Face the Nation: Terror films promote bias

Many films in recent times have tried to explore the issue of fundamentalism and terrorism with different types of stories.

Mumbai Meri Jaan—based on the 2006 Mumbai train blasts—had actors who looked like ordinary Mumbaikars and spoke like people one normally meets during the course of a day. The characters wore no make-up and the film had no song and dance sequences.

Similarly, Mission Istanbul and Hijack were based on the real life IC-814 hijack incident. The movies heavily relied on pyro-techniques and loud drama, and exploited the stereotypes.

Last year’s superhit Bheja Fry, hailed as new-league cinema, set a more disturbing example. A Muslim character in this film openly supports Pakistan in a cricket match. Many said the film exploited Muslim stereotype in a negative manner.

That begs the question, do Bollywood films move beyond the stereotypes or do they only contribute to existing prejudices in our society? CNN-IBN’s show Face the Nation raised that question.

On the panel of experts to debate the issue were actor Aamir Bashir, who played the role of police officer Jai Pratap Singh in A Wednesday; Pavan Malhotra, who played the role of Tiger Memon in Black Friday; S Hussain Zaidi, author of Black Friday; and Meenakshi Shedde, film critic.

Who imitates whom

At the start of the show, 70 per cent of viewers felt that cinema did indeed promote violence and prejudice and only 30 per cent begged to differ.

Many filmgoers wonder why films like the acclaimed A Wednesday strike a chord with the audiences and at the same time, other films lose out to audience.

Aamir Bashir felt that the film reflected an existing sentiment in the society today. “It is the sign of the times. I do not think A Wednesday promotes prejudice in any way. It only reflects the prejudice that already exists in our society,” he said.

But for many, the idea that a common man must take up arms and take law into his own hands is chilling and disturbing. Is it okay for films to promote these kinds of ideas to people?

Chilling messages and the need to moderate

Meenakshi Shedde said A Wednesday was well crafted as a thriller, but admitted she was extremely disturbed by the message. She said she would have agreed if the film’s argument fitted well.

But the idea of citizens wanting to free terrorists, who have already been caught only so that they (the people) can kill with their own hands, is chilling. Even as an internal logic, that is not justified.

Shedde felt that the same thing was very subtly done in Mumbai Meri Jaan.

Do not read too much into a film

Aamir Bashir felt that the role of cinema is apolitical, asexual and not at all as omnipotent as being analysed by the panel.

Mumbai Meri Jaan, he said, was pitched as a “middle-of-the-road” kind of film, while A Wednesday was an out-and-out commercial film — perhaps the reason why the latter did better commercially.

Black Friday, a film more in a documentary format, carefully avoided the fictional blockbuster style.

Zaidi felt that the film was critically acclaimed but got a discouraging commercial appreciation. “If only the director had budged a little towards the commercial format, it would have been a commercial success,” he said.

“All these three films cannot be similar,” said Malhotra. “In films like A Wednesday let us not put it like the protagonist is saying that hey guys, just go out there and bump them off,” Zaidi added.

“Maybe there is a layer beyond the façade of impotent anger even in A Wednesday and there is a lot of frustration. The film did commercially well, so now we call it a commercial film,” he argued, defending the format.

The egg or the hen first debate

There is this eternal debate of whether life imitates art or does art imitate life. But if one compares Hindi films with its Hollywood counterpart, then there is a clear divide in styles of tackling real-life subjects of sensitive nature.

Hollywood consciously avoids films of commercial nature on tragedies like 9/11. The ones that are made adopt documentary format. Is it necessary to show sensitivity and toe the line of the US film industry or should the Indian films depict terrorism in its blockbuster format, is an oft-debated question.

“Not at all!” said Meenakshi. “It is a free country and everyone is entitled to make films in any format as he wants,” said Meenakshi.

Frog in the pond attitude

But she lamented that in a population of one billion people, not one filmmaker in our country has thought of looking at the global scenario post 9/11 and making a film about that.

She pointed out that on the contrary, a Pakistani filmmaker could bring up a Khuda Ke Liye with a storyline spanning three continents.

Discerning and sophisticated audience

Meenakshi argued films do not affect life as negatively as we imagine. If that were the case, then post Rang De Basanti, in which there was a clear call to go out there and take the law into one’s own hands, there would have been a surge in that kind of violence.

Instead, the discerning audience sifted through the stuff whipped up by the films, said Meenakshi.

She pointed out that the audience was sophisticated, which is why it imitated the ‘candlelight vigil’ or Gandigiri ideas promoted by films to extract desired end effects.

Prisoner of stereotypes

But the fact is that the Muslim is a prisoner of stereotypes in Hindi films. There are shades of white and black and no shades of grey. There is a good Muslim and a bad Muslim.

If there is a Muslim terrorist, there is a good Muslim cop who bumps him off. In films like Chak De too, the Muslim has to prove his patriotism and commitment to the country’s victory against Pakistan.

Is there still a problem in depicting the Muslim as a complex character?

Zaidi felt that Shah Rukh Khan’s character in Chak De did have shades of grey.

“It was not clear if he lost the match deliberately or whatever,” he said.

Characters can be just Muslim and not necessarily tend to either side of the extremes, he felt.

Bashir, however, disagreed with Zaidi on the subject of portrayal, as there is a certain amount of tokenism involved.

“In our films there is a stereotyping of Muslims and the bad Muslim is counter balanced by a good Muslim,” said Bashir and added that while working in A Wednesday he did feel a little uncomfortable. “But when you are an actor, you keep your politics aside, for you have to enact the role you have agreed to do,” said Bashir.

Why is there so much of violence? Is violence necessary for commercial success?

”Neither Bheja Fry nor Chak De depicted violence. None of these films said ‘let us go and kill people,’” Pawan Malhotra pointed out.

“Yes there was a bias in these films but different filmmakers have different approaches to their films. And yes, it was the responsibility of filmmakers to not send out wrong messages,” said Malhotra.

So as Meenakshi Shedde had pointed out, the audience was smart and sophisticated enough to know what it wants to pick out to take home from the film.

SMS/Web poll Results: Is cinema promoting prejudice and violence?

Yes: 76 per cent

No: 24 per cent

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