Indian Cinema and Communalism

INDIAN CINEMA AND COMMUNAL POLITICS “Pictures can and do make a difference. Strong images of historical events do have an impact on society. They can help with change.” -Charles Moore

Indian Cinema or Bollywood produces over 750 films a year, released across 12,000 theatres in the country. Popular for its tear-jerking plots, colourful and exotic locations and beautifully choreographed dance sequences, Indian Cinema has a long and illustrious history. Apart from family-oriented movies of the 1900’s, movies on historical events, biographies and pressing national issues have taken the centre-stage today. These movies paint a vivid picture of India, from its multiplicity of cultures to religions. But, the religion factor has caused many issues over a particular community’s portrayal and stereotypical attitudes associated with them. Communalism has been shown in Indian movies throughout ages. Most of the time, these films do not seek to hurt communal sentiments, but at the end, they somehow manage to do so. Recently, there was a huge uproar against the release of Kamal Hassan’s Vishwaroopam. Legal controversies regarding the film's portrayal of Islamism arose as several Muslim extremist groups protested the film's release in Tamil Nadu, resulting in an official ban being imposed on the film in the state for 15 days by the Madras High Court. The ban resulted in similar decisions being made in Sri Lanka and Malaysia while release was delayed in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka. Often in Indian films, terrorists are projected as Muslim fundamentalists.
Anurag Kashyap directed the film ‘Black Friday’ to tell the story of and unearth some of the truth behind the 1993 Bombay blasts. The blasts were a response to the carnage and rapes committed by fundamentalist Hindus in Bombay. The movie did not go into the atrocities committed by the Hindus in nearly as much detail as it did towards the Muslim actions. In fact, most of the detail that was given about the crimes committed by Hindus was given in the film through conversation. In the case of the Muslims, there were very gruesome and detestable scenes. There were also very graphic scenes where Muslims were caught and interrogated in prison. At the end, it does not leave a good impression on viewers about Islam or its followers. A more directly stereotypical and almost surreal movie depicting Muslims is Manish Jha's ‘Anwar’. The movie is artistically put together and tells about Anwar, a young Muslim man, after being betrayed by his lover and best friend. Seeking refuge, he ends up in an abandoned Hindu temple one rainy night. The following day he is greeted by an angry mob of Hindus shouting, "Terrorists! Terrorists! They want to destroy the heritage of our country!" There is a political leader with a loud speaker who is egging on the crowd, claiming that he is doing his patriotic duty as a politician, Indian, and Hindu. Without knowing anything about the inhabitants of the temple, he is quick to announce, "[they] have barged into the temple with intentions of destroying it. [They are] conspiring against us." Feeding into stereotypes there are people questioning if he is a terrorist, or if it is Osama Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein hiding in the temple.
In 2005, ‘Sins’ starring Shiney Ahuja was met by city-wide protests in Mumbai as it portrayed a Catholic priest having a love affair with a woman half his age. The president of one of Mumbai's main Catholic organisations, Dolphy D'Souza, says the portrayal of an ordained priest as a man of loose moral character has hurt the religious sentiments of India's Catholic community. Not all movies however, project communities in a stereotypical manner. Some movies have, as they should, spread awareness among the viewers. A good example of this can be found in Farhan Akhtar's film Lakshya starring Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Preity Zinta. The film is based on the 1999 Kargil Conflict where Pakistani troops invade the Indian territory of Kashmir. There is a scene that takes place after the Indian army learns of the Kashmir infiltration and has breached the Kashmir camps. One of the officers in the Indian army is a Muslim. After killing all the Muslim Kashmiris, he answers a call from the Kashmiri leader to one of his men. After the leader realizes that the Indian officer is Muslim he questions him, "Are you a Muslim?”. The officer responds, "To you, I am Indian." A true Muslim would not denounce his/her faith for any circumstance.
Aparna Sen’s movie ‘Mr. & Mrs. Iyer’, set against the backdrop of the Gujarat Riots of 2002, tells the story of Meenakshi, a Tamil, Brahmin-Hindu girl travelling in a bus with fellow passenger Raja Chowdhry. The bus is attacked by Hindu fundamentalists, during which Meenakshi, in order to save Raja who she learns is a Muslim, tells the attackers that Raja is her husband. The movie follows her transformation from a prejudiced woman to a more open minded individual, having understood that religion is no basis for differentiating between people. When films are created, they are not made completely with the intention of spreading a message, but also to make money. Everything depicted in a film--actors, morals, plots, locations, music, etc.--is geared toward a specific market so as to make the highest earnings. India is still predominantly Hindu and if a film is meant to be most successful it has to cater to this demographic. Thus, movie makers maintain the loyalty of their viewers. Films are indeed the representation of the society as well as the politics of a country and in many cases used as a tool for manipulating the minds of people, especially in India where more than half of the population is uneducated and Hindu. Many a times, fundamentalist political groups seize opportunities such as uproar against communal portrayal in movies to expand their ideas of intolerance towards other religions and deepen the gulf even further. As long as communalism exists in the world, it will exist in cinema; after all, cinema portrays the truth. But movie makers should realize the repercussions of their stories even though they do not intend to maim a particular community’s status. Religion is a very sensitive topic and therefore should be dealt with extreme care, especially now, that India cannot afford to have a communal war like the Gujarat riots again.