Bajrangi Bhaijaan- prompted critique on an intersectional movie. PDF

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Extra Credit opportunity that arises in class mid-semester, as students are required to watch a movie pertaining class topics. This can be a good guideline for extra credit....

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Bajrangi Bhaijaan: a prompted critique. As an avid (and observant) watchdog of Bollywood cinema, it is no surprise that within the category of Bollywood movies that have been created to express common public sentiments, Bajrangi Bhaijaan makes a remarkable attempt to capture the Indo-Pak version of it. The movie stars two protagonists (Pawan and Munni/Shahida) who, hand-in-hand and by constructs of the plot—as intended by the movie’s creators— defy the jingoism and religious fundamentalism that exists between Pakistan and India. So much so that these abstract ideas of hatred are the only antagonists in reality for the viewer and all characters practicing these are mere vessels. In simpler words, the movie does not try to give you someone to hate, rather, traces the caricature of what deserves a viewer’s disgust: the communalization that exists in post-colonial Indian/Pakistani societies. More on the communalization, almost all aspects of Bajrangi Bhaijaan seem to speak to one thing or another. Pawan in the movie, portrayed by Salman Khan, appears as a character that’s highly emotive and self-reflexive, and most of his sentimentality is more or less a by-product of his devout worship of the Bajrang deity. At this point, it is obvious to see the importance placed in religion throughout the sub-continent, and it more so acts as a primer to when the plot for Bajrangi Bhaijaan thickens. That is, Pawan’s temperateness (which, be reminded, is from his God-fearingness taught through a Hinduism approach) is put to test when he encounters Shahida (a mute 6-yr old) and has to shoulder the responsibility of helping her reach home. Here lies a conundrum for Pawan, but in real life and for us, an astounding idea: a devout Hindu from India and a Pakistani Muslim girl—as long as the lines of identity are masked (owing to Shahida’s physical muteness), there is nothing that separates the urge to act with basic human decency for either. This speaks volumes for how the two independent nation-states have had an anti-each-other policy intact after separation when in reality for anyone who tries to implement such a policy, there is a dire lack of separatist elements. As the movie catches on, inadvertent reactions from Shahida point towards her choice of destination home: Pakistan. These include moments when she leans towards the sight of Mosques, and a particular scene where her joy for Pakistan’s victory over India’s (in a cricket game) is blatant; this scene, mind the reader, is not something specific to the cinematic context. This intriguing scene is one that is household in the real world, where thousands of Shahidas and even more Pawans sit around with their eyes stuck to a screen: Pakistan vs. India in modern day cricket is the most watched derby. In retrospect, what is more interesting is that the game of cricket brought to Indian shores by the British now unites the two nations against each other, when at one point in history, the game united Indians (and ancestors of what are now modern-day Pakistanis) within a united sub-continent. There are further hints of the great possibility of an underlying harmony amidst the extremely ideologically-driven Indian/Pakistani societies: a hint in the imam’s efforts to

conceal Pawan in a burka to help him get through a rather tricky part of his journey, and perhaps our greatest hint is the deus ex machina journalist, Chand Nawab, whose mere existence highlights the role of media in post-colonial Indian/Pakistani societies. Where modern-day media thrives off of the hate-spewing narratives between both nations, Chand Nawab is the other end of this spectrum, who shows by example what great impact looks like, in terms of uniting both, Pakistan and India. Conclusively, as Munni (Shahida) returns home we not only see through the border scene the hyperbole that “no barrier is strong enough to hold the people’s will for too long”1, but more importantly, Shahida’s regain of her lost voice draws parallels with the ideas that the valley of Kashmir is surely vast enough to be shared between both nations, and then more importantly, the lost voice itself, is the will to do so, and more—from the masses that witness each other’s humanness.

1 https://www.huffingtonpost.in/murtaza-ali-khan/bajrangi-bhaijaan-an-earn_b_7821256.html

Bibliography:  

Bajrangi Bhaijaan, An Earnest Review, Murtaza Ali Khan. https://www.amazon.com/Bajrangi-Bhaijaan-Kabir-Khan/dp/B073WLFCTW (Bajrangi Bhaijaan, The Movie)...