Hindi cinema has long allowed its heroes to ask uncomfortable questions about the state, not just salute it. A new watchlist from Hindustan Times groups five films—released between 2004 and 2019—around that idea. Each one treats accountability, corruption, caste or justice as the real test of patriotism.
The five films
- Rang De Basanti (2006): Rajkumar Hirani’s Delhi University story moves from student indifference to a stand against a corrupt defence deal. Streaming on JioHotstar.
- Swades (2004): Ashutosh Gowariker sends a NASA engineer back to a village and turns local problems into a small hydroelectric project. Streaming on Netflix.
- A Wednesday! (2008): A retiring Mumbai police commissioner fields an anonymous caller who wants four jailed terrorists released. The caller turns out to be an ordinary citizen. Streaming on JioHotstar.
- Article 15 (2019): Ayushmann Khurrana’s IPS officer investigates the deaths of two teenage Dalit girls in an Uttar Pradesh village and runs into caste barriers. Streaming on Netflix.
- Mulk (2018): Taapsee Pannu’s lawyer defends a Varanasi family pulled into a terror investigation. Streaming on ZEE5.
Why the throughline matters
The useful thing about this grouping is its shared structure. A protagonist begins inside or beside the system, then encounters a failure that ordinary people already live with—a MiG-21 crash blamed on pilot error, power cuts and caste divisions in a village, bombs planted to force a courtroom’s hand, a wage demand that becomes a murder investigation, or a family suspected after one member is linked to an attack.
That echo is why the list reads as more than nostalgia. Rang De Basanti, with Aamir Khan among the students, and Swades, with Shah Rukh Khan as Mohan Bhargava, sit easily beside Article 15 and Mulk. The questions have not aged out.
What to do about it
For readers who follow Hindi cinema closely, this is a ready-made repertory night. Watch the films in chronological order—Swades first, Mulk last—and trace how the tone shifts from reformist hope to something darker and more procedural. If you want a sharper test, pair each with a recent release that sells patriotism; ask whether the new film is asking a question or decorating an answer.
The films are not an easy sit. They are, however, a reminder that the record of Hindi cinema includes dissent as a form of national feeling, and the streaming details make them easy to revisit this week.
Source: Hindustan Times
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