Kritika Kamra’s character in Anubhav Sinha’s upcoming Bheed remarks that migrant labourers in India walking back to their home states in the country amidst strict Covid restrictions reminded her of the Indian Partition of 1947, which witnessed a macabre dance of death as lakhs of displaced villagers trickled from the other side to this part.
While the statement should evoke anger in a rational mind, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the ridiculousness of the nonsensical equivalence. It took me back to the moment when Telugu actress, on the eve of the release of her Naxal glorifying film Virata Parvam, had equated the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in the hands of terrorists indoctrinated and funded by Pakistan’s Islamic radicalism to freak incidents of cow lynching!
While reams of newsprint can be spent explaining how silly both these remarks were, we leave it to readers’ understanding to deconstruct the attack behind penning the noxious lines in the movie. Funnily, though Bheed is touting itself as the saga of a man speaking in favour of humanity as against politics and other societal malaises during India’s darkest hour of the pandemic but the propaganda propelled to malign the Narendra Modi Government is just too evident even in a 2:40 trailer.
At this point, the barbs don’t hurt, and they tickle you with the realisation of how desperate the Left cabal is for a regime change to suit their vicious agenda. Pankaj Kapur loosely refers to India now being a ‘collective of chhote chhote’ states and Dia Mirza, the darling of the woke liberals, sobbing over a phone, “They are shutting down the borders of the states!” are just some of the jokes being uttered.
How easily the actors reiterate the continuous thought of Rahul Gandhi that India is nothing but a ‘union of states’ even as the film casts multi fold insinuations on the prime minister and his government’s decision to enforce a lockdown on March 24, 2020 (the release date has obviously been kept as March 24 to mark the moment of gloom) to tackle the spread of coronavirus in the country.
At this point, deliberating on the details of this cinematic hitjob against the BJP Government in the Centre would seem tiring simply because pointing out the flaws in the script might result in a laundry list. Where does one begin and end! There’s ample evidence out there that the indignance of one community hiked up the spread of the virus in New Delhi but Anubhav Sinha ensures their wrong is whitewashed and the members of the Tablighi Jamaat are presented as kind souls who distribute food to ravenous children on the move!
The trailer is filled with hilarious one-liners if you please. As if to invoke in viewers a sense of disgust for PM Modi, who didn’t care about poor labourers when the country was facing an unprecedented medical calamity.
I doubt Sinha, like a balanced filmmaker ought to, shows that the Centre was already distributing free ration (consisting of rice, pulses, wheat and sugar to BPL card holders) when the Maharashtra Government (then headed by Uddhav Thackeray) announced that his government is not responsible for the migrant labourers as he is only bound to take care of residents of the state.
This decision resulted in a domino effect where non-BJP states followed suit discriminating against migrant labourers. With the states refusing to take care of their basic food requirements, and with no work to ensure payment, the poor labourers were left with no option but to trudge back to their home villages. How ardent was the desire (it still is) of opposing political leaders to gang up and bring down the Modi Government that working together to help people didn’t stand a chance there!
The despondent situation resulted in illnesses, starvation and deaths of labourers even as the police tried to check that Covid restrictions were adhered to. Strangely, the montages in the film harps on constables beating up poor men as they cross over temporary borders (No one is wearing a mask by the way!).
There are sufficient triggers to make the audience feel how Modi converted India into a heartless land devoid of justice or empathy where people were driven out of their temporary homes (jahaan rehte thhe woh ghar to apna thhaa hi nahin). With nothing to soothe their dreary hearts and empty stomachs, they were at the receiving end of atrocities hurled by a cruel leader heading a country rife with caste and gender disparities (Bhumi Pednekar even launches a tirade against women in India not even getting adequate menstrual hygiene care).
And here we were feeling upbeat about the Indian economy bouncing back merrily after the ruling government’s deft handling of the pandemic scenario, a situation no country in the world was prepared for! Why employ a soft power like cinema to inform people about the reality when it can be used to mal-influence masses with lopsided narratives, right? Remember Mulk where Sinha turned a terror apologist brandishing liberal dosage of monkey balancing. Or Article 15, a murder mystery that magnified caste conundrums of the country without any semblance of causality?
At this point, deliberating on the details of this cinematic hitjob against the BJP Government in the Centre would seem tiring simply because pointing out the flaws in the script might result in a laundry list. Where does one begin and end! But just for a start here’s one tiny detail that’s utterly amusing.
There’s ample evidence out there that the indignance of one community hiked up the spread of the virus in New Delhi but Sinha ensures their wrong is whitewashed and the members of the Tablighi Jamaat are presented as kind souls who distribute food to ravenous children on the move! Well, no one is expecting sense from Bollywood anymore but if distorted cinema could win electoral votes at least the industry and its pseudo intellectuals are making a last ditch attempt! Till pigs can fly that is!
Sharmi Adhikary is a senior lifestyle journalist and columnist with a yen for exploring interesting concepts in fashion, culture and cinema.
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
- Sharmi Adhikaryhttps://organiser.org/guest-author/sharmi-adhikary/
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