The propaganda pic conundrum

No knock on a moviejock teaching history of course But it feels weird when an announcement flashes on the screen in Randeep Hoodarsquos Swatantrya Veer Savarkar SVS ldquoOmitted from HistoryrdquoWhat plays is the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny or the 1946 Naval Uprising against the British shortly before independence Hooda and I went to the same Delhi Public School RK Puram I gave my Std XII Boards in historyIf there was a 20mark question to list immediate causes for Indiarsquos independencemdashincluding WWII that crippled Britainrsquos economy or the 1942 Quit India movement that further struck at the root of the Rajmdashyou would easily lose a couple of marks if you failed to mention the Naval revolt Unsure about omission from history thenSVS is biopic of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar 18831966 Speaking of whom for instance the airport in the Andamansmdashwhere a good portion of SVS is set at Kala Pani Cellular Jailmdashand the sealink that will connect Bandra and Versovamdashwhere this film mustrsquove been writtenmdashare both named after Savarkar The movie makes him seem a severely underrated figure So much for that Has Savarkar remained a controversial figure still Yes And this is because as historians with sufficient citationevidence will tell youmdashthere were in fact two SavarkarsThe first Savarkar is a young romantic revolutionarymdashwilling to give his all to the cause of Indian independence Thatrsquos what the film is chiefly centred on An exhilarating sequence concerns brave Savarkar escaping from a steamship while getting extradited from EnglandHe squeezes out of a hole for the shiprsquos window wading through choppy waters towards French soil as soldiers chase him down with gunsDonrsquot know if this is exactly how this occurred It makes for fine cinema Savarkar was arrested on charges of hatching plots for political assassinationsUntil this point his story resembles several great revolutionariesrsquo I think too much gets made of how Savarkar wrote multiple mercy petitions while at Kala Pani professing his complete allegiance to the RajI donrsquot know what you or I would do if sent off for a term of 50 years straight with your back against the wall of the worldrsquos deadliest jail What good is a soldier if dead anywayThe Savarkar 20 after getting released from prison who was part of Hindu Mahasabha HM is however shown in the film seated opposite Bhagat Singh of which there is no evidence He inspires Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in personBose had publicly opposed HM in the mirror image of Jinnahrsquos Muslim League then Both parties had collaborated with the British in government once the Indian National Congress had boycotted it during Quit India Movement where 10000 freedom fighters lost their livesMahatma Gandhirsquos assassin Nathuram Godse was part of the Savarkarite faction of HM Savarkar denied knowing him at all in court Savarkar also saw Hindus and Muslims as two nations as per his1937 speechIn 1938 upon Muslim Leaguersquos demand for Pakistan he said we are one nation But the nation comprises Hindusmdashand Muslims are a community In the same way he argued that Germany was a nation of Germans and the Jews were a community Savarkar also received monthly pension from the RajThere is mention of none of the above in SVS This selective truthtelling is what constitutes a propaganda pic Richard Attenboroughrsquos Gandhi 1982 can at worst be deemed a hagiography As some like writer Salman Rushdie didThere is sufficient lampooning of both Gandhi and Congress as cowards and traitors in SVS Protagonist Savarkar says ldquoI donrsquot hate Gandhi I hate nonviolencerdquoNeed one observably dismiss a set of heroes to unreservedly love another Shoojit Sircarrsquos recent Sardar Udham 2021 biopic of the revolutionary Udham Singh also associated with Londonrsquos India House hideout falls into no such polemical trapWhat kinda nationalism worships the nation but takes the mickey out of martyrs and fellow nationals Are any of these thoughts over similar other insinuations going through the larger audiencersquos mind while watching SVSI suspect not So enthralled as theyrsquod be with the storytellingmdashbetween closeups lights and shadows before electricity insanely long passages in English for authenticity crackerjack makeup design by Renuka Pillaimdashwith writerproducerdirectoractor Hooda blowing your heads off as the stunningly believable SavarkarExuding supreme swag Hooda runs deepmdashdown to his bare skeletal bones Although according to a BBC Hindi documentary 5rsquo 2rsquorsquo Savarkar had actually put on weight after three years within Kala PaniFor better or worse do you fall for the film for its form first That itrsquos a medium where style so hard to accomplish can replace the substance itself Can you engage then even when you donrsquot agree with the content Because itrsquos not a debatemdashand that must happen laterBy the moviersquos finale Irsquom thinkingmdashshould award shows not institute the category Best Propaganda Film given so many such lately Most if not all donrsquot measure upIrsquom also thinking this right after SVS watching Blackberry 2023 on Prime Video Thatrsquos great history of how iPhones replaced Blackberry overnight But such a badly madeenacted filmPushed myself through two hours of Blackberry Felt no such boredom over three hours of SVS HmmmhellipMayank 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