Deepika Padukone's Steely Determination

While cynics have given up on Bollywood speaking up on issues, Padukone’s hidden strengths have erupted, with a steady stream of well-timed surprises.

- Maithili Rao

Sometimes, surprise sneaks in like a thief lurking in the night. Deepika Padukone’s totally unexpected tryst with the students of JNU, two days after masked goons brutally beat up dissenters, was a stealth bomb that later exploded over a deeply divided country, to the admiration of liberals and hasty, unfounded condemnation by the hyper nationalists. Padukone and her cohorts in Bollywood proved hardened cynics wrong. The cynics have long given up on Bollywood taking a stand on issues of the day, afraid of controversy’s power to affect not just the sacrosanct box office but to invite the unwelcome attention of the Income Tax and ED officials obeying the miffed government’s orders. We have never lived in more polarised times. Protests, mostly peaceful and led by students and women, have continued to sweep across Indian metros and small towns in the wake of passing the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act. Even a pliant media could not ignore these spontaneous protests and infectious irreverence of the youth on the march.

The air is clamorous with contending ideologies: shrill condemnation by those who have appropriated nationalism and an effervescent youth’s discovery of the romance of rebellion and the secular nature of our constitution. Into this cacophony walks a poised diva, always impeccably behaved, stunning the nation. She risked her image and the potential repercussions on a film she acted in and also produced, not by making flaming speeches or incendiary interviews. She stood with quiet grace by Aishe Ghosh, the new youth icon whose bleeding face had shocked us. Ghosh, now featured in a New York Times article, represents the voice of protest in the bastion of dissent and free speech. Expectedly, a savage troll army unleashed toxic vituperative attacks, from a call to boycott