18 June 2024 Punjab Khabarnama : We’re halfway through the year, and Hindi cinema has already dished out its mandatory serving of chest-thumping, over-the-top, low-on-logic patriotic flicks: Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, Yodha and Fighter. Sure, the latter two are all about battles in the sky, while the former sticks to ground-level action, but squint a little, and they all blur together in a classic case of ‘Potato Potahto.’ In the realm of Hindi cinema, nationalism is the ever-versatile potato—served in various shapes, forms, and curries, but underneath it all, it’s the same bland spud.
In a sense, the purpose of these ostensibly patriotic films isn’t to evoke a sense of nationalism but to celebrate the triumph of Bollywood stars and their larger-than-life characters. It’s not about saving the nation; it’s about who does the saving, how many bad guys they take down, how many high-octane action sequences they pull off, and how many cheesy one-liners they can deliver.