In a recent article, Shashi Tharoor commenting on Hinduism says,"... as a way of life it pervades almost all things Indian, bringing to politics, work and social relations the same flexibility of doctrine, reverence for custom and absorptive eclecticism that characterise the religion.... Hinduism is also the sole major religion that doesn't claim to be the only true religion.... This hasn't prevented self-appointed votaries of the faith from developing their own brand of Hindu fundamentalism, even though Hinduism is uniquely a faith without fundamentals. What they don't seem to realise is that Hinduism is a civilisation, not a dogma. It's ironic that those who claim to be its defenders define Hinduism in a way that makes it something it isn't — narrow-minded, exclusive and intolerant."
In an age where fundementalism, sectarianism and narrow-minded boorishness threaten to disrupt the fabric of peaceful co-existence that has been the hallmark of the Indian way of life, it is nice to remember one of the most radical propogators of unity in diversity and national integration - Manmohan Desai! Anyone who has seen "Amar Akbar Anthony" knows exactly what I am talking about. In a scene early in the film, the mother, Nirupa Roy, is in a hospital and in dire need of blood. Three donors offer to help, brothers seperated at birth - Amar (Vinod Khanna), Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) and Anthony (Amitabh Bachchan). The scene is set in a hospital room with the mother lying in bed at one end, and opposite her are lined up three beds with her three lost sons lying in them. IV tubes run from each of their arms to a common bottle which collects their blood and puors it into the veins of the ailing mother. The shot is tacky, the procedure over-simplified, but the symbolism is mind-numbing. The blood flowing through the veins of Mother India is the confluence of Hindu, Muslim and Christian blood, the blood of her sons. With just that one shot, Manmohan Desai was able to succintly portray a harmonious picture of national integration and the triumph of unity in diversity.
In a country where the diversity is so vast, where food habits, language and customs vary with alarming regularity for every 50 sq.km (sometimes even less), where until recently the only binding factor used to be cricket and Sachin Tendulkar, this was a message simply put reaching the multitude of masses who throng the cinemas in worship of their idols. And yet I wonder how many people actually got it.
Manmohan Desai was a past master at what some have described Indian cinema - the wilful suspension of disbelief. In the climax of the same film, the three heroes are in the villian's den to rescue the fair maidens and wreck havoc on the man who dealt with them so cruelly, broke up a family and seperated a husband from his wife and loving parents from their sons. The entire gang of goons has been hunting for our three well disguised heroes, and yet, right in the villain's lair, under the noses of these goons, they break out into song, proclaiming their names, saying the impossible becomes possible, when Amar, Akbar and Anthony are together, and yet no one recognises them. That requires a whole lot of suspension of disbelief, and yet it works in our formulaic cinema.
For long our mainstream cinema has been a harbinger of similiar messages of peace and unity. The triumph of good over evil has been a hugely successful theme ever since we started making films, and while no single film, to my knowledge, has ever succeeded in bringing about any form of major social change, the intent has allways been to provide entertainment with a message. So while we continue to run down our films in favour of cinema from the west, let us spare a thought for Manmohan Desai and his unique brand of mindless fun. As the world careens ever closer to the precipice created by terrorism and Jehadis of every major religion, let us try to remember the days of simple innocence and pray they return. And return they shall, someday, when we finally reach Avalone.
