Aye Mere Pyaare Watan

The vision Indian People's Theatre Association offered to Indian cinema continues to remain timeless-a commitment to art that invigorates citizens towards social betterment

- Apeksha Priyadarshini

WHAT do the social disillusionment of Guru Dutt, the ache of Partition and collective loss in Ritwik Ghatak and the foundational political consciousness of Salil Chowdhury have in common? Their umbilical cord to a movement that radically transformed the history of Indian cinema.

The stark disparities between the haves and the have-nots would not sear the screen as poignant poetry, if not for Abrar Alvi's writing and Sahir Ludhianvi's lyrics in Pyaasa (1957). Nita's (Supriya Chowdhury) angst would not have echoed the uprooting and homelessness of thousands during Bengal's Partition, if not for Ghatak's cinematic exposition of trauma and the moving score composed by Jyotirindra Moitra for Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960). “Aye Mere Pyaare Watan” from Hemen Gupta’s Kabuliwala (1961), pictured on the longing of an Afghan dry fruit seller for his land and people, would not go on to evoke patriotic fervour for times to come, if not for the yearning notes from Chowdhury.

As the birth centenaries of these three stalwarts coincide with hundred years of the Left movement in 2025, this is an opportune moment to look back at the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), which gave Indian cinema artists, whose work cemented what is now popularly called the “golden age” of the film industry.

Born in 1943, amidst the roused spirits of the anti-colonial movement in India and the global turmoil of World War II, the roots of IPTA’s inception lay in the Progressive Writers’ Association, which emerged during the 1930s in an attempt to foreground literature that was socio-politically conscious and contributed to the ongoing political struggle against the British.