Perhaps one of the most oft-quoted nationalistic songs, not from a Hindi film, but a creation of film industry bigwigs, has been Ai mere watan ke logon. Written by Pradeep and composed by C. Ramchandra, it was a homage to the Indian soldiers who died in the Sino-Indian War of 1962. Legend has it that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had tears in his eyes when Lata Mangeshkar sang it at Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi on Republic Day in ’63.
It’s difficult to discount the emotional power of a desh bhakti geet, be it an Afghan lament for his country that we can empathise with, as in Ai mere pyaare watan (Kabuliwala, 1961) or a plain desi Bharat humko jaan se pyaara hai (Roja, 1992). These affecting tributes also have a way of finding continuing resonance....
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