The attack on famous filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali regarding his movie ‘Padmavati’ brings forth a disconcerting fear ingrained in our society and reminds us of barbaric times, or rather what we know about those times. However, this is not the lone incident which has triggered the apprehension, as such attacks are now a regular phenomenon. Meanwhile, actor Sushant Singh Rajput removed his surname ‘Rajput’ from his Twitter account and said that: “We would suffer until the time we’re obsessed with our surnames.” But is the obsession of the culture the reason or should we blame the gap between history and memory?
The consternation regarding historical films is mainly due to the large distance between what tales and records. Talking about Padmavati, history of Rajputs belong to the men and valour. Rajputs as a community have always boasted of their bravery in ancient time, but they too have (as they say) a sore spot. It was a common thing during the times to Mughal rule and when other Muslim invaders came to India, that Rajput women married those men. But they helped both the kingdoms in expansion and formations of high ranked groups, which was never seen as a bad thing. But in the current world, Rajputs see it as a hitch in the historical story.
Bhansali’s is a movie about a thirteenth century Sultan named Alauddin Khilji and the battle for Mewar and about his attraction towards Queen Padmini, or Padmavati. Meanwhile, on the sets of the film, Karni Sena, a Hindu right-wing group attacked the director and his team and marauded the sets. As it is turning out, after the cases of Karan Johar, SRK and others before this, it is clear that Hindi films are the easiest targets of religious fundamentalists. It has been alleged that the recent attack was due to the fact that there is a possible dream sequence in the movie which shows Ranveer’s character and Deepika’s character, Khilji and Padmavati, as romancing each other. But can there ever be an interesting biopic without some artistic freedom? Why else would such an offence brigade get such a lack of fear of consequence?
Also read | After Karni Sena’s attack on Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sushant Singh Rajput takes off ‘Rajput’ from his twitter name
But, apart from the questions of freedom of speech, this attack also reminds us of another problem in the post-truth world. Rumour mongering is one of the most dangerous reasons of a dystopian world. It spreads fear. It is unfortunate that such groups are scared of imaginative people, and that too not about the factual differences, instead of about romance.
But, the moot question is, why does ‘nationalism’ have to lack imagination and art? Meanwhile, just for the ‘record’, Padmini was a character of imagination herself.