Mr Modi and his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party are expected to return to power for the third time in a row, riding on an alarming centralisation of power, and an increasingly institutionalised practice of bare-knuckle majoritarianism that goes by the name of ‘Hindutva’. Popular cinema is seen to have become a bedfellow to this aspiration.
https://thewire.in/the-arts/red-alert-how-cinema-helps-the-modi-myth
Their names reveal their intent. The Vaccine War, Article 370, Bastar – The Naxal Story, Swatantrya Veer Savarkar, JNU: Jahangir National University, and The Sabarmati Report, slated for an August release. No wonder, the proliferation of this kind of cinema has attracted eyeballs.
The world, while watching India closely, stumbled upon what India was watching. And what India was found watching was a series of loud, humdrum, low-budget, dyed-in-the-wool propaganda films. The regularity of their appearance, and their unmissable scheduling and template have provoked a couple of observations in the global media.
13/05/2024