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Since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, Muslims have been experiencing marginalization in Indian politics.

The party could not find a single Muslim who could get them a seat in the legislative bodies and its leaders constantly give dog whistles to the community. They recognize them by their clothing, their eating habits and have been accused of receiving a generously disproportionate share of the public distribution system without being paid in the form of votes.

However, around the same time, there has been an increased representation of Muslim characters in popular cinema where their religious identity is not always the subject of friction. And, in a polarized environment, the director is weaving symbols of communal unity into his illustrations.

Representation of ‘Muslimism’

For a long time after Partition, Muslim superstars opposed playing Muslim characters. Dilip Kumar played only one Muslim in his entire career. Shahrukh Khan also played a Muslim character only when the story was presented with the Muslimness of the protagonist. Go win! And my name is Khan, Interestingly, Salman Khan, who usually doesn’t get much credit for his craft, broke shackles while playing sultan (2016), a Muslim wrestler from Haryana in the film Yash Raj. Sultan Ali Khan could easily have been Suraj and that didn’t matter to the story. Sultan does not wear his religion on his sleeve and the story does not delve into the character’s religious identity or that of his lady, Arfa Hussain, a wrestler who is equally difficult to pin to the mat.

Interestingly, a year ago sultanSalman plays the son of a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pracharak Bajrangi Bhaijaan Who takes a Pakistani child to her home with the help of a Pakistani journalist.

an antidote for Gadar: A Love Story (2001) Like the divisive and reactionary narratives, this was an interesting clash of ideas that stemmed from the view that the differences are usually more about perception than reality. Bajrangi is surprised when a friendly cleric, played by Om Puri, wishes him Jai Shri Ram.

history and horrors

Around the same time, Sanjay Leela Bhansali took to horse riding Bajirao MastaniAshutosh Gowariker’s Controversy Jodha Akbar (2008). Historical in Hindi cinema are more allegorical than fact-based. In Mughal-e-AzamAkbar and Salim represented the endless battle between monarchical control and freedom of expression. penultimate credits roll in Jodha AkbarAmitabh Bachchan’s voice tells us that Jodha and Akbar represent the idea of ​​India. Bhansali replaced it as Peshwa Bajirao Ballal, the thorn in the flesh of the Mughals, fought with his family to give his Muslim collection Mastani its respectable place in the royal chambers. In Bhansali’s view of India, the ruler is a benevolent Hindu ruler.

Like the historical genre, horror thrives on allegory. For a long time, Hindi cinema’s horror stories have been largely derived from Christian and Hindu myths. The Islamic idea of ​​Satan hardly finds a place in the mumbo jumbo served in the Indian market. Of late, there has been a change. In 2018, the first Parisand then vampire (miniseries) brought this neglected ‘other’ from an afterlife to a more mainstream place. Both looked beyond the usual tropes of the genre to delve into our social fears, making them all the more tangible and disturbing.

Paris It is about Rukhsana, the daughter of Ifrit (a deadly spirit), who falls in love with Arnab, a Bengali boy and teaches him a lesson or two in humanity along the way.

vampireTaken from an Arabic folk tale, there is a distinct layer of Islamophobia that rests inside a dystopian tale. Set in a ‘nationalist’ universe where words like pavitra (sanctification) and wali (return) are deliberately slipped into conversation, vampire Nida follows Rahim, a bright young recruit working with the armed forces, who turns to her father as he suspects she is involved in seditious activities. However, as the obedient officer reaches the inquiry center or hell in terms of style, he discovers that the sword of suspicion hangs over him as well.

After a point, it becomes hard to decide which to fear more: men and women in uniform or ghosts in alleged terrorist skins.

beyond muslim

That same year, Kedarnathi Deals with the love story of a Brahmin girl with a Muslim mule operator against the backdrop of the floods that devastated the shrine in 2013. Using the love story as a metaphor for communal harmony, the film says that if the two are not allowed to live together peacefully, nature will intervene. Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy (2019) ran in the streets of Mumbai’s Dharavi with a baton passed by Sultan. In a tense scene, Murad’s father, a car driver, played by Vijay Raaz, tells his son that he is not expected to dream. He is expected to keep his gaze low, but Murad wants to see the world through his eyes.

Murad’s social background is not much different from Saeed Mirza’s Salim Salim don’t cry on lame (1989). The two claim that their time will come, but when Salim enters the underworld, Murad vents his anger in his stinging rap songs. Then, the issues – polygamy, girl child education, employment opportunities – that the film haunts most of the families in slum areas and that the Muslim character is a part of this inhuman existence.

i cash (2020), the story of Maryam, who wants to learn Bharatanatyam, breaks new ground as it speaks of Muslim claims to a shared and holistic cultural heritage. When some community leaders question her choice, Maryam’s father tells his daughter that it is a question of living life on her own terms. In a way this is also the motto of Darlings, released last week. The story of Badrunissa and Hamza deals with domestic abuse where Badru’s mother Shamshu stands by her daughter. However, like Bajrangi, police officers in Darlings Don’t know much about Muslims. He compares Nysa with Nisha and describes Nukta as Massa (Mole) in Urdu.

are we the same people who could easily sing Jahle miskin makum-ba ranjeesh ba-hal-e-hijran Poor heart hai, Sunni meets whose beat is your heart or our heart , Slavery1985) (Do not look with anger at the miserable condition of the poor, for my poor man is in a state of separation from his beloved; (a) The heart that can be heard, is it yours or mine?)?