Bollywood Fawna

Raja Andha Yug could not believe his eyes All these Bollywood biggies are so keen to make propaganda films about Great and Glorious Me and my Gormint he chortled dancing a little jigAnd perfectly timed just before the elections too All fine by the Model Code of Conduct Election Commission and Courts so far Badhaai ho Maharaj Guru Tamasoma chimed in We are not like that Mayawati putting our own statues everywhere with that tacky handbag We are supraBollywood royalty We expected Bollywood only to bend but it begged to be allowed to crawlThere is a spate of about 10 Bollywood films and web series with direct propaganda grandly praising you our party and gormint Or our patriotism or toilets Guruji laughed These are all voluntary propaganda films of course Nobody can ever prove that there is a gormint hand in it mdash unless he or she wants a sedition charge slapped on him Guruji continued stroking his moustache There is Aditya Dhars patriotic Uri The Surgical Strike in which the Indian army makes kheema of the Pakistani side and Vijay Guttes An Accidental Prime Minister starring Anupam Kher in which former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is made out to be a spineless wimp both released on January 11 Theres Hu Narender Modi Banva Mangu Chu in Gujarati on how Indias youth aspire to be like the prime minister Now theres even Mere Pyare Prime Minister in which a boy writes the prime minister a letter asking for a toilet in his slum and immediately a toilet magically materialises March 15 Last year there was already Toilet Ek Prem Katha and Pad Man in both of which Akshay Kumar directly plugged the gormints Swachh Bharat campaign Theres Sanjoy Nags forthcoming Good Morning Sunshine also on sanitation issues not so sure its about the gormint Now Eros is producing Umesh Shuklas Modi a 10part web series on the prime minister scheduled to release in April And both actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal and Vivek Oberoi have announced they are playing the prime minister in two separate biopics due out soon Evu chhe is that so Raja Andha Yug exclaimed as he and his courtiers held their sides and laughedVidhushak cautiously piped in An earlier generation of artistic filmmakers was more concerned with the sociopolitical economic and human implications of various issues For eg Shyam Benegal made Manthan on milk cooperatives Susman on weavers Mandi was a delightful satire on sex workers Samar powerfully critiqued the caste system Govind Nihalani made Aakrosh on the plight of the scheduled tribes Ketan Mehta made Mirch Masala on a womens rebellion against sexual exploitation None of them needed to kowtow to the prime minister or effusively praise the party in power or its policies But todays generation of filmmakers is competing to do hard core propagandaVidhushak scratched his head and mused Yeh sab theek hai but Im wondering what Bollywood will expect in return Baad mein ek bada bill bhejenge ya Censorpass certificate ya entertainment tax waiver maangenge Leni Riefenstahl had made Triumph of the Will Yeh toh hoga Triumph of the OverkillMeenakshi Shedde is South Asia Consultant to the Berlin Film Festival awardwinning critic curator to festivals worldwide and journalist Reach her at meenakshisheddegmailcomCatch up on all the latest Crime National International and Hatke news here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get the latest updates