There’s a very interesting observation drawing out of the elevated conflicts between the admirers and critics of the film Dhurandhar. Its more far fetched than just the movie and the political affiliations it reflects. For those unfamiliar with the conflict, the Indian left is criticizing the movie for being misogynistic and apparently ‘spreading hate’ while the right is applauding it for its super realistic approach. Dhurandhar is the story of an Indian spy who infiltrates the Pakistani terror bases and has to survive terribly harsh circumstances. Unlike the other ‘spy genre movies’ released in India before this, Dhurandhar does no romanticizing of the journey of the spy, does not attempt to showcase Pakistan in a softer light or peddle the leftist agenda.
What’s evident from this conflict over Dhurandhar?
Self-loathing content has been fed to us Indians through many channels through decades now. Schools, media, academic material, whatnot. We are made to innately believe that colonizers who looted and r*ped us for centuries did us more good than bad, invaders weren’t really invaders but nurturers of art, western ways of life are better than ours and India is mostly a backward country.
Now, India does have a lot of problems and has miles to go before we can call ourselves a developed nation; but in the last decade, we have been unlearning the self-loathing and feeling free to embrace the good things that this country has to offer. Because after all, India has a LOT of good things and the bad things here aren’t really MUCH different from the bad things in ANY other country. There are problems everywhere in the world including the most developed nations. But India has come a long way in a very few decades since her independence and no anti-national can deny the steadfastness that this country has shown against the OLYMPIC number of odds.
And now, the youth is turning more and more towards the ‘nationalist’ ideology that encourages them (us) to wear our Indian identity on the sleeve, stand up to criticizers and call them out on their hypocrisy and not be overly apologetic about our flaws. Social media has a balance of information that favours both sides of the narrative, unlike mainstream media and textbooks that peddled a unidimensional agenda and gave the common man no chance.
This naturally ruffles a lot of feathers, especially the ones that thrive on the belittled identity of Indians because they’ve read a few extra (Russian ideology) books, travelled a few extra countries and firmly believe that every other place is better than India. More importantly, they believe that the majoritarian religion – Hinduism – deserves to be simply criticized. The BJP government being the ruling government at the center further rattles them. This unlearning of the self-loathing by the Indian youth is making them VERY uncomfortable. The positive response that Dhurandhar has been getting from Indian youth validates that they are no longer controlled or manipulated by narratives. Its such a wonderful development, one that we all must get on board with.
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Ōm Ityangeekrutih!
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