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Vishesh Mankal

(Delhi, India)

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Vishesh_Mankal [at] hotmail [dot] com

God, Religion and Bollywood

It is very easy to say that Bollywood is famous for its song-and-dance sequences, bright colors and melodrama, but what is hardly ever touched upon in great detail is the presence of the divine in its storylines. The fascinating thing about Bollywood cinema is that the presence of religion and God is always a given, regardless of genre, time period or what have you. For example, when Lakshmikant Berde pleads to Lord Krishna in “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun” to help him get the elder brother’s shoes back from the scheming sister-in-laws, and later to save Salman Khan’s marriage with Madhuri Dixit, the audience doesn’t question the presence of God at all; instead they are relived to finally find a solution to all the complications on screen. There are many other examples, let us observe them here in no specific order.

It is very interesting to note that despite a violent history in terms of cultural and religious clashes, Indians have emerged as very religious people. In the personal experience of this writer, there is very often an unquestioned faith in God, even amongst the staunchly rebellious youngsters. That faith is, of course, rooted in varying degrees of faith in religion, but it’s there nonetheless. So, it is a given that cinematic stories and characters must also reflect that faith. Amitabh Bachhan’s character in Yash Chopra’s “Deewar”, for example, does not question the existence of God; he simply refuses to bow down to him. This is in spite of all the injustices Vijay and his family have suffered in the past. Similarly, if we go back a few years and look at Vijay Bhatt’s “Baiju Bawra”, the hero there also believes in God in spite of all the wrong he has suffered since childhood. In fact, the film endorses the existence of God by showing an idol of Lord Shiva shedding tears when the hero sings a heartfelt song in front of him (sung by the great Mohd. Rafi).

Religion is slightly trickier than portraying God. That is so because it is so embedded into our day to day lives that sometimes it becomes impossible to tell a story without putting in that elaborate “Havan” scene or that all important marriage ritual. But that is a different story than when the outcome of a film changes because of some religious activity. How many times have we seen a Muslim villain or an anti-hero stop all his henchmen from murdering the hero because it is time for his daily Namaaz? One such example was in Sameera Reddy’s debut film “Maine Dil Tujhko Diya”, where Sanjay Dutt stops himself from killing Sohail Khan due to conflicting Namaaz timings. The most interesting portrayal of something religious, in the opinion of the writer, is shown in V. Shantaram’s “Do Aankhein Baara Haath”, where the scheming convicts escape form Shantaram’s “asylum” only to return after running into a temple that reminds them of Shantaram’s character’s Deity-like influence over them. The whole film eventually becomes a metaphor for God watching imperfect humans and guiding them. And who doesn’t remember the countless “Karvachaut” sequences and songs in films? Most of the time these have very little to do with the plot lines of the films themselves, but are tacked on to make the audience feel more at ease with the religion abiding world of the film they are watching. Some films, however, do manage to use them as the backdrop of the action instead of as the action itself. Ram Gopal Verma’s “Satya” comes to mind in that respect. The violent climax where Satya uses all the chaos of “Ganesh Pooja” to shoot the villain is an example of this. Similarly, there is a sequence in Madhur Bhandarkar’s “Aan”, where the death of Suniel Shetty’s character is juxtaposed with his wife and children performing a ritual for “Ganesh Pooja”. The audience does not question the existence of these sequences because they reflect the day to day lives of the average Indian person. Odd as it may seem, even a tight, shady thriller such as Sriram Raghavan’s “Johnny Gaddaar” included a small reference to an old Hindu superstition of it being a bad omen to sneeze before starting something or going somewhere.

Although there are very few full-fledged spoofs on religion, films like Ramesh Sippy’s “Sholay” and the Jeetendra starrer “Lok Parlok” managed to disguise their humor by serving the greater purposes of the story first and foremost. The well-remembered scene from “Sholay” where Veeru (Dharmendra) tricks Basanti (Hema Malini) into believing him to be the voice of Shiva is a priceless example of this. One might think that in such a God-fearing country as India, this would not be tolerated. But Ramesh Sippy and his writers Salim-Javed were able to disguise this so that the audience would look more at the growing romantic tension between the two leads than at the broader joke that they were pulling on religion and superstition (remember Basanti goes to Shiva out of the belief that visiting him on regular intervals would win her a good husband). “Lok Parlok” was slightly more blatant about its agenda, which is one of the reasons that it did get banned for sometime in the country. “Lok Parlok” was a decidedly leftist film, with the main character being an archetypical Lenin-esque ideologist. Karl Marx, the father of communism, famously called religion the ‘Opium of the people”. “Lok Parlok” took that and while not condemning religion altogether, brought about a twist to it, where the gods themselves would have to be answerable for all their actions against the oppressed. It made the gods the broader symbol of the Bourgeoisie and all poor people the proletariats rising against them. The film even made the YamDoots, Angels of YamLok, rebel against Yamraj. Of course, the film gave Yamraj and his trusted aid, Chitragupta, a second chance by allowing them to descend on Earth and take a look at the progress that humans have made. This was to allow them to better govern humans in the future. Disappointingly, however, the film’s resolution turned out to be a Deus Ex Machina.

Divine intervention and Deus Ex Machina are also used heavily in Bollywood films, although not always in the traditional sense. “Lok Parlok”’s resolution was that most of what had happened was a dream, thus making use of the traditional Deus Ex Machina. The Greeks used it often in their plays. They defined it as the act of bringing a god from heaven to fix the problems of the world, thereby resolving the story. Invariably, the gods would be shown to descend from heaven on a pulley like piece of machinery, which gave the device its name. Thus, the fact that there were divine beings involved in the narrative resulted in what is known as Divine Intervention. Over the ages, the definition has evolved to include things like the story turning out to be a dream in the end or the use of some convenient device to solve all problems (the duplicating machine in “The Prestige”). The most outrageous example seen in a recent Hindi film would be in the Tushaar Kapoor starrer “Jeena Sirf Mere Liye”, where a declared-dead Tushaar Kapoor is miraculously brought back to life by Kareena Kapoor as she holds an idol of Krishna in front of him. Similarly, a scene in Karan Johar’s “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” depicts Kajol’s wedding being postponed because a little girl prays that it may be so. It is also interesting to note that this device is slightly altered in Hindi cinema by making the characters themselves call upon God or the higher beings for help, instead of the higher beings themselves taking an active interest in the happenings on earth. For example, in Suraj Bharjatia’s “Hum Aapke Hain Kaun?” whenever Lalloo (played by the Late Lakshmikant Berde) calls upon Krishna for help, Tuffy the dog, acting as Krishna’s representative, miraculously comes to him with the solution. Some films have also used this as a way of humanizing the characters instead of expanding the story. The touching song “O Paalan Haare…” in Lagaan shows the desperate characters praying to God for help. Whether God plays any part in the final outcome of the film is never shown, so one cannot term this as an example of Deus Ex Machina. The important thing to note, however, is that Ashutosh Gowariker used a familiar idea to bring the audience more in connection with the characters instead of using it to forward the plot (think how ridiculous a film “Lagaan” would have been for it).

One final thing to notice is the relationship between science and religion in Hindi cinema. Filmmakers rarely tread science fiction waters in India, but the ones that do somehow invariably feel the need to add a religious twist to their stories. The most underdeveloped of these was in Rakhesh Roshan’s “Koi Mil Gaya”, where early on in the film Rakesh Roshan’s character tells his research unit that extra terrestrial beings are trying to communicate with them by using “Om” as their sound motif. He goes on to explain that according to Hindu mythology, “Om” is the beginning of all things. Sadly, he stops at that. There is no more explanation for it. If he had kept up this motif throughout, the film might have become an interesting blend of these two opposing forces of civilization. Instead, he chose to concentrate more on his son’s antics than the story itself. Although this writer has not yet seen Harry Baweja’s “Love Story 2050”, it is painfully obvious that the film is about Time-Travel and re-incarnation. Again this is an example of filmmakers adding a religious twist to a scientific idea and from what has been seen so far Harry Baweja has not been very successful at it. Even Subash Ghai tried this with his re-incarnation thriller “Karz”. He showed scientific tests being done on Rishi Kapoor’s character to determine the cause of his odd behavior. Sadly, once more that was far as he got. The rest of the film became more of a thriller. One slightly different example is Shekhar Kapur’s “Mr. India”, where instead of putting religious concepts in the story he toyed around with the idea of the criminals being forced to think that Hanuman himself was taking revenge on them, when it was actually an invisible Anil Kapoor, otherwise known as Mr. India. So, like previously mentioned, religion and the presence of God seem to be a given in Bollywood cinema regardless of genre, time period and such.

Perhaps it is because of the education system or perhaps it is because of the way most of us are brought up, that we never question God and religion even in our lives, let alone in films. Art and society are reflections of each other and sometimes run in cycles, so much that sometimes it becomes impossible to tell whether art is being influenced by society or vice-versa. So, maybe Bollywood cinema is a reflection of Indian society or maybe Indian Society is a reflection of Bollywood cinema. One thing is for certain, religion and God will feature in Hindi cinema as long as they are alive in society and considering that these two have been in existence since the inception of civilization, it is safe to say that they are going to stick around for a long time too.

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