'Pathaan' provides cover for BJP's violations of human rights in Kashmir, writes Fatima Bhutto

Columnist has deconstructed India's obsession with Pakistan reflected through its films under the Modi government

While Mission Majnu was heavily criticised in Pakistan for its laughable portrayal of Pakistanis and audacious attempt to re-write history, Shah Rukh Khan’s Pathaan was apparently, illegally screened in Karachi’s DHA at the behest of SRK fans in light of its smashing box office record in India and beyond. Many have called Pathaan a masterpiece and perhaps one of SRK’s best.

However, renowned writer and columnist Fatima Bhutto has shed light on its attempt to “provide cover” for BJP gross violations of human rights in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), followed by the abrogation of article 370 of the Indian constitution, which granted the province its autonomous status. In her latest piece for The Guardian, Bhutto has deconstructed India’s obsession with Pakistan, reflected through its many films, including Razi, Uri, and most recently, Mission Majnu and Pathaan.

Pathaan opens in Lahore to see a Pakistani general reacting to the news of Modi’s withdrawal of article 370, she recalled. The general dedicates the remaining years of his life to “bringing India to its knees,” for which he contacts a deranged terrorist. “Pathaan’s plot is nonsensical, and no one wears many clothes as they dance in bikinis and shorts trying to save India and therefore, the world,” writes Bhutto. “It is naturally unconcerned with facts – article 370 was the instrument that allowed Kashmir’s ascension into the Indian union; if it is declared null and void, then so too is Kashmir’s ascension to India. But why bother with facts or what any actual Kashmiris think or feel? There aren’t any in this insipid film anyway,” she points out.

The New Kings of the World writer notes that the film masterfully shows those against the revocation as “homicidal maniacs” and those in its favour, such as Khan’s character, as “valiant government agents with pectoral muscles.” Citing the longest internet shutdown to take place in a democracy and the arrest of thousands of Kashmiri protesters, Bhutto adds, “To set up an event such as the degradation of Kashmir as a fun plot point is beyond tragic. The political project of Modi’s quasi-fascist BJP cannot be set to fun music and helicopter stunts, try as Bollywood might.”

Bhutto also calls out Khan, India’s biggest Muslim superstar, for never saying a word against Modi’s government, which is “globally known for its anti-Muslim persecution after robbing Muslims of their citizenship.” Recalling the ominous National Registry of Citizenship Act, which declared 700,000 of India’s Muslims to be illegal immigrants, she reminded readers that “admirers of Modi’s BJP and its politics lynch Muslims, filming their brutal killings on mobile phones to pass around WhatsApp as viral trophies.”

The writer even shared a tweet Khan made on the Indian prime minister’s birthday to wish him. “Your dedication for the welfare of our country and its people is highly appreciated. May you have the strength and health to achieve all your goals,” SRK had written. “Quite a thing to wish a man who as chief minister allegedly oversaw the murder of 2,000 Muslims and systematic rape of hundreds of women in Gujarat during the 2002 riots,” added Bhutto.

Calling out Bollywood for its “nasty” portrayal of Pakistanis, she cited various others films that represent not only Pakistanis, but Muslims in particular, in a negative light. “January also saw Netflix release Mission Majnu, a lazy drama about Indian spies finding out about Pakistan’s nuclear program,” she continues.

In the piece, Bhutto lauds Pakistan for producing films about “trans love stories, female desire and the toxic societal power of patriarchal fundamentalists,” and music that puts to question the divisions based on borders. Meanwhile, she laments what is happening in India as “doubly strange, where culture is no longer a medium used to extend conversation but rather a means to snuff it out.”

Burdened as it is by a failing economy, decades of terrorism and the humiliations of the war on terror, Pakistan is undergoing a cultural renaissance, she asserts. Bhutto continues to highlight the double standards of Modi’s government by reinstating, “at the same time as these ridiculous films are produced and marketed [in India], the Indian government has ordered YouTube and Twitter to take down links to a two-part BBC documentary, India: The Modi Question.”

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