Bollywood’s Hidden Agenda ?

Bollywood’s Hidden Agenda ?

Article By : Vishavjit Singh

I want to warn the readers at the outset, this article raises a lot of questions but offers few answers. But it is usually asking the right questions, which leads one to viable solutions than answering a load of questions that don’t quite hit the spot. My introduction to Bollywood, the busiest movie industry in the world, started at a very young age while growing up in capital city of New Delhi in India. This was before the arrival of twenty-four hour television. Television programs started in the early evening and concluded before midnight. Like a ritual every Sunday night, I along with my family, sat in front of the television watching a two to three hour long Bollywood melodrama.

Masses throughout India must have consumed hundreds of movies through this Sunday ritual. Once you have seen a few there is almost a sense that you have seen most of the Bollywood products. The movie plots seem similar with only the title being different. Most of the Bollywood scripts are part of a grand fantasy. What you see on the screen, mostly, is not an experience validated by life lived by the vast majority.

Almost all the courtships in the landscape of Bollywood were beyond the realm of arranged marriages, which has been the norm for ages. A marriage between the leading characters, one exuberantly rich and the other poor, is common on the screen but seldom seen in real life. Then there are those dance sequences with the movie stars changing into a bizarre medley of colorful clothes never seen worn by the average Indian.

Movies presenting the every day realities of life in India are rare and usually never survive for long if they ever make it to the big screen. So I along with millions consumed the weekly dose of trips to fantasy land and like most people realized these trips were a form of entertainment with little connection to real life events. Despite this wisdom, the movies do seem to leave traces of residue on the minds of spectators. These traces over the course of years affect our outlook on certain events, people and certain aspects of our own self.

Growing up as a young Sikh I was aware of what made me stand apart from my peers and at the same time so much that I shared in common with them. That is what I perceived to be the case in real life.

Sikhs portrayal in Bollywood is also a fantasy. There are no memorable Sikh roles at least none that I can remember. One thing that you realize immediately after watching a wide assortment of movies is the ubiquitous presence of the Punjabi musical notes or the bhangra melodies in many songs that are littered all over Bollywood productions. I remember these Punjabi melodies distinctly but did not ponder as to why it was the case until into my late teenage years.

After years of watching movies I learned about the pioneers of Bollywood film industry. They were Punjabis, mostly Hindu Punjabis. They were the financiers, the directors, the actors, the scriptwriters and others. It finally did make sense how various nuances of the Punjabi culture had trickled into the fantasy world of Bollywood.

The once in a while Sikh presence in Bollywood scripts also appeared to be a gift of the Punjabi dominance behind the camera. Early on I remember seeing a Sikh character making brief appearances as a gregarious friend or neighbor, truck driver or as a loud-mouthed savior ready to thwart any physical threat. Interestingly none of these characters were Sikhs in real life. It was easy to understand since most of the Sikhs characters were played by non-Sikh actors with a fake beard that almost screamed out at the viewers for its lack of authenticity.

Most of the Sikh characters made an appearance at lighter moments to make viewers break into laughter. It all seemed benign. My parents never raised a question and most other Sikhs I knew did the same. Everyone seemed to accept these characters and the roles they played.

As time stretched into years and then decades the Sikh character in Bollywood has maintained his monotonous self. Most of the Sikhs characters still pay a visit to sprinkle a touch of comedy on the big screen.

After high school I discovered the “more realistic” fantasy world of Hollywood and have since paid only brief visits to Bollywood. Nonetheless a few questions come to mind.

How did the pioneers of Bollywood view Sikhs in society? The Punjabis who started and nurtured the world of Bollywood share the common space of language, culture and geography with Sikhs spanning many generations into history. Their pasts intersect under the Mughal rule, the British rule and the struggle for independence that culminated into the fires of partition with over a million losing their lives. They have shared much since independence as well. Did the Punjabi pioneers view their Sikh neighbors only as uni-dimensional characters worthy only of sharing laughter and providing a comical edge to life?

How did the Punjabi pioneers of Bollywood view the hard working Sikh farmer, successful Sikh businessman, the literary Sikh tradition and most importantly the path of Sikhi as a life to live? This aspect of the Sikh existence barely made it to the big screen, and is almost non-existent today.

Over the last ten years the Sikh character in Bollywood has taken a new role. One finds Sikh male characters more often with patkas (under-turban) rather than turbans. This could be a reflection of isolated real life patterns but one wonders when and how does a Bollywood director decide to reflect the norms in society.

To add more insult to the Sikh character they are consistently portrayed as clumsy both in appearance and the nature of the role they play. One even finds actors donning Turbans, pretending to be Sikhs, without beards, dancing to the beats of the Punjabi drum. Even young boys are not spared as we saw in the movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

If this were not enough a new generation of Sikh character has surfaced that appear to genuinely belie innocence on part of the creators of the cinematic production. Mission Kashmir is one such movie. The movie based within the context of Kashmir conflict portrays a lone Sikh soldier, with a fake beard, among a group of Indian soldiers standing at the edge of a platform sitting on top of planted explosives. He is scared to jump off the platform for fear of igniting the explosives. At last he wets his pants and is assisted by the brave Indian hero to jump off the platform.

Whether this sequence is based on real life is irrelevant but one wonders why the choice of a Sikh soldier out of a group of soldiers despite the widely held opinion among the Indian masses of Sikh military prowess and countless Sikh lives lost in the struggle for Indian independence and wars India has fought with its neighbors since then.

For those who may be unaware, the Sikh Regiment is the highest distinguished regiment of the Indian army with 73 battle honors and 38 theatre honors. It was decorated the highest Battalion of Commonwealth with Naik Nand Singh awarded both the Victoria Cross and Mahavir Chakra. In post independent India the Sikh Regiment has won two Param Vir Chakras, two Ashok Chakras, two Param Vishisht Seva Medals, 14 Mahavir Chakras, 5 Kirti Chakras, one Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, 10 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, 64 Vir Chakras, 22 Shaurya Chakras, 104 Sena Medals and 31 Vishisht Seva Medals in a total of 1596 gallantry awards.1

Nearly 80 percent of sacrifices made during the Indian independence struggle came from Sikhs who constitute less than two percent of the population. A short list of the statistics is presented in the notes below. With all these facts available to them one wonders about the intentions of those who created the Mission Kashmir sequence.

Lately many Bollywood productions have been actively reflecting and projecting the confrontation between the good and the evil, the insider and the outsider. Shaheed Bhagat Singh was plucked out of history texts and became the subject of two recent Bollywood movies.

Bhagat Singh has been projected as the ultimate patriot rising up to die for his country. Interestingly a key aspect of his life was left out of both productions, Bhagat Singh re-embracing the Sikh path in the last days of his life before being executed under British rule.

His patriotism has been eulogized while his spiritual pursuits were completely side-stepped. This could be an innocent mistake but if comic books from twenty years ago were aware of this fact then one wonders about the research skills of some Bollywood scriptwriters and directors.

Fast forwarding to the current times leads us to the latest release directed by a rising big name in the Indian film making world, Deepa Mehta. Ms Mehta who hails from Amritsar and probably is no stranger to the Sikh community and our history. She too did not do justice in our recent release ‘Hollywood Bollywood’.

Another movie financed by a production company with offices in the UK and Bombay that has generated concern in Sikh circles is Larki Punjaban. This movie has not yet been released so not much can be said about its contents. The images that flash on the website does give one a reason to pause and reflect on the depth of acquaintance the director has with the Sikh community. One can dig out more Bollywood productions to explore the issue of Sikh characters. Overall a consistent theme emerges with these characters playing a peripheral role and that too with the specific need to provide a comical coating on Bollywood movies.

So what about the provocative title for this article, ‘Hidden Agenda’? Is there a vast conspiracy to malign the Sikh image? Probably not but there is a presence of what I like to call a ‘perceptual hidden agenda’. The Sikh image seems to be have been stereotyped and canned into a monotonous character that has been used time and again by a parade of Bollywood directors to provide a comical effect. The Sikh characterization is so distorted from its real life cousin making it virtually impossible for most Sikhs to identify with any Sikh characters projected by Bollywood.

Providing comical entertainment at the expense of a member of society is nothing new. It has been done all around the world in various theatrical and artistic productions. What stands out within the context of Sikhs in Bollywood is the almost exclusive and repeated use of Sikh characters for comical entertainment without a balancing portrayal of the dynamic Sikh personality in real life. What makes it even more amazing is the perpetuation of this narrow characterization by none other than Punjabis who should be better acquainted with Sikhs as a community than any other group in India.

One can write long articles, present academic analyses and even pursue doctoral theses attempting to answer some of the questions raised in the article. This investigation besides providing answers might also raise more questions.

In the final analysis any viable solution and response to the Sikh portrayal in Bollywood will require Sikhs getting behind the camera and ‘real life’ Sikhs getting in front of the camera. We will need to play the role of a director, a producer, a scriptwriter, an editor and everything else that is necessary in making a good movie.

Movies need to be made that not only glorify our achievements but also provoke Sikh audiences into moments of introspection of realities that confront us. There is much we need to learn and share with others.

Bollywood might still continue with its old and shallow characterization of Sikhs. But Sikhs behind and in front of the camera can give audiences worldwide a more realistic portrayal of our life and culture.