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worry not, it’s a typical Bollywood love story with slight stereotyping of Gujaratis and poor portrayal of a woman’s agency within marriage. To add, I am no fan of Varun Dhawan nor Janhavi Kapoor, rather I have disliked many of their movies. Yet, this piece is intended to defend their recently released movie ‘Bawaal’ amidst all the hue and cry around the allegations
of trivialising holocaust.
If anything, the biggest outrage should have come from the fans and followers of a highly prominent political personality of India. Because the entire 1st hour indicates how a person without any real knowledge, experience, capability or willingness has created an exaggerated but fake image of his achievements through ‘Mahaul’ (show and pompous). The lead is unable to produce any satisfactory output but tirelessly tries everything to maintain his image.
Coming back to the complaints of normalising Hitler’s cruelties or not giving due considerations to sufferings and anguish of Jews. I totally understand and respect the disgust of Jews’ organisations but the same courtesy should not be extended to Indian puritans. Are you even aware of the knowledge, opinions and inclinations of the common people of India regarding Hitler, holocaust or second world war in general? ‘Mein Kampf’ is one of the biggest sellers in India. There is a huge-huge Indian population which reveres if not idolises Hitler. I have friends belonging to the best institutions of the nation, using ‘Hitler’ as a gaming-name in all sincerity. And I am not even referring to idea of strict and disciplined person as ‘Hitler’ in common parlance.
The lead first looks for beer and shacks in the Normandy beach with utter disrespect to the place. Later, his friend asks, “what does Anne Frank look like”? This is actually the reality of India. During the Israel- Palestine conflict of 2022, many Indians were supporting and celebrating Israel’s attack/counterattack on social media, while having DPs of Hitler. This is how much they know, and puritans want to give them ‘undiluted’ and appropriate history lessons. Please arrange days of ‘pure’ and sensitive classes for the WhatsApp graduates. I am sure they will sit through.
The sentence, “We all too are a little like Hitler, aren’t we?” have garnered ample hate. First of all, see the context where ‘greed’ and ‘tendency to acquire that of others, even when you have something beautiful’ has been questioned. Does it remind you of another more infamous Indian villain, Ravana? We always say that there is always a little ‘Ravana’ or ‘Duryodhana’ inside each one of us. The controversial statement comes from that part of Indian culture and mindset. Vijayadashmi has always portrayed the idea of killing inner Ravana but only for him to resurrect again. We have created enough movies, books and series where their stories have been shown in parallel for similarities. It is not a matter of history or mythology but what is dominant in people’s psyche. Same can be said for comparing a troubled marriage with Auschwitz when drawing analogies with ‘war of the Mahabharat’, ‘Vanvas’ or ‘cheerharan’ etc. are so common.
Indians have an obsession with autocrats, dictators and powerful men and that’s why Hitler is a consumer friendly material. But despite using the premise of World War-II, Bawaal doesn’t portray any humane or acceptable side of Hitler. When a big chunk of us are becoming more and more racist and intolerant, how can we wait for the best and most appropriate Indianised version of any European incident. Till then will we not even allow small dosages of diluted herbs? Further, if you want every disturbing, biased and insulting movie from OTT platforms to be removed, then you frankly haven’t seen Indian (including Tollywood, Kollywood etc.) movies available there.
During my visit to Berlin and Amsterdam, I cried multiple times. Tears rolled even while watching some scenes of Bawaal. In any European or American article, it is impossible to see Hitler’s name even twice unlike this Indian one. We are not ashamed of him, but we must detest him in every form, belief and ideology and for that Bawaal is a positive step. Indians must also know, despite our love for him now, how much he actually detested Indians, including Netaji and Gandhiji.
Watch ‘Udham Singh’ for the Jalianwala Bagh massacre or ‘Rang De Basanti’ for similar analogies, but expecting the same treatment for battles fought in Europe by Bollywood movies is asking too much. I don’t think it is a movie to be taught in History classes, nor a classic romance. But it has to be tolerated if not promoted because it is a commendable effort to show the Indian audience in simple language, the horrors which are only present in a few pages of Indian text books.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint.