Cinemagoers have been going gaga over the recent Bollywood release “Pathaan” featuring Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, and John Abraham. While innocent fans are enjoying this film as just a film, intellectuals like us know that the film is blatant propaganda to promote the nationalist rhetoric of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
If you are still unaware, Narendra Modi came to power in India in 2014 riding a wave of jingoism, he ensured the wave lasted long enough to get him a win even in 2019. Looking at films like Pathaan, one can sense that jingoism still sells so Modi may also win the next election in 2024.
Now, Pathaan and jingoism, where do we begin, first of all, ‘Pathaan’, that is Shah Rukh Khan, is an agent of the Indian secret services. Showing a Muslim actor, named Pathaan, as an agent of India is an attack against the Muslim minorities in India. Why did he have to be Pathaan, why did he have to be Muslim even though his backstory says he wasn’t Muslim. This clearly stated that Muslims in India have to work for the Indian government to be considered Indians. Shame on Shah Rukh Khan for doing such a film.
The real jingoism actually begins later, the villain, named Jim, who was the best RAW agent before turning rogue, says that he wants to take revenge on ‘Bharat Mata’, which is totally understandable. After all, who among us doesn’t want to attack India and that proverbial ‘Bharat Mata’.
However, the jingoist hero of Pathaan, Shah Rukh Khan, who is conveniently named Pathaan, tries to stop that. Kyun bhai? A former Indian agent wants to destroy India, who are you to interfere with that plan?
John Abraham repeatedly keeps saying that he wants to hurt ‘Bharat Mata’, so trying to hurt India is villainous? Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan protecting India from John Abraham is somehow good, arey bhai you are pathaan, afghan, Taliban rule, let India collapse.
That is not all, the villain keeps saying I want to hurt Bharat Mata throughout the film, and the ‘hero’ Pathaan aka Shah Rukh says ‘Jai Hind’. We all know saying Jai Hind is an assault against minorities, but Shah Rukh Khan willingly chose to say that.
On top of that, the film has an ISI agent who helps India, Deepika Padukone. Why are ISI agents helping India in every Bollywood film? Pakistan is the one country helping us resist fascism in India but these films actually try to portray that Pakistan is actually helping India’s fascist leadership, shameful.
What this tells us is that we can not rely on Bollywood to resist fascism, they will always succumb to the majority sentiment, with Pathaan, they have said that attacking India is wrong, which is jingoism and extreme nationalism, and at some level, transphobic.
*This report is written by Arfa Nizami of The Tyre
