A mural of Bolllywood actor Amitabh Bachchan from his basic movie Deewar in Mumbai in 2012.
| Picture Credit score: AFP
The month of June 2024 was rife with information concerning the not too long ago launched Yash Raj movie manufacturing, Maharaj, directed by Siddharth Malhotra. In accordance with many critics it was one other badly made movie despite a power-packed efficiency by actor Jaideep Ahlawat. The movie, nonetheless, grabbed our eyeballs for 2 causes. One is that the movie, based mostly on a historic 1862 Maharaj libel case, was a criticism of blind religion. The protagonist Karshandas Mulji, performed by the debutant Jaunaid Khan, is a social reformer and journalist who challenged the spiritual conservatism of the godman, Maharaj, performed by Ahlawat. Secondly, the movie courted authorized and social controversy as a case of offence to non secular sentiment was filed within the Gujarat Excessive Court docket which ultimately dominated in favour of the movie.
India has been witness to many such circumstances in opposition to widespread movies coping with points associated to the dominant faith, that’s, Hinduism. One can rapidly recall a few of the movies that met with such upheavals, for instance PK (Raju Hirani, 2014) and OMG (Amit Rai, 2023). The cardinal query is whether or not widespread cinema has the area out there for humanistic and important relations with gods and godmen.
Hindu mythology in cinema
Many students of cinema reminiscent of Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Ravi Vasudevan, Aruna Vasudev, and Madhava Prasad have critically mentioned the locus standi of early cinema in India. Within the gentle of such dialogue, there dawns an understanding that humanised relationships with gods and godmen is just not new to cinema. Mythological tales had been central to silent cinema. Within the period of the the movie maker Dhundiraj Govind Phalke (1817-1944), popularly generally known as Dadasaheb Phalke, there have been movies reminiscent of Satyavan Savitri (1914), Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra (1917), and Kaliya Mardan (1919). These movies weren’t merely about devotional give up but in addition about people’ personalisation of faith and spirituality. The development continued even after cinema acquired sound after the primary talkie movie Alam Ara (1931). Vijay Bhatt’s well-known movie Ram Rajya (1943) additionally had Mahatma Gandhi within the viewers despite his reservations concerning the medium of cinema. Furthermore, there have been many movies that supplied criticism of dominant Hindu values. Franz Osten’s Achhut Kanya (1936) is at all times remembered as a historic milestone. The movie ridiculed the godmen who had been custodians of discriminatory Brahmanical values.
Chidananda Dasgupta, the movie critic and historian, who was a co-founder of the Calcutta Movie Society with the legendary movie maker and Oscar awardee Satyajit Ray, had written about cinema’s tryst with mythological gods. Although extra recognized for his translations of the works of Rabindranath Tagore, Manik Bandopadhyaya, and Jibananda Das, Dasgupta’s crucial studying of early cinema is critical. In his guide Seeing is Believing printed by Penguin he made the romance between early widespread Hindi cinema and Hindu mythology dramatically vivid. The tales of gods, goddesses, and monsters that Hindu believers had solely heard within the oral custom turned out there for visual-sensorial experiences within the first decade of recent cinema in India. Seeing gods alive on display screen meant that they had been out there for a relationship with mortals. The earthy mortals had been sure to use their social and cultural logic within the newly solid relationship with the divine. Perceived by way of the prism of human feelings, gods and goddesses turned out there for pleasant associations. Along with evoking devotion and give up, the gods additionally impressed people to boost questions and put the divine by way of uncanny trials in these mythological movies.
Thus Hindi cinema has persistently tried to free gods and spirituality from the clutches of godmen and dominant values even whereas restoring religion.
Crucial engagement
A movie scholar reminiscent of Rachel Dwyer has put many such movies underneath the label of Hindi socials. Such movies had been to not be anti-religious, however they do are inclined to set off a crucial engagement with spiritual notions. Two examples from the previous is price recalling. One was a movie directed by Kidar Nath Sharma based mostly on a well-known novel by the Hindi littérateur Bhagwati Charan Varma titled Chitralekha. The movie by the identical title was made twice by Sharma in 1941 and in 1964. The movie is a few courtesan Chitralekha and the religious guru Kumargiri. The latter seeks to free a prince named Beejgupt from the enchantment of the courtesan. The 1941 model had Miss Mehtab taking part in the function of Chitralekha whereas Meena Kumari essayed the identical function within the latter model. One other vital trivia concerning the 1941 model is that it met with objection from the Censor Board for a washing scene of the actress Mehtab. There was nonetheless no controversy relating to essentially the most essential depiction, that’s, the sexual downfall of the saintly religious guru, Kumargiri. The cinematic narrative unfolds a philosophical debate between the attractive courtesan and a morally upright saint. Conceding defeat, the courtesan follows the footprints of the guru and joins the trail of religious upliftment by way of penance. Nonetheless, the guru falls for Chitralekha and realises the weak spot of a dehumanising morality and different worldly spirituality.
The songs in each variations of Chitralekha offered a disarming criticism of dominant spiritual notions. Within the 1941 model, the playback singer Ramdulari sang a few of the most potent lyrics penned by Kidar Sharma, and composed by musician Jhande Khan who was skilled in Indian classical music. The title of the tune is self-explanatory, tum jao bade bhagwan bane (pretentious godliness, go away). Likewise, the 1964 model had innumerable songs penned by the legendary poet Sahir Ludhiyanvi sung by Lata Mangeshkar in opposition to the musical composition of Roshan. One of many songs derides the guru saying, sansar se bhage firte ho bhagwan ko tum kya paoge (what god will you discover, for, you might be on a run away from the world).
One other movie searching for to liberate god and godliness from the clutches of godmen and societal dominance is I. S. Johar directed Nastik (1954). A commercially profitable movie, Nastik had a tune sung by Kavi Pradeep to the tune of musician C. Ramachandran that summed up the temperament of the entire movie. The tune within the nasal voice of the singer can nonetheless be heard within the nooks and corners of India, which says dekh tere sansar ki halat kya ho bhagwan (see what your world has come to, God). The movie was set in opposition to the backdrop of the violence of Partition in India revealing the depth of social fissures. The protagonist Anil turns to atheism and is a sworn enemy of the priest, the custodian of spiritual virtues. The movie had an acrimonious relationship between the protagonist who’s an anti-hero and god.
Finally, seldom may one neglect a gem of widespread Hindi cinema directed by Yashraj Chopra in 1975, Deewar (The Wall). The quintessential indignant younger man named Vijay was essayed by Amitabh Bachchan. The movie depicted the India of the Seventies which was rife with social and political frustration that enabled the character of Vijay to take care of an uncommon relationship with god. He was an agnostic who had by no means entered a temple earlier than besides within the climax of the movie. That is an iconic scene that’s hitherto etched in collective reminiscence. Upon his mom’s accident, Vijay enters the temple to ship a crucial monologue in entrance of the idol of lord Shiva. It’s not blind religion which made a mortal character Vijay speak to Shiva. Each appeared to be in everlasting dialogue with one another. Within the relationship between Vijay and lord Shiva one acquired to see assorted feelings reminiscent of anger, concern, contempt, and most significantly, love and devotion.
Suffice to say that widespread cinema gives abounding social and cultural logic for engagement with spiritual concepts. With or with out protests, such relationships and engagements shall thrive.
Dev Nath Pathak is Affiliate Professor, Division of Sociology, South Asian College.
