As time went by, different facets of the Hindi cinema started showing the complicated identity of Muslim -- sometimes tendentious and at other times perverse and unreliable.IMAGE: Dilip Kumar and Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam.Key PointsFrom the 1960s, we come across a plethora of Hindi movies that portray the Muslim in a midway position -- that is to say, to mark the urban and rural setting alike in the Indian film industry.As the Muslim in Amar Akbar Anthony is a Gandhian, those who figure in Coolie are entrenched in the values of secularism and communal harmony.The long running stream of Islamaphobia all over the globe has helped many directors to cast their eyes on the Muslim as the terrorist.
Muslim identity was always a contested field in public lives, education systems and in art and culture.Is the Muslim given the status of expressing her/his identity in tandem with the surroundings of change?What if the Islamic tag attached to them gets strewn off at every step of their articulation?Would they have an identity of their own in a country that produces relentlessly thousands of stereotypes?These questions have been plaguing us for a long time.To be born a Muslim, it seems, is to live in perpetual fear and anxiety.It is interesting in this context to examine the representation of Muslim identity in Hindi cinema.Mohammad Asim Siddiquis book Muslim Identity in Hindi Cinema opens up a huge arena of debates related to the past of the Hindi film industry, now famously known as Bollywood, going back to the pre-Independece times and from there to contemporary times.As time went by, different facets of the Hindi cinema have started showing the complicated identity of Muslim -- sometimes tendentious and at other times perverse and unreliable.
Hindi cinema is incomplete without the Muslim.IMAGE: Naseeruddin Shah in A Wednesday.Outlined in six chapters, this book tries to tease out different strands connected to the portrayal of the Muslim -- sometimes tauntingly on the screen and at other times, by developing the historical context of the Indian Muslim both in the city and in the rural premises.The author interestingly traces the development of Hindi movies, which according to him cannot be conceived without the basic elements of tragedy, comedy, action and character.This statement, though it hits with the nail on our heads, invites a much nuanced discussion of Hindi movies in the wide and scattered belt of Indian soil.The depiction of Muslims in biopics is far different from the old and the new historical and war films, where they are deeply portrayed with some sense of affection and charm remains.In movies such as Noorjahan dating back to 1923 to Pukar and Mumtaz Mahal (both hailing from the late 1930s), we have an affectionate portrayal of the historic Muslim.A historical romance like Mughal-e-Azam has attracted thousands on account of its interesting sequences of love, but radically departs from the inclusive vision of history.However, the tracing from the early historic Islam movies to Dhoom 3 in contemporary times is a little maverick and sudden jump, which in all sense make us aware of the perpetual presence of Indian Muslim all over the celluloid.IMAGE: Ajay Devgn and Kangana Ranaut in Once Upon A Time In Mumbai.The author thoroughly analyses Dhoom 3 from different points of view.This movie has shed the established notions of Islam in the Indian subcontinent from many angles, yet as we know, is not free from certain type of stereotyping the Muslim.The authors analysis of the non-digetic sounds, it must be noted, is an important step that decodes the setting and acting.How the music structures certain scenes and actions also signifies the way in which the Indian Muslim is understood.The long transition to represent the Muslim from the methodologies of cinematic techniques, needless to say, is an important feature not only in the history of Indian cinema, but in the narrative stylistics of Indian Muslim.Furthermore, the author glances at certain decades that have produced films where the Muslim is represented as the lover, saviour, policeman and the custodian of peace and prosperity.It is true that from the 1960s, we come across a plethora of Hindi movies that portray the Muslim in a midway position -- that is to say, to mark the urban and rural setting alike in the Indian film industry.As the Muslim in Amar Akbar Anthony is....
