The CM as the angry young man

Is there any known instance of a sitting state CM whorsquos simultaneously the brooding somewhat actionhero on the big screen Take Pravin Tardersquos Marathi film Dharmaveer Mukkam Post Thane 2 in theatresConsider the scene when Maharashtrarsquos CM Eknath Shinde resident of Thanersquos Kisan Nagar was an autorickshaw driver in the 1980s He enters a godown illegally hoarding sugarmdashsuch that therersquos none left for people on DiwaliCM Shindersquos mentor Anand Dighe local Shiv Sena boss Thanersquos Thanos when it comes to black marketeers orders the said raidAction ensues Goons get fixed Dighe Saheb insists Shinde ferry sugar on a truck hersquos never driven before Dighersquos own mentor of course is the Sena lsquosupremorsquo Balasaheb ThackeraySimilarly CM Shinde is once surrounded by bikers with weapons chasing down his Fiat He suitably takes them on Dighe Saheb enters the scene too Shinde was the target possibly because hersquod ransacked a dancebarmdasha feat that locally earned him laurels and enemiesActor Kshitish Date plays Shinde In the final frame of Dharmaveer 2 Datersquos face morphs into the actual CMrsquos Just so the audiences know who theyrsquod been witnessing Not that there were doubts In every way actor Date is CM Shindersquos lookalike onscreenTo quote the film Sixth Sense itrsquos not like CM Shinde sees dead people Only that late Dighe Saheb 19512001 aka Dharmaveer visits him from the dead and they hold long conversations Once when CM Shindemdashthen I guess Maharashtrarsquos PWD minister and Thanersquos guardian ministermdashis at his residence Dighe Saheb shames him for the moblynching in Palghar 2020Thatrsquos infamous incident involving WhatsApp rumours wherein two sadhus got mistaken for thieves during the COVID19 lockdown Dighe Saheb wonders if CM Shindersquos blood no more bleeds saffronLikewise the late mentor and mentee have an elaborate chat on Mumbairsquos Marine Drive CM Shinde asks Dighe Saheb why he allowed ldquoRaj Thackeray nephew to be sidelined in Shiv Senardquo in favour of Balasahebrsquos son UddhavTo be certain Tardersquos original Dharmaveer 2022 was a huge hit How do I know this From the longest line I noticed outside its firstdayfirstshow while Irsquod gone to watch a Ranveer Singh starrer Jayeshbhai Jordaar instead that nobody showed up forI observed equally packed audis for Dharmaveer in Thane where Irsquod gone to catch Dr Strange 2 the following week Curiosity piqued enough that one had to dive into this Dharmaveer right aftermdashto check what the fuss was about Evidently this wasnrsquot a movie More a local phenomenon Anand Dighe by all accounts a Balasaheblike figure may not be widely known outside MumbaiThane Unlike the Shiv Sena founder Dharmaveer attempts to right that supposed wrongWhat primarily struck me about the unpretentious Dharmaveermdashbesides the quality of production use of sound light camera popular music the works more so the brilliant Prasad Oak as Anand Dighemdashis how the film does the opposite of lsquowhitewashingrsquo that biopics indulge in otherwiseAs in Dighe Saheb is captured actively participating in communal riots but escaping punishment because he had an alibi In Dharmaveer 2 hersquos shown to have personally demolished Babri mosqueThe point of the prequel you could tell was also to portray CM Shinde as Dighe Sahebrsquos political heir None others in Thanersquos Sena have much of a say Further the overpowering image of Raj Thackeray in the film foregrounds a muted UddhavThe latter was CM and Sena bossmdashwith Shinde as his subordinate in both state government and regional partymdashwhen the film releasedIf yoursquod watched Dharmaveer with a political lens when the film opened in May 2022mdashyou wouldrsquove been able to predict the revolt within Sena led by Shinde that occurred in June 2022It takes minimum a year to mount a picture of such scale This rebellion couldrsquove been simmering for that long How often has one read a propaganda movie as a political tea leaf Wow never to my knowledgeDighe Saheb dies in Dharmaveer What followed was the notorious torching of Thanersquos Singhania Hospital by Shiv Sainiks for where he was admitted over a heart ailment What could Dharmaveer 2 be about thenAlthough packed with anecdotes from Dighe Sahebrsquos life itrsquos actually about why Shinde broke away with Senarsquos MLAs to dislodge Uddhavrsquos coalition governmentCM Shinde takes on former allies Sharad Pawar as political rival Rahul Gandhi for his comments on Savarkar indeed Uddhav for his inaccessibility etcMaking a persuasive case in public for bringing Hindutva back into Sena As if on a current affairs debate Something that has no precedence for a proper mainstream movie preelection or notFinal nail in the Maha Vikas Aghadi coffincoalition it appears was when an eventmanager type girl during Rajya Sabha elections while looking at him asked ldquoWho is Ekta Shinderdquo This keeps echoing in the herorsquos headWhy did I watch Dharmaveer 2 Another cinema serendipityMonths ago going up Fun Republic theatre Andheri the lift opened to a floor that had a cutout of CM Shinde I asked if this was a Sena officeA Zee Studio exec entered the elevator to tell me no itrsquos their poster of Dharmaveer 2 ldquoThe filmrsquos like Godfatherhelliprdquo OkayMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper