How Indian Cinema Has Become a Patriotism Test |
Indian cinema has morphed from entertainment into a potent vehicle for a new kind of “patriotism.” What’s changed is not the existence of controversy around movies — that has always been there — but the way controversy itself now acts as a litmus test of loyalty. Appreciation or criticism of a movie is no longer interpreted primarily as an aesthetic or ethical judgment; it has increasingly become a marker of allegiance or opposition to the state — more precisely, to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the center.
The recent debate around the movie “Dhurandhar” (Stalwart) captures this shift. “Dhurandhar’s” story unfolds in Pakistan and its main characters are Pakistanis. The film is about an Indian spy who infiltrates the gang of Rehman Dakait, a powerful Baloch warlord ruling the Pakistani port city of Karachi. Through this deep-cover mission, he successfully dismantles the ISI-underworld nexus, effectively destroying the terror and criminal infrastructure within Pakistan.
The movie shows that the muscular foreign policy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, combined with National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s strategic approach of neutralizing enemies on their own soil, has made the Indian counter-terrorism approach more successful.
Bollywood made films with an India-Pakistan storyline in the past as well. But earlier, the main patriotic theme focused on the sacrifice and bravery of Indian soldiers, in which Muslim and Sikh characters were mandatory.
Then, in the early 2000s, amid the triumphalism over India’s victory in the Kargil War, came war movies like “Border” and “LOC: Kargil,” where a very subtly patriotic trend started drifting into an anti-Muslim narrative.
More recently, movies have turned overtly Islamophobic. In this regard, “The Kashmir Files” on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir in 1989-90, was a trend-setter. Following the success of this movie, others followed, including “The Kerala Story,” “The Bengal Files,” and “Udaipur Files.” But........