How Rajamouli gives a benign touch to the Hindutva project in RRR

RRR’s Hindutva is non-threatening, celebratory of Hindu iconography without hate mongering; and inclusive to a great extent

A dear friend of mine who doesn’t want to be named said after watching RRR, “My takeaway is Rajamouli has rescued Shri Ram from the clutches of Sanghis”. My interest in the film peaked after he made this rather controversial observation. He also shared a still of Ram Charan dressed as Lord Rama, probably the most stunning and attractive Lord Rama we have seen on the celluloid or in a television show. I was intrigued. What does Lord Rama have to do with a fictional take on the Indian freedom struggle? I hadn’t watched the trailer, which speaks of my interest in this highly anticipated film.

I quickly booked the tickets, which were hard to find, and watched the movie with  my right-wing friend who never shies away from shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and Jai Shri Ram whenever the occasion calls for it. Together we sang the national anthem before we sat down to immerse ourselves in the Rajamouli experience. We knew what we were to experience. Lots of improbable fight sequences and absolutely over the top GFX. Extremely good looking men. Melodrama at its best. Full paisa vasool movie watching experience plus a good shot of hyper masculine jingoism, which has become a staple ploy for producers to mint money.

What we hadn’t anticipated was that Rajamouli with this film was also presenting his version of Hindutva. And that’s when my friend’s statement about Shri Ram being rescued from the “Sanghis”  or whatever the term means made sense to me.

The film seems like a massive exercise in implanting Hindu iconography in the Indian psyche and tying the saffron thread around the wrist of history of India’s freedom struggle. A solid Om around the neck of the buffed-up body of Ram Charan, a supremely flexed imitation of Lord Rama – the ultimate symbol of Indian masculinity fighting for the cause of freedom – all showcased in superlative, larger than life cinematic frames will be hard to forget.

The scene with the two heroes holding the Vande Mataram flag, an earlier version of the Indian flag, is simply goosebump-inducing and will stay in our minds forever. Rajamouli takes  the many regional and tribal armed uprisings that never made it to the mainstream, compresses them, mythologises them and accords them the exalted status they deserve in Indian cinematic rendition of freedom struggle. But all of this is neatly placed in the Hindutva realm, enlarging the scope of what Hindutva stands for.

In a press briefing in Hyderabad Rajamouli revealed that  Ram and Bheem’s characters are loosely inspired by the fairly young versions of Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem — freedom fighters from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.  Alluri Sitaram Raju, a monk, spearheaded the Rampa Rebellion in 1922 against the British Raj for enacting a law that limited the tribal group’s freedom of movement in their own land. He was captured, tied to a tree and shot dead, thus bringing an end to the rebellion.  Komaram Bheem too had a similar trajectory. According to Indiatimes.com: “In the early 1900s, he spearheaded a rebellion against the last Nizam of Hyderabad and the oppression of local landowners”

Amidst its grand historical backdrop, RRR is essentially a heart-melting story of two friends. Ram (played by Ram Charan) is an officer with the British forces. Bheem (played by Jr NTR) is the leader of his tribe from the Gond community. They display the Jai-Veeru “yeh dosti hum nahi todenge” archetype in all its glory. Yet, this friendship has many layers of politics. Bheem is living in the heart of British power – Delhi disguised as Akhtar, on a mission to rescue a little Gond girl taken slave by a ruthless British officer and his wife

The Akhtar-Bheem dynamic works so well for the film’s politics of benign Hindutva.

The audience knows the hero is not a Muslim, doesn’t speak in Urdu, but the moment he dons the skull cap – the inclusion of the community is complete. He lives in a Muslim neighbourhood, and has been given asylum by a Muslim family. The family, risking their own lives helps this Gond leader in his mission to rescue his tribe member, and by extension in his rebellion against the British empire. Initially, the friendship between Akhtar and Ram reminds one of the Hindu-Muslim friendships promoted in older films like Amar, Akbar, Anthony. Ram and Akhtar share non-vegetarian meals with the other Muslim peripheral characters. All of them eat out of the same utensil. This existence of the Muslim-Hindu bonhomie set amid largely Hindu aesthetics is put across subtly. Without being made a great deal about. A version of “secularism” where Muslims are represented respectfully, but not really celebrated.

Once Rajamouli has done the light work of Muslim representation, his singular focus remains on retelling of Indian freedom struggle nested in the world of Indian epic of Ramayana. In the second half of the film, the equal, heart warming friendship between Ram and Akhtar takes a new dimension. We have a tribal leader and a hero embodying the mainstream Hindutva icon – Lord Rama fighting side by side against the British empire. Ram’s aim is to defeat the British and snatch freedom for his country. Bheem’s is to rescue Ram and deliver him to Seetha. Ram is the larger vision, Bheem the means to the end.

What does this tell us? That the tribals would be protected, loved, and included in this larger umbrella of Hindutva. In the second half, Bheem and Ram embody the relationship between Lord Ram and his eternal Bhakt Hanuman. Bheem, mythologically was Pawan Putra, just like Hanuman, in RRR rescues Ram to unite him with Seetha (played by Alia Bhatt). In the end, Bheem turns to Ram and pleads him to show his community the way forward and give them the gift of knowledge.

The integrative power of this film is fully established when you see Bollywood superstars Ajay Devagan and Alia Bhatt playing pivotal cameos in the film and the audience’s reaction to their entry. I watched the film in Bangalore with Kannada speaking people outnumbering others, yet there were many cheers for Devagan. And Alia Bhatt’s ethereal beauty, her representation as Seetha simply took everyone’s breath away.

Films are a potent tools for national integration and giving credence to narratives that keep people together. Indian filmmakers have tried doing it but in very flimsy contrived ways. Rajamouli has found the right format to tie multiple strands of Indian history and give it a strong scaffolding – the epics of India – Ramayana and Mahabharata.

RRR shows us that Hindutva is no more a rigid political ideology. It is an ever-evolving philosophy that absorbs into its fold anything that’s Indian or Hindu in its aesthetics. It is a tying of the lose ends of this vast country with several fault- lines that are attacked by politically motivated people from time to time.

My friend is right in saying that Rajamouli rescues Lord Rama from the “Sanghis” or people who thrive on hating a community to feel proud as Hindus. However, it is still very much in line with modern nation building project of Narendra Modi’s India –  of marrying Hindutva with nationalism. It makes room for chanting of “Bharat mata ki jai” and “Jai shri Ram” as expression of love for ones nation and culture without the otherisation of minorities. A benign form of Hindutva that doesn’t discriminate at the individual level, everyone gets a share of the government’s welfare scheme, everyone has the right to exist, no one has to hate anyone, or impinge upon another person’s personal liberties as long as they are okay with the cultural motifs of the majority taking up a chunk of public imagination,  and do not push for alternative political narratives, or try to take the centerstage as a community. If the Hindutva of the fringe is chaotic, I will call RRR’s Hindutva as homeostatic Hindutva. That’s the place eventually our political masters want to reach.

If you are still left with doubts, if RRR is a political film or not, watch out for the last song in which some leaders of Indian freedom struggle are conspicuous by their absence. That too will reveal a lot about the film’s politics.