00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled Cinema Politico.
00:06 The issue explores politics and cinema and the ever blurring lines between the two.
00:12 Ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, a slew of propaganda movies have hit the big screen and OTT platforms amid much criticism and approach,
00:22 while many more films are slated to release in the coming weeks stirring even a bigger debate.
00:28 The latest issue of Outlook looks at the genre of nationalist and propaganda films in the Indian context
00:35 and also continues with the exploration of the ideology question in the context of upcoming general elections.
00:42 Both themes are contextual and linked in many ways.
00:47 In the introduction titled Amplified Nationalism, editor Chinke Sinha writes, quoting John Saunders from the braindead megaphone,
00:56 "But if we define the megaphone as the composite of the hundreds of voices we hear each day that come to us from people we don't know via high-tech sources,
01:06 it's clear that a significant and ascendant component of that voice has become bottom-dwelling, shrill, incurious, ranting and agenda-driven.
01:16 It strives to antagonise us, make us feel anxious, ineffective and alone,
01:22 convince us that the world is full of enemies and of people stupider and less agreeable than ourselves,
01:30 is dedicated to the idea that outside the sphere of our immediate experience, the world works in a different, more hostile, less knowable manner.
01:41 This braindead tendency is viral and manifests intermittently.
01:46 While it is in the blood, in the veins of some of our media figures, it flickers on and off in others.
01:54 For a long time now, we have been submerged in nationalistic zingoism and propaganda of the kind that is ambitious enough to attempt a disintegration of history itself.
02:06 The megaphone cinema, as I call it, is part of the machinery that feeds itself with a version of history
02:13 that can be fictionalised and edited to suit a particular mood and serve a particular time or promote a set of narratives that include Hindu nationalism.
02:24 The amplification is too much.
02:26 The new propagandists imagine themselves as influencers, as those who rectify and serve the new emergent super-nation
02:35 that is trying to assert its glorious past, rooted in the Ram Rajya and then in the independence movement
02:42 and now in the showcasing of Hindu nationalism that is benevolent and yet has been denied its rightful place.
02:50 In these times, this Hindu nationalist state is the hero.
02:54 The rest all are in supporting roles.
02:57 The enemy is always the rogue nation that threatens the unity and the integrity of the state or the dissenting individuals within,
03:06 who don't agree with the majoritarian politics or see the dangers of the alienation of others.
03:12 In any case, manipulation via cinema is not a new phenomenon in terms of promoting certain ideologies depending on who is in power.
03:21 It all started in the early 20th century. Propaganda is never accidental.
03:27 But then it still exercised some caution.
03:30 Now, there isn't much room for anything except blatant propaganda.
03:35 Many of these films have not done well commercially.
03:38 Only a few have.
03:40 But that hasn't deterred the filmmakers from marking themselves as those who want to be correcting perceptions
03:47 and even history by taking all kinds of liberties and even imagining themselves as doing an act of service
03:55 by making derogatory films about the minorities and being preposterous about branding them as factual.
04:02 In recent times, the genre has been used to promote a framework for a new kind of patriotism,
04:08 riding the wave of anti-colonialism at first and continuing to do so while also marking any others,
04:15 particularly minorities, as enemies of the nation that will stress on the public to forego neutrality
04:22 when viewing history from a different perspective.
04:25 Propaganda films are a whole genre and in India, the growing trend of making biopics of slain Hindu heroes
04:33 or telling one-sided stories that influence the perception of the Hindutva ideology are,
04:39 in fact, simplistic and reductive in their messaging.
04:42 And history is always complex.
04:45 This is the retelling of history from the Hindu nationalist viewpoint.
04:49 And the lead-up to the general elections that begin this month includes a bunch of films over the years
04:55 ranging from epic war films and historical films that glorify and romanticize the Hindu pride
05:02 to the ones that are rooted in recent history or controversies like the Kashmir Files or the Kerala Story
05:09 or Jahangir National University.
05:11 They are embedded with the system and immersed and soaked in Hindu nationalism.
05:17 They polarize. They divide.
05:20 The makers indulge in othering.
05:22 This issue of outlook looks at the genre of nationalist and propaganda cinema in the Indian context
05:29 and also continues with the exploration of the ideology question when it comes to the national parties
05:35 like the Congress and the BJP in the context of the upcoming general elections.
05:40 Both the themes are contextual and linked in many ways.
05:45 Both are about propaganda and ideologies.
05:48 Both are about brain-dead megaphones.
05:51 Too much noise, too much amplification, too many dangers.
05:56 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.
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