Random Musing #24: The disturbing pro-Hindutva imagery in Dev Patel’s Monkey Man
The trailer makes constant references to Hanuman, a monkey god who is an aide to Rama, a controversial Hindu deity worshipped by upper-caste supremacists...
Nonsensical Nemo’s Note: Since it’s inevitable that Vice, WaPo, The Slate or The Atlantic will write this, I thought I’d do it for them.
The first trailer of Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, a movie that he stars in and directs, which has been billed as “John Wick in Mumbai,” just dropped. Produced by Jordan Peele, whose Obama meme lives on as a lesson in foreign policy, the movie looks like a straight-up revenge drama in which the poor kid from Slumdog Millionaire – who played up every stereotype about Indians – has now beefed up and seeks vengeance.
There are some old-school action sequences, and the trailer plays British musician cult desi classic Panjabi MC’s Mundia Tu Bach Ke Rahi (Beware of the Boys). The trailer might as well have said: Beware minorities.
The trailer makes constant references to Hanuman, a monkey god who is an aide to Rama, a controversial Hindu deity worshipped by upper-caste supremacists who seek to undermine the secular values that have existed in India since Independence and were carved into the national identity by its spiritual father Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and its first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Recently, Mr Modi inaugurated an ostentatious Rama Temple at Ayodhya, at a disputed site that formerly housed a mosque built by the benevolent Mughal ruler Babar, whose descendants led India into a golden age of syncretic inter-faith secularism where no one had to pay taxes.
In 1992, karsevaks (foot soldiers) aligned with the RSS, the paramilitary organisation that is the ideological parent of Mr. Modi’s BJP, destroyed the Babri Mosque that stood in its place, where now, a grand new temple is being built. The entire nation watched – including its ashen-faced 200 million minorities – as Mr. Modi turned a Nelson’s eye to the last shreds of performative secularism as he heralded a new India where minorities would be treated as second-class citizens.
The trailer's reference to a “Demon King” and his army who brought “fire and terror” is a clear reference to numerous emperors who made India their home but are constantly vilified by the current regime and are part of the rhetoric to target minorities.
In recent times, Bollywood movies have kowtowed the government’s line, after its top stars were targeted for their religion, and started making movies that glorify the country’s defence forces, often responsible for the worst atrocities against its vulnerable minorities. On the other hand, anti-establishment movies like Rang De Basanti or Haider, often the staple of Bollywood’s top filmmakers are conspicuous by their absence now. The unwritten rule is that anything that makes Mr Modi look bad is absolutely untouchable. And it would appear Hollywood – which has already gone out of its way to appease the Chinese – is also bending to the whims of another country with troubling supremacist tendencies. Experts believe Hollywood’s whitewashing of this authoritarian regime will embolden agents of Hindutva across the globe even more. With the rise of right-wing Islamophobes across Europe and North America, they believe a movie like this will make vulnerable minorities across the globe, from Leicester to Toronto, even more vulnerable.
Sadly, ignorant Americans who cheered on during the proto-fascist propaganda film RRR, in which one of the protagonists donned the robes of Rama while murdering innocent colonisers, are completely ignorant about the motives behind this film, as evidenced by the comments on YouTube that go: “BROOOO THIS GOES HARD. SO HYPED. SEE YOU AT THE MOVIES”