The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : `Hindi cinema is patronising in its portrayal of minorities'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 24, 2007
ePaper


<SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> </SCRIPT> <NOSCRIPT> <A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?"> <IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N4322.hinduonline/B2155503.3;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=468x60;ord=[timestamp]?" BORDER=0 WIDTH=468 HEIGHT=60 ALT="Click Here"></A> </NOSCRIPT>

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

`Hindi cinema is patronising in its portrayal of minorities'

Staff Reporter

Shyam Benegal

Bangalore: "I could not have made Zubeida three decades ago," noted filmmaker Shyam Benegal said, indicating that cinema had come a long way from its "duty-bound sanitised portrayal of Indian reality."

Speaking at the National Institute on Advanced Studies on "Indian cinema and secularism" here on Tuesday, Mr. Benegal said cinema in India was finally able to confidently represent the contemporary Muslim experience. The subject of partition was captured realistically for the first time with M.S. Sathyu's "Garam Hawa" in the 1970s, catalysed by the new wave of Indian cinema, he said.

The germination of film in India in the 1920s coincided with the era when nationalism captured the popular imagination .

However, there was also simultaneously the invention of a culture that glossed over the reality of India.

People were turned into unidentifiable two-dimensional characters, placed in a world of make-believe, he added.

Speaking of "motifs" of secularism in Indian cinema, such as the "image of a Hindu and Muslim depicted as twins" seen in cinema both pre and post-Independence, Mr. Benegal said Hindi cinema in its representation of minorities was at best patronising.

Speaking of the "jingiosm" in many contemporary popular films, Mr. Benegal pointed out that patriotism even today was portrayed as the exclusive preserve of the Hindu community.

Filmmakers must not be unconscious of the impact of their films which was an agent of social change and a reflection of society.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka