Beyond the rhetoric

O.K. We all loved Chak De India. It definitely was a taut script and who doesn't like to see the underdogs win? It also addressed almost all women issues, regional disparity and touched a little on religion bias too. And to those observant eyes, it also was an excellent surrogate marketing move(Aaj Tak, McDonald's, Puma, Ultra Tech...and one more which I leave for you to tell me ;) )

But on this so-much-hyped 60th Independence Day, all I am doing is sitting and typing a movie review to be posted on my blog. And yea, I changed my Orkut profile colors to suit that of the nation too. That is about it. Or is it?

I have been insanely patriotic, or rather, chauvinistic in approach when it comes to India. My motherland India. I love to see the uniformed men, and they still manage to generate an awe, immaculately dressed and exercise fit. I love to salute the National Tricolor whenever I can. In fact, the only thing I liked about entering my college was the fluttering National Flag. But as I grew up, and found myself caught in the harsh realities of this insane world, I came to know, that there is nothing that exists purely on the basis of emotional quotient these days. Emotions hardly matter. That uniform was not all that green as it seemed. And then, one tends to engulf in a feeling of let-it-be, which I daresay has become a hall mark of the Indian psyche. And any efforts from newspapers to make people DO stuff, generate leaders, discussions and debates at prime time, movies like Chak De, Swades, RDB, etc are but noisy jitters in the let-it-be wave called the largest democracy of the world.

So how is it, that these jitters have managed themselves to sustain? Answer is simple. Surely they are more than those noises on the contour of the Indian minds. The excessive unknown emotions one feels when SRK says, "Dekho, pehli baar kisi gore ko India ka tiranga lehrate dekh raha hoon." (Look, it is for the first time I am watching and white unfurling the tricolor of India). The exhilaration one feels when the tricolor is unfurled. The feeling on watching the R-Day parade. The National Song, National Anthem, patriotic songs. Everything makes sense. When everyone rose in the theatre for the National Anthem, it felt nice. And the feelings felt by the character Kabir Khan in the movie, for his nation, for his flag, for his will to see Indians do well at international level do say something. Something, that cannot be said. It can only be felt. And not only on 15th August or 26th January. But everyday.