<aside> đź’ˇ Ishika Mukerji
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In most Bollywood movies, it's safe to say that minority regions are represented stereotypically in terms of their culture or lifestyle. Bollywood manipulates the portrayal of these minority regions according to a commercial preference. Kashmir, being a disputed territory, is a significant example of how a minority region is heavily stereotyped in Bollywood. In mainstream Bollywood cinema, the portrayal of Kashmir is limited to either a touristic or a terroristic lens, nothing in between. The use of these lenses and how they switch accordingly from the decade before the Kashmir Insurgency, the decade after, and current decade can be explored through movies such as Junglee, Roja, and Haider.
Looking at Bollywood's depiction of Kashmir through a touristic lens, Kashmir's scenic background was typically used in the past as a catalyst for romance, providing an escapist visual treat for audiences. Until 1988, filmmakers would not look past the valleys and mountains in Kashmir. Films like Junglee can be used as an example of this touristic and stereotypical portrayal. Junglee details the love story of a young Indian man, Shekhar (Shammi Kapoor) and a Kashmiri woman, Rajkumar (Saira Banu), where the scenic beauty of Kashmir helps to encourage their love regardless of their different socio-economic backgrounds. An interesting point to notice is the fact that Rajkumari is a Kashmiri woman, and thus a representation of Kashmir, who falls in love with a man outside of Kashmir,eventually leaving the country with him. Shekhar is a “tourist” who is able to stake a claim over Kashmir and by taking Rajkumari away with him he essentially represents the colonization of the state. He sees her as a form of beauty, just like how Kashmir is only seen for its beauty. This concept promotes the idea that although India acknowledges the beauty of Kashmir, it subsides to stereotypes and fails to respect them and their culture. All the songs in the movie were shot in different locations of Kashmir, capturing its picturesque aspects. The authentic Kashmiri culture and lifestyle are not depicted, and the only place where Kashmir culture is seen is in the song "Yeh Chand Sa Roshan Chehra." The song includes Kashmiri people in the background dressed in traditional Kashmiri clothes. Mukherjee uses the people as props to make the background seem more cultural. This gives the audience a false and stereotypical representation of Kashmir. Apart from a local written into the main storyline, the most local representation to be depicted would be in the form of shikara owners, house help, or tourist guides.The movie leaves the audience with the notion that Kashmir is a picturesque scenery where lovers blossom. This depiction of Kashmir is seen in various other films and lasted up till the 1980s. Directors left most Bollywood viewers dreaming of Kashmir as this fantasy land as Bollywood depicted it as, an escape from the urban reality.
In 1988, the depiction of Kashmir in Bollywood changed drastically from a touristic lens to a terroristic lens due to the Kashmir insurgency. The first depiction of the terroristic lens is seen in Mani Ratnam's Roja in 1992. The 1990s saw some of the most violent times in the region's history, and this was translated into Bollywood to bring the Indian army's patriotism into the light. To show this, filmmakers chose to look at the region through a nationalistic point of view and solely associated Kashmir in a one-sided manner as a dangerous region full of terrorists. The film focuses solely on the terrorists and the Indian army or Indian characters, we barely see the local's representation. With Roja, we see cinematographer Santosh Sivan, using steadicam (handheld camera) shots and AR Rahman's eerie music at every point where terrorism is being carried out. This gives the audience a personal upfront experience with the terrorist, enhancing their perception and feelings. However, with any acts to do with the protagonist played by Arvind Swamy or Indian characters, only wide angle shots are used. By heightening the terrorists' visuals, the audience receives more of a dangerous and frightening vibe, which is usually associated with a story's villain, to which they now will associate with Kashmir. In Nirajana's "Integrating Whose Nation? Tourists and Terrorists in Roja" she points out that along with this terroristic representation, there were hardly any ordinary Kashmiris seen in the film except for a newspaper boy and some people selling souvenirs . The film also shows two fantasy song sequences; we see Kashmiri women and children dressed in elaborate costumes, reiterating the stereotypical representation of culture, and all other Kashmiris as male militants. In these same romantic song sequences, Ratnam brings back the pre-1988 depiction of Kashmir with the snow-capped mountains in the song "Yeh Haseen Vaadiyan Yeh Khoola Asman." It is likely that he uses these scenes in order to represent the loss of the beautiful Kashmir scenery that India used to see in Bollywood. Tourists can no longer visit Kashmir as a place of stunning natural beauty, and the land has been made inaccessible due to it being a war ridden zone (Tejeswini 2). Through all these aspects, Ratnam shies away from representing the reality of violence and traumatic experiences that are felt by the local Kashmir citizens and villages as a result of the Insurgence. Bollywood's audience has no idea what is truly happening in Kashmir apart from the fact that the Indian army is patriotic and that Kashmir is a dangerous place where every other person might be a terrorist.
Over the years, Bollywood's representation of Kashmir has slightly changed from these two extreme lenses. It has broadened up to encapsulate the brutal reality the local Kashmiri people face on a day to day basis. In 2014, Bollywood released Haider, a movie based in Kashmir during the Insurgency period. It's about a young man, Haider (Shahid Kapoor), who returns to Kashmir at the peak of the conflict to seek answers about his father's disappearance ,and ends up being tugged into the state's politics. The film is based in Kashmir and shows the local Kashmiri lives and how they are affected by the insurgency. The male protagonists in these films are Kashmiri Muslims and, due to their cultural proximity to Pakistan, are posed as a dangerous cultural threat to India. Vishal Bharadwaj gives the audience a realistic picture of the political and societal tensions occurring in the region and how the locals are being affected. At the same time, he gives the audience an inside look and an accurate representation of local Kashmiris' culture and life; the audience can now identify that Kashmiris aren't all terrorists and aren't always dressed in extravagant clothing as shown in the past. Bharadwaj leaves no gap when it comes to the gruesomeness of the situation and the raw emotions. He stays away from the rivalry between Pakistan and India. He focuses on the human rights abuses in the state by portraying the gory abuse and torture of locals and the illegal detention camps. The film has multiple scenes where locals gather to protest against the Indian army and fight for their missing family members who have been detained by the army illegally. The film also shows the exposure of kids to militant activities from a very young age. They are so used to the daily violence that the protagonists who play local characters show very subtle reactions to any sequence that involves upfront brutal killing. As a viewer, we expect a more traumatizing reaction; I myself jumped and was shocked. The characters’ slight reactions suggest that death is so common in their daily life that they fail to be shocked by it anymore. They are living on the edge of death every second of the day, that they are unbothered by death itself. This is seen through Haider's mother Ghazala (Tabu), who is in an inescapable position where she is forced to witness murder and deterioration of her family, which is this is the case with most of the residents. The film highlights these struggles of the Kashmiri people and brings into light of the Indian Army’s wrong doings. The film received a lot of political backlashes and had angered Hindu nationalists for not adequately portraying the Indian armed forces; however, if this film were to be shot in a terrorist lens, this backlash would not occur; the nation doesn't want to face the truth. Bharadwaj ends the film off with a powerful scene where Haider is about to kill his uncle, which is his motive for most of the movie, but instead battles his inner thoughts of seeing revenge or not seeking revenge as he remembers his mother saying revenge does nothing but create more violence. As Haider chooses not to go through with the path of violence, the film leaves off with a message that violence only creates more violence. It is suggested that Bharadwaj uses this message and directs it towards Kashmir's situation where revenge killing may be prominent. This is the first time a director respects Kashmir's people, not just its abstract qualities like shown in the past, and produces a socially responsible message in the hope of positive impact. (Pandey).
Junglee, Roja, and Haider all clearly depict the different stereotypical lenses in which Kashmir is shown in Bollywood cinema with the pre-Insurgency decade using the tourist lens, the decade following the Insurgency using the terroristic lens, and finally the current decade using a realistic lens, departing away from the two stereotypical lenses. Though this progression is seen in the representation of Kashmir, the stereotyping of minority regions is still heavily prominent even in many commercial films. Although progressive effort is being taken regarding representation, based on box office records it seems that the audience enjoys stereotypical movies as opposed to reality, which may be why directors tend to stick to that route. Bollywood continues stereotyping not just regions, but race, religion, and gender as well; it all boils down to commercial enterprise trying to make money and producing content that aligns with the interests of the audience even if that means putting down the minorities. Still, there are those few filmmakers who wish to create content to bring unspoken issues into light and promote social change, but these are the films that receive criticism; the nation's ego gets hurt when they get called out on their issues.
Bharadwaj, Vishal, director. Haider, 2014.
Mukerji, Subodh, director. Junglee, 1961.
Niranjana, Tejaswini. “Integrating Whose Nation? Tourists and Terrorists in Roja.” Economic and Political Weekly, 15 Jan. 1994.
Pandey, Vikas. “Haider: Why Is 'Indian Hamlet' Controversial?” BBC News, BBC, 7 Oct. 2014, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-29502393.
Ratnam, Mani, director. Roja, 1992.