ABSTRACT
This chapter utilises thoughts of critics such as Saranindranath Tagore and Giuseppe Flora to address representations of the “nationalist patriot” in two cinematic adaptations of Tagore’s novels: Satyajit Ray’s Ghare Baire/The Home and the World (1984) and Bappaditya Bandopadhyay’s Elar Char Adhyay (2012). It argues that corrupt nationalist patriots like Sandip in Ghare Baire and Indranath in Elar Char Adhyay (based on Tagore’s Char Adhyay), with their nationalist nesha (addiction) and constant idolisation of the nation, represent a form of nationalism that only helped to kill a country’s “atman”/soul to bring the country to life. The films register their protests against such lopsided nationalism that causes self-adulation in the name of serving the nation.
