The use of a movie that highlights the plight of a community to target another is not a pleasant experience.
Editorial Board
It is good news for Hindi cinema — which has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic for close to two years — and for filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and his team that The Kashmir Files (2022) has turned out to be a massive hit. Made on a modest budget of Rs14 crore, the film has collected more than Rs175 crore nett, and counting, at the box office. The Rs200 crore mark is in sight, perhaps even Rs300 crore.
Yet, this news is not an unqualified blessing. The reservation stems from the manifest attempt by a political party to flog the film for its own ends, going to the extent of booking entire shows in bulk across the country and distributing tickets free to not just its workers but also the public at large.
This is a strange place for Hindi cinema to find itself in. While it is definitely not the first time the industry has promoted a political thought, it is certainly the first time it has been used to create a sense of foreboding and division in the population.
It wasn't so long ago that we heard it said frequently that two things unite Indians above all else — cinema and cricket. Cricket was damaged a quarter century ago when the match-fixing scandal erupted. And while the game has survived and even thrived since, turning into a multi-billion-dollar enterprise, all the money in the world cannot conceal the fact that it is no longer a religion for its followers, some of whom can barely conceal their bigotry.
Cinema, at least the Hindi version, now finds itself at a similar crossroads. In fact, it has been headed here for some time now. Remember the concerted campaign to try and cancel artistes of a particular community with all manner of dubious claims and personal attacks? A campaign, incidentally, that continues in the wake of The Kashmir Files.
Movies have been used for propaganda many times in India as elsewhere, sometimes to good effect, many a time hamhandedly. And they have been the target of censorship too, mostly hamhanded. But they have not often been used to drive a wedge between communities. That is a new experience, and not a pleasant one.
The least the film's team could have done, in view of its claim that it simply wanted to highlight 'truths', was to disown the hate being spewed in its wake. No one has, at least till the time of writing. Then, perhaps, we are simply being naive. After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune. And it's no secret any more who is paying.
Related topics
Indian cinema
