Anand Ranganathan, “Dhurandhar” and “Right Nationalist Propaganda Films”

 

Anand Ranganathan, “Dhurandhar” and “Right Nationalist Propaganda Films”.

Shrikant G. Talageri 

 

I was asked my opinion on the present-day top block-buster which has broken most records and seems as of today all set to break all of them: “Dhurandhar” and “Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge”, especially in the context of Anand Ranganathan’s following interview on the subject (actually of the first of the two films)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6PcYNtlqTY 

I was going to end my blog writing with my articles on music, uploaded on 5 April 2026, but, as I have made clear, I will write on particular topics whenever I feel impelled to do so. This is one such topic.

 

The URL of the above interview is given above. The reader can see it for himself and I do not need to repeat every point made by Anand Ranganathan, because as usual he is one of the most intellectual and clear-sighted Hindu intellectuals we have today (the other two being J. Sai Deepak and Vikram Sampath), and his opinions and views, and his analyses, are usually impeccable – the only problem with Hindu intellectuals (including these three) is that, after accepting all the faults and the sins of omission and commission of the BJP, they ultimately fall back on the “TINA” defense, which is after all the only thing that the BJP wants and which keeps it steady on its backstabbing-Hindus spree. In Konkani we have a proverb: “chī mhaṇᾱ, chᾱ mhaṇᾱ, pɔṭbhār vᾱḍᾱ”: “say chhee, say chhaa, but give me my full-stomach meal (i.e. in this case, votes and electoral support)” = “criticize all you want, but ultimately say ‘there is no alternative (to the BJP’”.

But I will point out one point which struck me as very faulty: his defense of the new wave of “Right Nationalist Propaganda Films” (as they are dubbed by the woke leftist Breaking India Brigade of “intellectuals”) in respect of the charge that these films are basically BJP propaganda films.

 

Again let me make it very clear: I am as strong and great a supporter and defender of these films as Anand Ranganathan or any other sane-minded and self-respecting Hindu should be (I am talking about Hindu Nationalist History-corrective films like Kashmir Files, Bengal Files, Kerala Files, etc. and not the wave of Indo-Pak-skirmish films which are indeed outright BJP propaganda films rather than Hindu-concerned films). I agree hundred per cent with Anand Ranganathan’s view that so far, for almost exactly 75 years after “Independence” (I put this word in inverted commas because, as I have often pointed out, it was not really outright “Independence” for India in 1947: it was merely “Independence from direct and outright British Rule and Control”), the woke anti-Hindu left had absolute monopoly over Indian film-making and that these films now represent a new and revolutionary and much-needed and extremely praiseworthy opposite trend.

In fact, I wrote the following review of the 1922 film “Kashmir Files”, in which I praised the film, its director, writer and actors-actresses as Revolutionary Pioneers of a totally new focus on Historical Truth in the presentation of Indian History in Films, as opposed to the 75 years (1947-2022) of the woke leftist controlled Indian film industry which consisted wholly and solely of anti-Hindu and pro-Breaking-India-Forces propaganda which had been unopposedly brainwashing the Indian public into an aanti-Hindu frame of mind:

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2022/03/a-review-of-film-kashmir-files-by-vivek.html

 

But even in that wholly eulogistic review of that film I pointed out the following:

“Finally, the one thing in the film that, to put it in Hindi, mujhe khatka, was the unnecessary reference to the present Modi-BJP regime. In the last few years, no-one can talk about any Hindu issue without directly binding it with the Modi-BJP identity. Both the anti-Hindu as well as the pro-Hindu sides compulsively link any and every Hindu issue with the Modi-BJP government:

a)  Anything against Modi-BJP is immediately and automatically interpreted as an attack on Hinduism , as if this government — which, among countless other things, recently told the Supreme Court, in response to a petition by some concerned Hindus against the massive minority-only schemes on which this government regularly spends ten thousands of crores of rupees of tax-payers' money, that these schemes did not constitute injustice to Hindus, and that the minorities required to be "uplifted" with such schemes — is somehow a personification of Hinduism itself.

b) And, anything against Hindus and Hinduism is immediately and automatically interpreted as an attack on the Modi-BJP government, as if Hindus and Hinduism were never under attack at any time in history before the present regime came to power.

 

In this matter, there is a mili-bhagat (the Hindi phrase puts it so succintly) between the supporters and the leftist opponents of the Modi-BJP government, It is in the interests of both sides to enforce this identity between Hindu issues and the Modi-BJP government.

 

It reminds me of the scene in Animal Farm where everything is automatically linked by the denizens of Animal Farm with the hallowed leadership: "It had become usual to give Napoleon the credit for every successful achievement and every stroke of good fortune. You would often hear one hen remark to another, "Under the guidance of our Leader, Comrade Napoleon, I have laid five eggs in six days"; or two cows, enjoying a drink at the pool, would exclaim, "Thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon, how excellent this water tastes!""

 

Here, in this film, we have it right from the horse's mouth, from the mouth of the master-terrorist himself when he says (towards the end of the film) that things were better in the times of Nehru and Vajpayee, but that under the present vazir-e-azam (Prime Minister) things have changed drastically and for the worse (for terrorists). This single reference to the present-day political leadership, in a film made to expose the history and plight of the Kashmiri Hindus, made me squirm, and reminded me of the old Nehruvian days when it was mandatory for the most popular Hindi film songs with a political or social or patriotic message to sing the praises of Gandhi and Nehru. Was it necessary?

 

But, at the same time, I wonder (and I may be one of the few viewers to wonder in this way) whether this was after all a tongue-in-cheek reference. If they had shown the master-terrorist saying this from a prison cell where he was incarcerated for life, or just before he was to be hanged or executed in some way, it would have made sense. But here this master-terrorist, who is shown orchestrating or actually carrying out all the massacres and tortures throughout the film, and in fact is shown freely admitting in a television interview that he killed 20 or 25 or many more people and that he would kill his own brother or mother if necessary in his Islamic cause, says all this from a beautiful house in the most scenic parts of Kashmir where he seems to be living a luxurious life with his henchmen on the banks of a lake, enjoying the choicest Kashmiri cuisine, drinking the best Kashmiri kava, and playing lover to the NGO leaders leading the "azadi" activities in the Universities (there is a photo in his house showing him with the character played by Pallavi Joshi, in a flirtatious pose) and host to student-leader delegates such as the protagonist Krishna Pandit. Is this the drastic change being referred to under the present regime?

 

Has there really been a basic change in the Kashmir situation? In the face of conflicting reports and claims from the powerful propagandists from both sides, it is difficult to say. It is in fact difficult to trust anyone in present times. I would (as far as it is possible to trust anyone) trust the views of true Kashmiri activists like Sushil Pandit and Ashish Dhar (to name the two that come to my mind).”

Yes, even in my full-fledged eulogy of the film, I could clearly see that one single BJP-Modi-Propaganda sentence which made all the difference to the fate of the film: just as “ek macchar aadmi ko hijda bana sakta hai”, so also “ek vakya ek film ko success ya failure bana sakta hai”. To spell it out more clearly, my contention is that if that one single sentence had been missing in that film, not only would that film (Kashmir Files) not have been propagated on a war-footing by the BJP Propaganda Brigade, but the entire film itself would probably have been stonewalled out of existence by the BJP government and its Propaganda Machine to prevent the feelings of Kashmiri Muslims getting “hurt” by the film, with as much ruthlessness as by all the previous Secularist governments – and to hell with all issues of Kashmiri Pandits, religious fanaticism, terrorism and ethnic cleansing of Hindus.

Am I exaggerating? Read on.

But before elaborating on that point, let me momentarily digress by going on to Anand Ranganathan’s remarks in the above interview on a minor issue. On being asked by the interviewer whether the film “Dhurandhar”, by its complete whitewash and glorification of the Demonetization of 500/- and 1000/- rupee notes by the Modi government, he states with characteristic frankness that he was always completely against that demonetization and that he is still totally against it even now, that the demonetization was a complete failure in respect of all its objectives, and that the claim that it put a halt to Pakistan-promoted fake India currency in the Indian market is also totally without basis. When the interviewer persists in asking him whether the film is not indulging in BJP propaganda by showing Modi’s demonetization as having led to the destruction of all the fake currency stockpiles in Pakistan by rendering all that fake currency useless, Ranganathan admits that it is so, but offers the excuse: “This is a film. It’s fiction, intertwined with something that happened non-fiction, and that is what films do all the time. This is not a biography or a documentary, or a ‘mockumentary’ jaise aajkal kehte hain. So the director has a massive license to intertwine things, and most of the films pichhle chaalis saal mein, mujhe ek film dikha do which you cannot label as propaganda. I am against demonetization, but if one of the aims of demonetization is being talked about, it is a logical conclusion that aapko counterfeiting ko rokna hai to jo counterfeit ho raha hai usko hi hata do market se. So I won’t go so far as to say that this is propaganda and that this is cushioning the demonetization. Kahin bhi ye nahin likha (ya) bola ki demonetization was great or anything”. Tomorrow, if someone makes a film showing that Gandhi was responsible for bringing a halt to World War II, or that Trump has in the last few years been responsible (in spite of all other evidences of his Hitler-like aggressive and acquisitive direct military and other actions in respect of the territories and assets of the entire world) for putting an end to wars all over the world (including Indo-Pak ones), can all this be excused by saying that “the director has a massive license to intertwine things” to do false propaganda for a person or party or government or country (excusable simply because direct statements of “greatness” are missing)?

In this particular case, the demonetization of 2016 is shown as responsible for the destruction of all the fake currency on the basis of a totally fictional story about an Indian agent who allegedly infiltrates the Karachi underworld and destroys it from within, at the same time destroying the nexus between the Karachi underworld, Pakistani political parties, and the note-counterfeiters. And, even in this totally fictional story, this Indian agent is shown as starting out on his mission in 2009 or so, well before Modi and the BJP came to power, but the only two real-life people actually shown in the film in their actual self or by their actual names are Modi announcing demonetization on TV, and Dawood Ibrahim apparently the kingpin of the Karachi Underworld and the ISI, masterminding all the terrorist activities even in a bedridden state: i.e. God and Satan respectively. All others are only hinted at by giving distorted versions of the names of real-life persons (which incidentally reminded me of the film which I.S.Johar announced after the Emergency, but which I believe was never finally produced, having characters with parody-names like Anjay Pandhi for Sanjay Gandhi, etc.). Is this not blatant propaganda?

 

But that was a minor point. Let me return to the main point. Ranganathan actually admits that it is propaganda, but justifies or excuses it by asking: “pichhle chaalis saal mein, mujhe ek film dikha do which you cannot label as propaganda”. Okay, perfectly valid, and I can accept that argument.

My main objection is what I stated earlier (now applied to this film): if this special element of propaganda (directly whitewashing and glorifying Modi’s demonetization) had been missing in the film Dhurandhar, the BJP government and its massive propaganda machine would have at least completely ignored the film, even if they had to avoid trying to stonewall it after its massive pre-release publicity and due to the eminent nature of the cast-and-crew personalities associated with the film. Historical Truth is something which has absolutely zero value for the BJP unless it provides fodder to its present day political agendas and objectives.

 

And, against all these films which concern issues which directly relate to BJP Rule, so-called BJP achievements, and BJP agendas and objectives in connection with possible upcoming and not-so-far-in-the future elections, consider a masterful film which also dealt with Historical Truth and Hindu-Concerned Issues but had no element of propaganda value for the BJP’s present-day agendas and electoral manipulations, which was completely stonewalled and throttled out of existence by the BJP government with as much ruthlessness as any Congress or Leftist government could have done.

I am referring to the film “Nadi Se Nadi Tak”. directed by Rama Simhan (formerly Ali Akbar) from Kerala, and is based on the events of August 1921 known as the "Moplah Riots" as part of the "Khilafat Movement" , based on the detailed reports of the riots as penned down by K Madhavan Nair and K Gopalan Nair.

This film has been the subject of numerous articles by me:

8 August 2022:

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2022/08/the-kerala-files-1921-nadi-se-nadi-tak.html

29 October 2022

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2022/10/ghar-wapasi-reconversion-to-hinduism-or.html

17 March 2025

https://talageri.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-story-of-two-films-from-kashmir-to.html

The film, to produce which a ghar-wapasi Muslim from Kerala risked his life and liberty, was banned by the BJP government. After a minor hue-and-cry from some committed sections of the Hindu twitterati, the Modi government (in fact, I believe Modi himself) announced that the ban had been revoked. This was enough to put an end to all objections. The film is still totally stonewalled.

It is my contention that if that film had introduced a scene of a seer prophesying that a hundred years thence (i.e. a hundred years after 1921, i.e. in 2021) India would be ruled by a great Hindu-Hriday-Samrat ruler who would prove to be the long-awaited messiah who would deliver all sections of Hindus all over India from anti-Hindu elements and forces, that film would not only not have been stonewalled out of existence but would have been promoted and propagated with as much zeal by the BJP government and the BJP Propaganda Brigade as the Kashmir Files and Dhurandhar, and would have become a super-blockbuster.

 

People point out that all these films doing justice to Hindus and presenting True History would not have been possible before the BJP and Modi came to power. The truth is that these films doing justice to Hindus and presenting True History are still not possible unless they provide propaganda value for the BJP’s present-day agendas and electoral machinery.

To Anand Ranganathan, I would pose some simple questions (though knowing that they will be completely ignored):

1. Have you seen this film “Nadi Se Nadi Tak”?

2. Have you even heard of it?

3. How many people do you know who have seen this film?

4. Where is it available even to the most diligent searcher on the internet?

5. why has it been so completely stonewalled?