This refers to Vanita Kohli-Khandekar’s ‘Cinema: The mirror of India’ (October 27). It touches upon a largely uncharted area. With commercial success having become the key criteria in filmmaking in India, and the absence of the so-called parallel cinema, who has the time or the money to discuss the issue of communalism?
One can understand that it is difficult to compress the whole gamut of films that have dealt with this subject into an article. Therefore certain films have found no mention. Take Maachis, made by Gulzar in the late 1990s, a decade after the Sikh separatist movement had subsided. The film delved into the circumstances that led ordinary people to become terrorists. Likewise, Deepa Mehta’s Earth depicted the trauma of partition, from the eyes of the Muslim protagonist played by Aamir Khan. He was so enraged at the sight of the killings of Muslim women that he betrayed the Hindu woman he loved. Aamir, who plays a Kashmiri ‘freedom fighter’ in Fanaa refuses to sing ‘Jana Gana Mana’. Then there was Parzania based on Gujarat riots, which portrayed the agony of a Parsi family caught in Hindu-Muslim crossfire.
Film-makers have tried to be politically correct in their depiction of communal issues. They have played safe because, as Vanita Kohli-Khandekar rightly argues, society at large has not been open to discussions of sensitive issues. We continue to enjoy the make-belief world that we have created for ourselves. An honest discussion on the divide that plagues our society will no doubt open old wounds. But that would also be the salve that can heal our psyche.
Saurabh Sinha, Bhilai
