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Remember Mrs. D’sa, the very talkative but soft-hearted landlady in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Anari (1959). The film is a unique example of a beautiful relationship between Raj Kumar (Raj Kapoor) the hero and his landlady, who he nurses and looks after in her dying days.
Today, we see Christians and Anglo-Indians no longer as cameo performers but as characters in a film set within their ethnic backdrop. Two examples are Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black (2005) and Guzaarish (2010). Guzaarish is said to be a celluloid improvisation of a real life, wheelchair-bound paraplegic, Ethan Mascarenhas in the film portrayed by Hrithik Roshan. These films are set within the Christian ethos. Black is set in Shimla and revolves around the lives of the McNallys. But Devraj Sahai, the alcoholic recluse who steps into the family, is Hindu. Basu Chatterjee presented entertainment through single ethnic groups in Khatta Meetha (1977) and Baaton Baaton Mein (1979.) Khatta Meetha portrayed the Parsee community very well through two families joined in marriage with grown-up children coping with the sudden change through the sudden crash that overtakes them. Baaton Baaton Mein deals with the problem of a girl earning more than her would-be spouse within a Christian setting. The films explored middle class values with simple characters and a straightforward narrative embellished with beautiful songs. Being Cyrus (2006), directed by Homi Adajania, however, portrays the Parsees as dysfunctional, shrewish, villainous, alcoholic or crazy. It was promoted as a psychological murder mystery but its totally negative connotations did not do any good to the representation of the Parsee in Indian cinema.
A wonderful cocktail of several ethnic Indian groups presented in recent times was Rima Kagti’s Honeymoon Special Private Limited. Sikhs have been represented mainly through and in historical fiction films such as the Shaheed Bhagat Singh series and Gadar, where a single Sikh takes on the entire Pakistani army. Sunny Deol and Dharmendra should be credited for keeping the Sikh flag aloft while Akshay Kumar has paid an entertaining tribute to the Sikhs in Singh is Kinng (2008), where every male character is a turbaned Sikh. Early mainstream films hardly touched upon communal conflicts. Filmmakers are afraid that sensitive issues like communal conflicts would raise the hackles of the Central Board for Film Certification. This absence of violence between communities also reflects the secular sensibilities of people within Bollywood, where marriages between different communities are as much an integral part of real life as it is a part of the work structure and the system.
Harmony remained the bottom line so far as communalism between and among people was concerned. Earlier films like V. Shantaram’s Padosi (Shejari in Marathi) focussed on a harmonious relationship between two neighbours, one a Hindu and the other, a Muslim. The religious minority in India was often portrayed as a token presence with positive shades, introduced as an important character in the script. Significant among these are — the Muslim who brings up the illegitimate boy in B. R. Chopra’s Dhool Ka Phool (1960) and the Muslim taxi driver in Vijay Anand’s Guide. A Muslim social which spoke of romance and heartbreak such as Chaudhvin Ka Chand, Barsaat Ki Raat, Ghazal, Mere Mehboob, Pakeeza, etc. or historicals like Mughal-e-Azam, Jodha-Akbar, Anarkali and Mirza Ghalib did not threaten the status quo. A film which spoke of change did. A classic example is the controverse Mani Ratnam’s Bombay raised. Seemin Hasan, who teaches English at Aligarh Muslim University, says, "The projection of Muslims as uneducated, misguided and ruthless communalists reflects anxieties. Such images (beginning with Wasim Khan’s character in Mani Ratnam’s Roja as an example) as uneducated, misguided and ruthless communalists reflects anxieties. Such images were also projected in films like L.O.C. Kargil (2003) and Mission Kashmir (2000.) The Muslim identity is trapped in the image of the terrorist. The last decade of the 20th century signals an important departure as a new stereotype of the Muslim is born — as a ruthless stranger with an anti-nationalist agenda."
Firaaq, directed by Nandita Das, is an insightful and incisive analysis of the impact of the Gujarat carnage on members of either community whose lives change forever. Nandita paints a powerful portrait of the identity problems of victims of communal riots. She exposes the underbelly of a city, which is on the verge of moral and physical collapse where, Hindu or Muslim, some minds and many bodies are damaged forever. The final close-up of the orphaned little Muslim boy’s face who looks into the camera with the innocence of a child, not aware that his parents have died in the carnage, and makes you feel reflective at this collective pain and torture of fellow-humans, as a member of an audience belonging to the majority to watch a film that records their suffering.
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