POLL PASSIONS ON THE BIG SCREEN

HILE many debates have been raging about the transparency of electronic voting machines as opposed to the traditional ballot paper system, Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan (2023) EVMs under the arc light on the big screen.

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It showed them as easy to pilfer, but also deployed them in sending the message out to the people to exercise their franchise with care; to not get swayed by caste and religion, demand basics like education and healthcare, and to vote responsibly for the right candidate.

Talking of the right candidate, back in 2017, in Rahul Dholakia's Raees, SRK as the titular Robinhood-like, criminal-messiah figure is shown winning the polls despite being behind bars, all because of a sympathy wave among the masses.

These are two of the many Bollywood films down the years in which elections and their inherent incongruities have played on in the background. While political issues like corruption, both systemic and individual, have been underscored time and again, there are just a handful of films where the actual process of voting has been foregrounded and probed. Polls, like all else in cinema, are treated in a generic and simplistic manner rather than bringing out their specifics and complexities.