Indian film has a very complicated relationship with China, reflecting India’s complicated relationship China.  To help understand it, in honor of this holiday, here is a nice story followed by 5 examples of not so great film moments.  Fun!

Post-Independence, at first, India and China were the best of friends.  They held economic summits and worked as partners, as the two largest unaligned Asian countries.  Well, heck, just the two largest Asian countries.  They had obvious alignments in interests, and Nehru worked hard to promote their friendship.

But then, things turned sour, and in 1962 it exploded in a border dispute that turned into the “Sino-Indian War”.  This was India’s first official armed conflict since Independence (I’m not counting whatever that Kashmir thing was, because that never turned into a “war” it just remained a “dispute”), and they lost.  It was very embarrassing.

The nice part of the story comes after the loss.  At the first Republic Day celebration post-war, everyone was feeling kind of down, and Kavi Pradeep decided to write a new song inspired by the sacrifice of the Indian soldiers during the war.  Lata Mangashkar, taking a break from her film jobs, was scheduled to sing it.  She arrived in Delhi at the last minute, and almost declined to sing it, since she didn’t even have time to rehearse.  But she went out and sang it anyway, and it apparently moved the entire crowd, including Nehru, to tears.  Afterwards, Nehru said “Those who don’t feel inspired by ‘Aye mere watan ke logo’ don’t deserve to be called a Hindustani”.  And the artists and composers pledged all royalties from the song, in perpetuity, be given to the War Widows Fund.  Lata still sings it at every concert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRv_ReNE8Fg

So, that’s a nice story!  Art used to sooth a nation’s wounds.  But sometimes, also, not so much.  Sometimes, it is more like art used to rub salt in the wound and keep it fresh.  Here are 5 fairly random examples of how the India-Chinese issue keeps coming up on film:

1. “Mere Naam Chin Chin Choo” actually came out before the Sino-Indian War, back when everyone was still friends.  And it was making fun of a popular British musical with a similar name, which really did make fun of the Chinese.  So actually, it’s more about making fun of the British making fun of the Chinese.  But to modern eyes, it is still a bit distasteful.  Although Helen (in her star-marking performance!) is still delightful.

2. Moving on, in 1969 we have Shatranj, in which Waheeda Rahman is kidnapped by an unnamed Asian communist regime, and then rescued by Rajendra Kumar (Memsaabstory has more details here).  But before she is rescued, we have this ridiculous and amazing song number!  Because of course, if you have Waheeda at your mercy, you will force her to do nightclub numbers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBk5A3c8CBc

3.  And then in 2003, my favorite, Kal Ho Na Ho re-purposes the “Chalo Chalo” patriotic song from Lagaan to make-over an Indian restaurant in New York in order to best their Chinese restaurant rivals across the street.  So, first, it is making fun of Lagaan‘s self-seriousness, which is always fun.  But also, it’s a great metaphor for the current state of Indian-Chinese rivalry, in which they are separated by a border (or street, in this case), and they are fighting for economic dominance in their shared region.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6pTMQpT414

4.  Although there are still some issues that burn a little stronger than economics, for instance the call for a free Tibet.  Which, arguably, is where this all started, when India gave sanctuary to the Dalai Lama in 1959, starting the end of their happy happy friendship that eventually led to war in 1962.  Imtiaz Ali hits this point pretty hard in the video for “Sadda Haq”, a song about revolution and freedom, which is filmed in Tibet and includes the Free Tibet flag in the background (this isn’t necessarily a reflection of the Indian stance on the issue, Imtiaz Ali has had a personal interest in it since he filmed “O Yara Rab Rus Jane De” from Socha Na Tha in the region back in 2005 and got to know the people).

5.  And then there’s always just plain racism, as seen in this kind of amazingly bad still from Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani.

(they’re in disguise)

So, Happy Chinese New Year!  Maybe don’t watch an Indian film to celebrate!