Bhubaneswar: India will witness elections to Parliament and several state Assemblies this year. Odisha is also set for both the polls in a few months from now. Each state, including Odisha, is trying its best to woo voters with several schemes and declarations ahead of the election.
In the next few months, high voltage campaign will begin in various constituencies to woo the electorate, deploying different tactics. Though they vary from party to party, the underlying theme is the same: ‘Vote for Me.’ In other words, the medium may be different but the message is the same.
Look at the new trend that is blowing across the country and trying to influence the public. It is movies with a political slant. Several Hindi and regional language films are hitting the screens with a common theme of reminding people about the achievements of the current government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and how the previous government had failed the people.
This comes at a time when the current BJP-led government has come under a lot of flak for the way it has handled the economy and lost the elections in key states in North India. With these films (released and those about to be released), it is difficult to say whether it is content marketing or political film marketing done by the BJP.
For example, look at the recently released movies such as The Accidental Prime Minister which shows former premier Manmohan Singh and Congress in poor light. Then, Uri: The Surgical Strike that depicts the surgical strike conducted by the army with the support of the current government. In fact, actor Rajit Kapoor has played the role of Narendra Modi.
Recently, a poster announcing a biopic on Prime Minister Modi has been launched in which actor Vivek Oberoi will play the lead role and the film will be directed by Omung Kumar.
Earlier, movies used to touch politics in a fictional way and never tried to showcase or promote any particular party or leader but the trend seems to be changing. It is discernable. Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, Indu Sarkar and Commando 2 are some of the films which tried to promote the government in one way or the other.
In Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, the Central government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was the theme; in Indu Sarkar, the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and his son Sanjay Gandhi were shown as antagonist during Emergency.
Odisha is not far behind in this trend. Power couple of Odia film industry Barsha Priyadarshini and Anubhav Mohanty is doing their bit in promoting the BJD government. The Barsha’s movie Nimki: Neempur Ru Naveen Nivas, directed by Susant Mani, depicts the story of a girl ‘Nimki’ belonging to a small hamlet named ‘Nimpur’ in Jagatsinghpur district. The storyline revolves around Nimki’s arduous journey from Nimpur to the State Capital.
In a bid to address the issues of her village, she arrives at the ‘Naveen Nivas’ (Odisha Chief Minister’s residence). Jaya Bachchan had arrived for the screening of the movie in Bhubaneswar Wednesday.
Anubhav Mohanty’s movie Biju Babu will highlight some important aspects in the life of Biju Patnaik, former Odisha Chief Minister, after whom the BJD has been named. The poster of Biju Babu, which is being produced by well-known film producer Nila Madhab Panda and others, was released outside Anand Bhavan, Biju Patnaik’s ancestral house in Cuttack, recently.
Anupam Patnaik, a filmmaker from the city, said that some of the recent movies are definitely propaganda and have been made with the sole intention of gaining audience and voters. In Odisha, specifically making a movie on Biju Babu a few months before the election is a way of attracting the movie goers. But I must say that present moviegoers are smart enough to understand the gimmick. Uri the Surgical Strike is a good movie despite the propaganda in it and is earning good.
Swastik Choudhury, producer, said as a filmmaker, I do not subscribe to the idea of censorship in cinema nor the display of political hatred demanding ban on films. In India, majorly the industry manufactures propagandist films which try to play with popular sentiments. And this is not new, good over evil, college love stories etc are all based on popular sentiments only.
However, of late, films have moved from social propaganda to political propaganda. While political documentaries which have negligible scope to fictionalize are dealt with iron hands; fiction based films these days are becoming a political tool with hope to touch the masses. The honesty of cinema, the intention of makers and the actors all get diluted in between. I am afraid if tomorrow some other party comes to power they may use this medium for their agenda.
Accidental Prime Minister to me looks like a film filled with mimicry artists. I can only hope the audience will demand cinema rather than propaganda (be it from any party), he said.
Director Amartya Bhattacharya said, I think it’s a very blatant way of doing propaganda. From the trailer, the film looks childish and ordinary. Even if you want to use cinema to promote you in this election season, there could have been a better approach. Trying to malign someone else’s image is a very gross way of promoting oneself. I don’t know if the film will work against any party or in favour of the other, but from the trailer it seems to be an insignificant piece of drama.
