Christmas, cinema and the Christian stereotype |
New Delhi: As we celebrate Christmas today, it’s worth reflecting on how Bollywood has portrayed the Christian community over the decades ‒ a journey marked by loads of stereotypes and an occasional sensitivity.
Gone are the days when Christian characters were confined to predictable boxes. For decades, the Hindi film industry’s imagination seemed limited with its portrayal of the community by representing it through drunkards, vamps, secretaries with questionable morals, gangsters and their molls. Unlike Muslim characters who enjoyed more nuanced portrayals as friendly neighbours, Christians were trapped in caricatures.
Who can forget Pran dancing with liquor bottles, lip-syncing to a catchy Kishore-Kumar song, Phir na kehna Michael daaru peeke danga karta hai from Majboor (1974)?
The legendary villain Ajit’s ‘Mona Darling’, ‘Lily, don’t be silly’, or henchmen named Tony and Peter became defining tropes. These Mona-Darlings with their plunging necklines and secretaries portrayed as intellectually-challenged or morally-compromised became the unfortunate face of the community on screen.
However, there were exceptions. Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s tough-but-good-hearted Mrs D’Sa, played by Lalita Pawar in Anari (1959), became an iconic character, but inadvertently set a linguistic template that would be mimicked for years. The heavily-accented ‘what-men?’ English and ‘kya maangta men?’ Hindi became shorthand for every Christian character that followed.
Manmohan Desai’s Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) marked a watershed moment. For perhaps the first time, a minority character was projected as a hero. Anthony Gonsalves, played by Amitabh Bachchan, achieved cult status. The Kishore-Kumar song My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves remains etched in Indian cinema history, even if the character was somewhat lumpen.
In a way, it seemed to salvage, albeit a little, the damages caused by stereotypes in some mainstream biggies that came before it. While Raj Kapoor’s Bobby (1973) gave the Christian girl heroine status, Dimple Kapadia’s carefree bikini romps as Bobby and her father’s penchant for drinking reinforced other stereotypes. Similarly, in Mera Naam Joker (1970), the teacher Miss Mary (Simi Garewal), responsible for an adolescent’s........