Hindutvanisation of Indian cinema

This article is not about the story of the film ‘Mission Majnu.’ Instead, it talks about the RSS-backed filmmakers who are perpetuating Islamophobia to promote overblown nationalism at the cost of truth

Get, set, action. The camera zooms into the face of Sidharth Malhotra, who is offering prayers in a mosque with other people. After finishing their prayers, everyone  starts shaking hands with each other. The mosque is decorated with Pakistani flags and somewhere I could see plain green flags too, while namazis are still shaking hands in the background. Wearing kohl, a skull cap, a checkered muffler and oily face, Sidharth Malhotra, on the other hand, greets his fellows and follows two clerics to ask them for a job. He looks unkempt as if he has not taken a shower for years. That is how  Pakistanis are shown in Indian movies.

I would not delve deeper into the story as how weak the plot was, from showing a green tomb as a nuclear house where Pakistan is secretly and ‘illegally’ making a nuclear bomb to giving totally wrong and misleading information throughout the film. But I would request the readers to show sympathy as I am among those who have wasted their more than two hours of life in watching this absolute non-sense flick, which is  a complete bag of garbage like any other Indian film made in the name of nationalism or aimed at ‘unveiling the truth,’ particularly about Muslims.

It is true that the films, regardless in which country they are made in, tend to shape a mindset and have a strong impact on viewers. In like manner, storytelling is a tricky task as it leaves an impression on viewers. In this modern age and time when people  are traveling to the Moon, India has not come out of their cocoon even in 2023 and are still hell-bent on portraying Pakistanis as a barbaric nation, filthy-looking terrorists and the underworld goons, while Arabs are shown as rich sheikhs dealing in oil and money, and nothing else. Nevertheless, Indian filmmakers are second to none when it comes to generalising Muslims as some third-class citizens, and why would they not? India is a country which has a shameful caste-based social order, divided into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The last-mentioned are tainted by their birth and thus are treated with disdain and disgust.

With over 13 percent Muslim population, India has the largest number of Muslims than any other country in the world. Having being home to such a large number of minority populations, India is a backward state, when it comes to treating its  minorities. Moreover, the portrayal of Muslims, especially the Muslims of Pakistan, in Indian film is so unreal that the directors and producers resort to depicting Muslim characters with a caricaturist look. Their obsession with projecting Muslims with their eyes outlined with kohl (kajal), along with an oily face and hair, checkered muffler and amulet (taweez) is totally unfathomable.

If we look back, India has a proven track record of producing propaganda-based films to support overblown nationalism, as shown in the films Ghulam-E-Mustafa, Fanaa, Agent Vinod and the litany goes on. It suggests the fact that the Indian film industry  could only excel in making propaganda in the guise of creativity, especially when it comes to portraying Muslims in general and Pakistanis in particular.

In marked contrast, India has had an impeccable record of being the most hate-driven nation that revels in perpetuating Islamophobia and goes an extra mile to create an anti-Muslim narrative by employing all the mainstream media outlets.

Growing up watching Indian cinema, I have realised that India, by itself, is an Islamophobic country and there is not even an inch of secularism followed in the Hindu-majority land. The film Mission Majnu is the latest example that makes the world laugh at Bollywood as well as its myopic thinking. There is no denying that being one of the biggest film industries, Bollywood has an audience in every nook and corner of the world and thus Indian films enjoy a global reach.

Art is a form of expression where one has to let one’s imagination free and use an unbiased approach to express and bring forth the true meaning of the narrative, rather than making it complex and factually incorrect. As Rancho, a famous character from the film 3 Idiots which was, performed by Aamir Khan, says, ‘Even a circus lion learns to sit on a chair in fear of the whip. But you call such a lion well-trained not well-educated.’ This line exactly implies on the BJP government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the entire state machinery is supporting such directors, playwrights, screen writers and producers who are well-trained and know to behave on the whip aof Narendra Modi. However, it is time to become a well-educated lot, bring forth some intelligent content and interesting reality-based stories, in place of  making movies just to please the Indian government as well as the country’s keyboard warriors.

As things currently stand, the Indian cinema has a number of films that revolve around Muslim Nawabs and Mughals. However, the film narrative has changed as shown in recent films such as Padmaavat (2018) and Panipat (2019) where Indian filmmakers  tried to change the history by portraying Muslims as losers, villains and evil figures and Hindus as conquerors, thus falling short on facts and history.

Pakistan’s latest web series Sevak, directed by Anjum Shehzad and written by Saji Gul, is an effort to erradicate the wrong facts and portray the true image of Pakistan in the world. It speaks of Pakistan’s truth when it comes to incidents like Mumbai attacks and Babri Mosque incisent. The series is that one example where nothing is forced, be it its characters, depiction, locations, and be it the portrayal of its characters. Everything seemed original and natural as Sevak was a well-researched production. Although India has banned the series in the country, but it has made waves across the world. The overall representation of Muslims in Indian films has gone from worse to worst and the anti-Muslim narrative, mobilised by the RSS and BJP activists in the 90s, especially after 9/11 seems to go unabated.

Shame on the continuous Hindutvanisation of Indian cinema because they are playing the role of a catalyt in sabotaging the image of Pakistan in the world. The rising wave of hatred against Muslims has increased in the recent years and has now reached at its peak.

In a word, I would not recommend readers to watch Mission Majnu. Or else, the film can only be watched as merely a comedy thriller to laugh at the top of your lungs, listen to its hilarious Urdu translation by Netflix India and to make fun of everything that is hysterical as well as ridiculously unfathomable. The decision is all yours.