Once upon a time, soon after Independence nearly 70 years ago, the Hindi film industry took pride at being in the forefront of nation-building, even as actors like Rajya Sabha member of parliament Prithviraj Kapoor – who hailed from Peshawar – never hesitated to build bridges with his former homeland.
Shah Rukh Khan, whose family also hails from Peshawar, seems to be cut from a different cloth. Although his own wife, Gauri Khan, is a co-producer of Raees, the big Shah Rukh Khan-starrer which hits theatres on the eve of Republic Day, Mr Khan preferred to take the easy way out when posters of the film were released on 2 January.
Look carefully. Nowhere in the entire length and breadth of the poster do you spy the name ‘Mahira Khan,’ although the woman shares half the poster space with Bollywood’s top star.
You wouldn’t be forgiven if you asked the question: Who is the woman in the Raees poster?
Answer: She is a Pakistani.
Bollywood Bows Down
The truth, in 2017, is that Bollywood remains in awe of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose diktat in the wake of the so-called surgical strikes in late September across the Line of Control in Pakistan, carried the unspoken threat that the rest of the country would have to abide by the contours of patriotism ordained by him, or else.
Karan Johar was the first to fall supinely in line. And now its Shah Rukh’s turn.
The Bollywood superstar (with 22.8 million Twitter followers, compared to @narendramodi with 26 million followers) tweeted tamely:
Diplomacy Over Public Condemnation
Clearly, Mahira Khan, too knows the score. The Karachi girl knows her career can’t do better than be linked to Bollywood’s biggest star, no matter that she is a poster girl without a name. Mahira is obviously hoping that the people of India and Pakistan like the film so much that it really doesn’t matter that the Modi government has labeled her country “the enemy”.
So, in response to Shah Rukh’s tweet above, @TheMahiraKhan tweeted:
Earlier, Mahira had taken recourse to Bulleh Shah, the iconic 18th century Punjabi Sufi poet, to articulate her predicament on Twitter.
In this Punjabi verse, Bulleh Shah disdains the demands and claims of caste and religion that the rest of the universe makes on him – from Islamic religious zealots to casteist bigots.
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Modi’s Flip-Flops on Pakistan
Question is, whether Modi will be influenced by the cultural bond between the people of India and Pakistan despite the hard line he has taken in the last few months. The PM recently likened people opposing demonetisation to those who are friendly with Pakistan.
And yet, the PM sent birthday wishes to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on 25 December, in memory of the year that could have been. The year before, Modi had broken all protocol and flown from Kabul to Lahore, and then took a Pakistani Air Force chopper to Raiwind to attend Nawaz Sharif’s granddaughter’s wedding.
In the year since, Pakistani militants have attacked India in Pathankot, Uri, Pampore and Nagrota, killing more than 56 people.
Nawaz’s daughter, Maryam Nawaz Sharif, tweeted her thanks to Modi’s birthday greetings for her father, and Pakistan released 220 Indian fisherman as a goodwill gesture.
So what’s in store for India-Pakistan in 2017? Truth is, Modi is biding his time until US president Donald Trump takes over on 20 January, to see what the US foreign policy establishment throws up on the Afghanistan-Pakistan theatre.
On the surface, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) scoffs at Trump’s phone call to Nawaz Sharif, made soon after he won the election in November, asking what he can do to improve the US-Pakistan relationship. But the truth is that the maverick that Trump is, he is capable of doing anything and turning any position around without any warning.
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Threat from China
Importantly, Modi needs to worry about China, which, through the 2,442 km-long China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – stretching from the Karakoram highway in Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan to Gwadar port in Balochistan in the south – has embraced Pakistan in a tight, strategic partnership.
China is also tempting Bangladesh, a close India friend, with $24 billion worth of infrastructure goodies. Meanwhile, a train from Guangdong on the eastern Chinese seaboard, carrying goods meant for Nepal via Tibet, has made its first journey recently. Beijing and Kathmandu plan to hold their first-ever military exercises this year – a move that is certain to upset Delhi.
It will definitely be difficult for Modi to sustain a two-front antipathy, towards Pakistan and China, for any substantial length of time.
2017 Is Not 2014
Meanwhile, the PM’s attention will be distracted due to the politics of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, where elections are being held in the next couple of months. The PM is pleading for an “end to the BJP’s exile” in UP, an invocation of the Indian mythological hero Ram’s return to Ayodhya after 14 years in the forest. It is clear the BJP will once again bank on the Hindu vote, just as it did in the 2014 general elections, and hope to ride the Hindutva-demonetisation-anti-Pakistan wave to power.
Except, 2017 is not 2014, and it will be difficult even for Modi to target Pakistan, demonetisation and anti-Hindutva forces (read, pro-Muslim votes, which the BJP disdains), all at the same time.
At any rate, India’s policy towards Pakistan will have to wait until the UP elections – whether the BJP wins or loses.
By then, it will be clear whether Raees is a winner or not. Film theatres in Pakistan have also ended their self-imposed ban on Hindi films, realising that ringing the cash register is far more important than any pseudo-patriotic slogan. Perhaps that’s the way to push 2017 forward, by marrying money with the arts.
Unfortunately, Shah Rukh Khan’s Bollywood gives the rest of India little hope. Perhaps the subtitle for Raees should be the following: Her name is Khan and she is a Pakistani.
(The writer is a journalist based in New Delhi and writes on the overlap between domestic politics and foreign affairs. She can be reached @jomalhotra. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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