Dabang 2 and Portrayal of Religion in Movies

We watched the recently released flick ‘Dabang-2’ and found it very entertaining. We thoroughly enjoyed it. But as afterthoughts I am left wondering about the trend of negative portrayal of religions in our movies.

The main villain of Dabang-2 is a criminal turned politician called Bachcha Singh Thakur (played by Prakash Raj). In the first shot when he appears in front of the audience, he is shown as taking part in a Yagna in a temple. His goons have prevented any other devotees to enter the temple while he is busy offering oblations to the gods. When his brother is killed by ‘Dabang’ Chulbul Pandey, he performs proper last rites and also scolds his other brother for not going to immerse the ashes into river himself (this event turns out to be game changer in the story). In the end, a war happens as the climax between the hero and the villain and it takes place at the remains of an ancient looking Hindu temple. During the fight, when Thakur Bachcha Singh becomes sure that Chulbul Pandey has been subdued and defeated, he tells his goons, “make preparations for his last rites while I come back after thanking the God” and moves towards the temple along with his brother for prayers. All through the movie, the villain’s religious affiliations are clearly shown as a remarkable feature. But if we think about the plot and the story, these religious dimensions were totally unnecessary and irrelevant.

The plot and story would have lost nothing whether the villain was introduced while performing Yagna or while addressing a mass gathering. Or if the climatic fight happened in a ruined fort rather than a Hindu temple. But if the filmmakers had chosen not to highlight religion (in particular Hinduism) in the manner they have done, it would not have resulted in a trend worth getting disturbed about – increasingly the film industry in India is showing religion (in particular Hinduism because it is most tolerant in the lot) in the wrong light. On one hand villains are shown to be practicing religious men, the ‘Heroes’ are shown as irreligious guys who do not practice any rituals or religion. Hero’s religion do not matter, but villain’s religion becomes a point worth being highlighted – why such a double standard? Do the film makers want to make us believe gradually that religion is bad and practicing it is not “cool”? They will never accept it but what they are doing certainly means the same…

I am fully with the creative industry’s rights and freedom to fabricate whatever kind of villains and heroes they want for their creative offerings, but when movie after movie a disturbing pattern emerges, it is worth being made a note of.

I liked Dabang 2 and would always remember it for its nice representation of family values and fun. Sonakshi’s role as a wife, Vinod Khanna’s as a father and Arbaaz Khan as brother in a typical Indian family sharing little joys of day to day life is so wonderfully portrayed. But if they had not chosen to go the run-of-the-mill way of presenting religion as a kind of demonist characteristic to be painted on the villain, it would have been much better and fairer.

- Rahul

Note: Views are personal and do not represent views of any organization associated with the author. [Detailed disclaimer]