While the latter makes for more cinematic escapism, the former is where Roy establishes himself as one of the leading voices of post-independence cinema. The theme of mixed-class romance is common in Indian cinema, but rarely do these stories focus on the critique of class structure over the triumph of romance.

Sometimes these distinctions are not of cultural diversity but of class inequality, as displayed in Bimal Roy’s debut film Udayer Pathey (1944).

This second precondition is representative of the fact that India is a collection of diverse people, cultures, and religious beliefs – unified by way of survival from imperialism, but never homogenized. With that in mind, here are some recommendations made with two guiding principles: these selections are not currently available on any other streaming service, so watching them on the NFDC site is your only chance for now and secondly, they deal with Indian culture from personal perspectives of its people and their social relationships, rather than as a vision of nationalism. While the movies deal with themes of independence and patriotism, they represent a wide interpretation of those terms, both socially and politically. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has migrated its Indian Independence Day Film Festival online, offering international viewers dozens of classic and obscure Indian films available to stream for free, most with English subtitles.

Movie independence day free online