ing historical action drama. Around   through economic as well as politi-  tion and psychological examination.
            the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh into   the same period, Richard Atten-  cal domination.                 The British have often remained the
            a cinematic story for a country still   borough’s Gandhi (1982), though   The same period witnessed a re-  principal  antagonist,  but  the  mean-
            coming to terms with freedom. The   not  a  Bollywood  film,  starring  Ben   vival of serious biographical cinema.  ing of freedom has changed with
            1965  Shaheed,  starring  Manoj  Ku-  Kingsley,  brought  the  Indian  inde-  The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002),  each generation.
            mar, went further. His portrayal of   pendence movement to a global au-  directed by Rajkumar Santoshi, ex-  That may be Bollywood’s great-
            Bhagat Singh became one of the de-  dience. The film presented Mahatma   plored Bhagat Singh not merely as   est contribution to the memory of
            fining images of patriotic cinema and   Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence   a martyr but as an intellectual and   independence. It has not merely re-
            helped establish the revolutionary as   and his confrontation with British   revolutionary shaped by socialist   produced history. It has repeatedly
            a cultural icon for generations.  imperialism on an epic scale. It also   ideas. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose:   reinterpreted  it  —  asking  new  gen-
                The cinema of the 1960s and   demonstrated how the Indian free-  The Forgotten Hero (2004), directed   erations what freedom meant, who
            1970s increasingly linked the free-  dom struggle had become a subject   by Shyam Benegal, examined Bose’s   fought  for  it,  whose  sacrifices  were
            dom struggle with the responsibil-  of international cinema.        political journey and the formation   remembered and, perhaps most im-
            ities of independent India. Manoj     The 1990s and early 2000s     of the Indian National Army. Man-  portantly, what Indians have done
            Kumar’s Upkar (1967), although not   brought another shift. Instead of   gal Pandey: The Rising (2005) went   with the freedom they inherited.

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