inTerFerOn.13

A must read fantastic review of the propaganda #Dhurandhar2 from today's @the_hindu. Zero sugarcoating. No hold barred. Quoting the best part from the article - "The language increasingly descends into the gutter, and the motive seems to justify the government’s controversial policy decisions, such as demonetisation. An example of storytelling embedded in a political manifesto, the film’s heart beats for the right side of the political ecosystem. This time it serves like a mouthpiece of the ruling regime even more unabashedly by deliberately confusing Indians with Hindus, blurring the line between Pakistani and Indian Muslims, and painting the Opposition and non-governmental organisations as if they are in cahoots with the neighbour’s terror network. However, towards the end, when the makers tell us that we have our agents functioning in Pakistan’s political setup for more than 40 years, it goes against their own ‘chai-wallah’ narrative of mythical proportions. Faithfully reproducing the ruling establishment’s playbook on security, nationalism, and enemies, the film lionises aggressive counter-terror operations, surgical strikes, and dismantling of terror networks — framing them as moral necessities. More importantly, it tends to commodify national grief from terror attacks into entertainment while reinforcing divisive binaries. While entertaining and rooted in documented events, it risks simplifying complex geopolitics into black-and-white jingoism. The sequence of events works like a documentation of the claims on ‘New India’ made in political speeches where Indian intelligence agencies conduct covert operations in foreign countries and law enforcement agencies indulge in extra-judicial killings. It gives the thrill of what-if to a mass that seeks validation for its voting choices in cinema halls and wants to see the dramatisation of the manufactured rage of social media as big-screen entertainment..... Dhurandhar 2 roars, but in its deafening cocktail of patriotism and propaganda, it forgets the quiet cost of humanity, leaving little space for reflection." In a country of 1.4 billion diverse people, we deserve stories that heal, not ones that weaponize grief and religion for monetary benefits. In the 2004 Black Friday movie Kay Kay Menon told a communal Muslim man "Usne tumko ch*tya banaya, kyunki tum ch*tye ho, aur bante rahoge. Har woh aadmi jiske paas kuch nahi hai karne ko, dharam ke naam par ch*tya banta rahega." And I'm not a Ch*tya! That's all!

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