A key event in the Hindu epic Ramayana is the abduction of Sita by Ravan, the King of Lanka. Ravan was part asura – divine beings with great powers who could be good or bad – and part human, descended from the Brahmin caste through his father, Sage Vishrava. In fact, there are communities like the Sachora Brahmins of Gujarat that proudly proclaim that they are his descendants.
In Om Raut’s Adipurush, based on the epic, however, you’d be forgiven for mistaking Ravan for Bollywood’s Alauddin Khilji, with the kajal in his eyes and the beard in all his 10 faces. And oh, he also feeds huge hunks of meat to his outsized pet bat which is a substitute for the pushpak viman. Interestingly, Ravan’s role is played by Saif Ali Khan.
In case viewers are confused about what to make of all this, the dialogues spell it out. When Ram (Prabhas) decides to go to war with Ravan to bring back Sita (Kriti Sanon) and establish dharma once again, he enthuses his army with a rousing speech: “Don’t fight for me today, fight for the day when before anyone dares to lay a hand on any daughter of Bharat, they will remember your masculinity and lift their hand.” The speech also makes multiple references to “our sisters” and how the army’s fight is not just for Sita but “sisters” from future generations who “need protection”.
The framing of the lines, written by Manoj Muntashir, is strange, considering Sita wasn’t Ram’s daughter or sister – and she had no brothers, except in the Jain version of the Ramayana. Further, even if we are to believe that Ram of the epic would have referred to Sita, the princess of Mithila and the to-be queen of Ayodhya, as ‘Bharat ki beti’, this has to be interpreted as ‘Akhand Bharat’ (undivided Bharat) since ancient Mithila was partly in Nepal. But then, ‘Akhand Bharat’ also includes Sri Lanka, so what sense does it make to say those who touch “our sisters” will be thrown in Lanka? Who are the men who are going to prey on “our” sisters and daughters and need to be warned off? The reference to “your masculinity” is pretty weird too, considering Ram’s army is shown to be composed primarily of monkeys and bears.
Director Om Raut has no compunction in acknowledging that the scene is indeed about ‘love jihad’ – a narrative pushed by Hindu right-wing groups that claim that Muslim men lure gullible Hindu women into romantic relationships to exploit and convert them. He retweeted a tweet praising the film for such dialogues that were supposedly for “love jihadis”, and thanked the user for it. Even if we are to take this theory at face value and believe it one hundred percent, there can’t be a bigger insult to Sita who asserted herself in the epic and absolutely refused to submit to Ravan. Force-fitting Sita’s abduction into a “love jihad” narrative is vulgar and distasteful, to say the least.
Thank You Gopal Ji https://t.co/oWG6FcxSZ4
— Om Raut (@omraut) June 19, 2023
The same Om Raut, who had wondered on Twitter in 2015 if “Hanuman was deaf because his neighbours were playing really loud music on Hanuman Jayanthi”, is now suddenly a devout Hindu who claims it’s because India is under Prime Minister Narendra Modi that he was able to make Adipurush. But none of this should come as a surprise. A majority of the Hindi film industry has bent, prostrated, twisted, and turned itself to pander to Hindutva ideology. After selling historical distortions, nationalism, and the ‘Hindu khatre mein hai’ lament, the 'love jihad' narrative seems to be the new favourite.
In May this year, Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story (2023) claimed that over 30,000 women from Kerala had been lured into romantic relationships with Muslim men, only for them to be converted and made to join the terrorist organisation ISIS. When challenged in court, the makers amended the number to 3 in the trailer, but the film continued to sell the disinformation, even claiming that the unofficial number was 50,000.
As many fact-check reports have pointed out, international terrorism watch agencies have said that ISIS had a total of about 40,000 foreign fighters from all around the world, and India is among the lowest contributors to this group. Given this, it is preposterous to claim that 30,000 to 50,000 Kerala women were part of ISIS. Moreover, people from other Indian states too have been arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) over their connections with ISIS and the total figure is less than 200. Needless to say, The Maharashtra Story or The Uttar Pradesh Story haven't been made yet – two states where the BJP has a significant presence and is in power.
Nobody can deny that religious radicalism exists and should be effectively addressed. But what are the facts? In 2016, 21 people went missing from Kerala and were believed to have joined ISIS. Of this, 16 were Muslim and there were five converts, including four who had converted from Christianity to Islam and one who had converted from Hinduism to Islam. With its grossly exaggerated numbers, however, The Kerala Story tries to convince the audience that a massive conspiracy is underway to “trap” women from other communities – and that they are in desperate need of rescuing.
It’s clear that the film isn’t interested in understanding religious radicalism and brainwashing. All it wants to do is play up the fear that women from other communities should be guarded against the evil eyes of Muslim men. The film has a Christian man who converts to Islam and becomes an ISIS terrorist, but it doesn’t spend any time examining his story – instead, what we get are scene after scene where Hindu and Christian women are sexually assaulted by rapacious Muslim men.
In a patriarchal society that views women in terms of ownership – communal and familial – such scenes feed into already existing notions about women’s agency. It’s even more ironic that Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the producer of The Kerala Story – a film that is so eager to “save” women – was accused of sexual harassment by Iranian actor Elnaaz Norouzi in 2018 during the #MeToo movement.
The box office success of The Kerala Story, which has reportedly made close to Rs 270 crore, will no doubt fuel more such films that push a “beware of love jihad” narrative. Adipurush, too, tried to capitalise on the now mainstream narrative but failed miserably thanks to its shoddy writing and mediocre graphics. Though the film took a massive opening, making close to Rs 300 crore in its first weekend, it failed the Monday test, with collections dipping by over 75%.
But we will certainly be seeing more of ‘Bharat ki beti’ movies in the coming days, given the resonance that the sentiment finds with the audience. If only that meant Bharat ki betis didn’t have to stage dharnas and get shoved and pushed by the police, and maligned on social media when they stand up to sexual harassment in real life.
Sowmya Rajendran writes on gender, culture, and cinema. She has written over 25 books, including a nonfiction book on gender for adolescents. She was awarded the Sahitya Akademi’s Bal Sahitya Puraskar for her novel Mayil Will Not Be Quiet in 2015. Views expressed are the author's own.