Can Bollywood Help Indian Nationalism Find Global Resonance?

What do you think of when you hear the words "Bollywood films." Perhaps singing? Dances? Beautiful actors? Exotic locale and clothing? A simple good guy vs. bad guy storyline? These are indeed all very important elements. Indeed, they are the most obvious visual factors that contributed to the global success of Bollywood films in recent years, especially where in locales as diverse as Southeast Asia and eastern Africa, where a large number of Indian expatriates reside and have created vibrant ethnic communities that have gradually pulled in the local majority populations through a distinctive cultural imprint. 

The recent Indian blockbuster "RRR" is just the latest example of such Indian soft power at the global scale. The most expensive Indian film ever made, the film has been distributed globally, including in Japan, where the local Indian community is too small to make financial sense just catering to their needs. By appealing to non-Indian film lovers, Bollywood is quickly emerging as a popular genre in itself, no longer niche in interest, but mainstream in appeal. The rave reviews among the Japanese who watched RRR show the success of the global targeting of the film.

And it is easy to see why how the vast investment in making RRR led to its global success. As is typical for many Indian films, the film features a clear division between the righteous protagonists and the clearly evil antagonists, two macho main men, smooth dance moves, and memorable songs at key moments. With a run time of well over three hours, those who love the stereotypical Indian film structure are treated to a high-quality one that clearly shows the benefits of large funding. Cinematography and action scenes spare no expense in both the sheer scale of many actors and the beauty of colors.

Yet, even as the audience raves about the looks of the film, many reviewers, at least here in Japan, seem to gloss over the political and ideological significance of the film. It is notable that the film takes place in the 1920s and features a slew of atrocities by the British colonial authorities. The many white British colonial officers that appear in the film clearly state their beliefs that their Indian subjects are lesser beings, uncultured, and not deserving of respect or human rights afforded to whites. The protagonists seek Indian independence from the British through clearly violent means of killing colonial administrators.

The very fact that the film espouses a clear narrative of British colonialism in India being pure evil is a departure from past narratives, many put forth by the British themselves, that colonialism, both in India and beyond, has both positive and negative aspects. The film highlights the cruelty that British administrators treated the natives on a day-to-day basis, while only providing token qualifications that some British can be good toward the Indians and that the British did introduce new technologies, such as modern weapons, that are so desired by the Indians.

That Bollywood chose to lavish so much money on a grossly one-sided portrayal of a sensitive topic like the legacy of British colonialism in India, and then take the film to a global audience, both shows the changing relationship of India with Britain and the Western world in general, as well as the political aims of the current Indian government. Simply put, India has grown exponentially confident of its equal status to Western powers in the modern world and it no longer fears negative cultural and political repercussions for criticizing the West for past wrongs toward India and the Indian people.

The implication of an India largely unconcerned about Western historical sensitivities is significant from a diplomatic point of view. In the political arena, it means India will retain its independence in policies and ideologies, not blindly following Western beliefs and values in how it behaves at the top political level. And from a cultural perspective, the film encourages Indians and other non-Western viewers to reexamine their relationship with a West-defined sense of civility and modernity, providing ample evidence that historically, Westerners have not adhered to the universal values of human rights that they are so proud of.

It begs the question of how many viewers, both Indian and non-Indian, agree with RRR's underlying message. After all, despite the past wrongs of the British in India, many Indians and other Asians continue to aspire to study, work in, and migrate to Britain and other Western countries to improve their living standards. Western cultural influence remains much stronger than Bollywood outside Indian communities, and many choose to draw a clear line between the West of today and its colonialist, racist past. The Indian nationalism of RRR may find some takers, but how globally it can resonate remains doubtful.