Media In India/elsewhere

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Fanaa: Aamir Khan tries to justify separatists in Kashmir?
From Aditya Pradhan in Mumbai

IF Gujarat has opposed the Hindi movie Fanaa, it has got good reasons. First, let us analyse the movie before we get into the issue of protest. The protagonist in the movie Aamir Khan unapologetically defends jehadi terrorism. It makes you wonder if Dawood gang has started to influence the mainstream Hindi movies also. In these heady days of secularism when anything in favour of the minority community is considered fashionable in the English-elite class of people, the new propaganda from Bollywood should not appear disturbing. But when you watch a movie in a run-down theatre like Mehul in suburban Mumbai, the people’s reaction during the movie has to be seen to be believed.

First of all, the press conference, where many of the Bollywood bigwigs were herded to address the issue of the movie ban in Gujarat, was admittedly organised because Aamir Khan did not find much support for his tomfoolery in the Narmada issue, and the media had highlighted it. Even after the conference, other than the usual suspects like Mahesh Bhatt, there was no one in Bollywood ready to give his or her sound bytes on the ban. The stars were ready the next morning with their clarification which undid all that they said during the press conference. Aamir Khan, when asked about the trickle of support from his peers, said, “It doesn’t matter if anyone is with me. But I will speak for issues that I think are right.” Well, god be with him.

The story of the movie is about a jehadi masquerading as a tourist guide in Delhi. The first half of Fanaa is essentially slapstick with some embarrassing moments of a cameo making faces at the camera, just like Dada Khondke. A few street-side shayaris by Aamir Khan are supposed to be so endearing to heroine Kajol (who is blind and whose affability is infectious even to the viewers) that she falls in love with him. Well, for a Bollywood movie, it is par for the course. But in the midst of these sweet nothings Aamir Khan even calls the blind girl dumb. Don’t know how many blind people would love to be called dumb. Calling names seems to be quite an in-thing around the Red Fort.

If you had believed Aamir Khan for his perfectionism, this movie will liberate you. A jehadi in Kashmir gets into the identity of an Indian Army officer who has been killed by Aamir Khan’s terrorist group. But the imposter Aamir Khan is not recognised by even his colleagues whom he later goes on to kill in mid-air on a helicopter.

The idea behind the movie is evidently insidious, trying to make a case for Kashmir’s ‘freedom struggle’. Aamir Khan never gives up his jehadi cause till the end even when he is shot dead by his wife Kajol. When Kajol finds out that he is trying to smuggle a nuclear trigger for his terrorist group, Aamir Khan tells her that the trigger is only to force India and Pakistan to come to the negotiating table—as if India has been averse to negotiations. Aamir Khan should read newspapers instead of griping of their coverage of events.

There are several such fatuous events and scenes in the movie like Kajol’s eye operation where she is reeled out of the operation theatre and moments later she opens her eyes in broad daylight. Aamir Khan is hurt grievously after being shot several times when escaping the Indian Army but even without a doctor he recovers at the hands of Kajol and her father Rishi Kapoor.

But the most stark moment that viewers loudly jeered is when Aamir Khan walks into the life of his paramour Kajol six years after break-up but Kajol is unable to recognise him or his voice. Aamir and Kajol in the beginning of the movie are shown in intimate scenes going on city tours around Delhi. She even brings up their child though Aamir and Kajol did not get married after all the shayari-filled courtship. When he meets Kajol after six years he even stays with her for days on the end but till he reveals his identity she never realises that her lost love is her midst. Aamir Khan, who is known to meddle with everything on the sets to make his films perfect, and sometimes would even change the script of the movie, seems to be unaware of the fact that blind people have better sensory abilities than ordinary people. He should see Al Pacino starring Hollywood movie Scent of a Woman which is today considered inspiringly perfect movie on vision-impaired people. As the name of the movie suggests the rest of the sensory abilities of the blind are extremely powerful.

Tabu, an officer in the anti-terrorist wing in the government, is projected as Musharraf’s spokesperson trying to justify the ‘freedom struggle’ in Kashmir. The idea behind the movie is evidently insidious, trying to make a case for Kashmir’s ‘freedom struggle’. Aamir Khan never gives up his jehadi cause till the end even when he is shot dead by his wife Kajol. When Kajol finds out that he is trying to smuggle a nuclear trigger for his terrorist group, Aamir Khan tells her that the trigger is only to force India and Pakistan to come to the negotiating table—as if India has been averse to negotiations. Aamir Khan should read newspapers instead of griping their coverage of events.

And in a scene of the rescue by the anti-terrorist wing, Tabu takes a day to reach Kajol (in Kashmir) who is hounded by Aamir Khan. Tabu is based in Kashmir and Kajol’s location was given to the anti-terrorist squad. Is the movie trying to prove that the anti-terrorist operations are inefficient?

When the protests on the movie were doing its rounds the film’s crew and stars made a case that Fanaa was not just about Aamir Khan. The movie has several other actors and technicians whose future was at peril because of the ban in Gujarat. Which, in essence, meant that they did not subscribe to Aamir Khan’s views on the dam and hence should not be bracketed with him. One wonders why BJP did not seek banning Fanaa all over the country when the theme was unambiguously anti-national.