Unveiling the imbalance in heroic narratives of Hindi mainstream cinema Premium

Hindi cinema's portrayal of heroic tales entertains and inspires, but neglects the experiences of socially marginalized groups.

Hindi cinema is known for its outstanding heroic tales that not only entertain the cinemagoers but also inspire them to perform their moral duties. 12th Fail, the recent sleeper hit by Vidhu Vinod Chopra that is trending in the mainstream cinema discourses for portraying an impressive rag to rich story of an IAS officer Manoj Kumar Sharma (played well by Vikrant Messy), endorses such values.

On the flip side however, like many other blockbusters, this narrative too revolves around the concerns of the social elites and portrays cultural and political values that are distanced from the experiences of socially marginalised groups, especially the Dalits and the Adivasis. Though a lot many can find an emotional connection to the portrayal of the protagonists’ precarious poverty and struggles, it has little resemblance with the Dalit-Bahujan-Adivasis’ (DBA) socio-cultural experiences.

Hindi cinema is globally recognised for its fictional masala-coated tales that entertain its audience with superlative songs, dance and dramatic action scenes. The mainstream films with big stars earn impressive box-office success whereas films with creative content and social realism hardly find a good audience. Such popular notions are utilised to limit the critics from examining cinema’s intellectual calibre, its artistic-creative skills and the role cinema shall play in shaping the general attitude of the audience. Importantly, such assertions further disallow the critics from noticing the overt domination of the social elites in the film business and how there is perpetual neglect of DBA characters, their experiences and aspirations on and off the screen.

The major hit films of the past year, mainly Jawan, Pathaan, Animal, Gadar: Ek Prem Katha and Oh My God showcase the upper caste person as the lead protagonist.

A cursory survey of the top 100 Hindi superhit films will show the perpetual exclusion of the DBA characters and their world view in mainstream Hindi cinema barring some exceptions, making the film industry a hegemonic domain that represents the concerns and interests of the social elites.

For example, in Amitabh Bachchan’s illustrious filmography of over 200 films, he has played a Dalit character only in Eklavya. Similarly, other big actors like Shah Rukh Khan or Akshay Kumar never played any role on the screen that closely represented the concerns and identity of the DBA groups.

The protagonist with an upper caste identity is overtly valourised while denying the possibility that a DBA person/character can also play identical ‘heroic’ roles on screen.