The Propaganda Files

A recent spate of Hindi films distorts facts and creates imaginary villains. Century-old propaganda cinema has always relied on this tactic

- Tanul Thakur

IN a pivotal scene from The Kerala Story (2023), four female students— three of them crying—try to process a traumatic incident: One of them has been molested in a mall. The only composed person among them wears a stern expression and a mauve hijab. “I’m sorry guys, but this had to happen,” she says. “Devils need a chance, and you gave them the chance. Thank Allah that he saved you. But did you ever think why, of all the women in the market, this happened to you?” She explains: “Because only you three”—two Hindus and one Christian—“were not wearing hijab. Allah always protects us—he’s not like your gods.”

Nine months later, the “brave storytellers of The Kerala Story” released a teaser, Bastar. A cop—sitting in her office, wearing a bandana—compares the Indian soldiers killed by the Pakistani Army (“8,738”) with Naxals (“over 15,000”). When they “massacred 76 jawans in Bastar”, she thunders, a college celebrated those deaths: “JNU.” She stands up. “Just think about this: a reputed university celebrates the martyrdom of our jawans. Where does such a mindset come from?” These Naxals, she adds, are “conspiring to dismantle India”. Their allies? “The left-liberals and pseudo intellectuals.” She proposes a final solution: shooting the “vaampanthis” (Leftists).

This genre’s poster boy, The Kashmir Files, alternated between the militants in 1990 and the ‘ANU’ students in 2016, drawing implicit and explicit parallels between them. Made on a reported budget of less than Rs 20 crore, both The Kashmir Files and