Just Not Understood

There have been concerted attempts to portray JNU In a certain way. The film JNU: Jahangir National University is just another product of the same propaganda machinery

- Iqbal Abhimanyu

"JNU jhukega nahi (saala)," Dhananjay, the newly elected president of the Jawaharlal Nehru "J University Student Union, proclaims with a mischievous smile when asked about the upcoming film JNU: Jahangir National University. Its teaser was released last month with the tagline-"Behind closed walls of education brews a conspiracy to break the nation." The student leader also mimics the trademark palm under the chin move by actor Allu Arjun as he utters the defiant dialogue in the film Pushpa: The Fire.

Once known and ridiculed for speaking in academic jargon and remaining stuck in Soviet-era ideological conundrums, the "Kremlin on the Jumna" has taken effortlessly to Bollywood-speak at a time when a polarising depiction of it in popular culture has once again brought it into the spotlight, ahead of general elections being seen as momentous in the nation's modern history.

Actor-singer-lyricist Piyush Mishra is the most well-known face of the campus-based drama, along with Ravi Kishan and Vijay Raaz. "Poonjivad se mujhko daraate ho kyun? Mujhko Lenin ke sapne dikhate ho kyun? (Why do you scare me about capitalism, why do you show me dreams of Lenin?)" Mishra proclaims from a stage modelled on JNU's chaat-sammelan, an annual Holi event in which anyone can come and entertain the audience with funny speeches and satire.

Though the teaser and a song performed by Mishra-a parody of Habib Jalib's legendary anti-establishment verse Main nahi manta-did manage to trigger the expected flurry of outrage and support on social media, the lanes of the South Delhi-based campus- these days full of blooming bougainvillea and students rushing for mid-term examinations-are by now used to the clamour that has rung out against the University over the past eight years.