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They Were Dark and Short! A History Buff Analyses ‘Mohenjo Daro’

What happens when a history buff walks into a theatre? 

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History is tricky to get right, as most of us who have attended school know quite well.

But if you are making a multi-million rupees Bollywood film with a blockbuster star, then surely riffling through school history books won’t hurt?

Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro is a work of fiction, but the moment the director decided to name the film after the most well-known (and studied) civilisation in the world, the onus to authentically represent the film fell on him.

The Quint decided to look for the devil in the details, and with the help of a National Museum guide (and a general history buff), Laboni Bhattacharya.

Video Editor: Ashutosh Bhardwaj

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Arre, But Why Find Faults? Film Hi Toh Hai! Creative Liberty?

Here’s the thing.

As anyone who has seen Mohenjo Daro would tell you, the film’s story is not dependent or derivative of the historicity of the setting. The film could have been set anywhere, in any period, and it would not take away from the film’s story.

Clearly then, the novelty of the film IS its historicity, its ancient setting. Then, surely it makes sense to get that part right?

Secondly, when one is making a historical film and calling it Mohenjo Daro, it means that for a large section of the audience, the film would be the definitive version of what the period would look like.

Creative liberty to a filmmaker is granted, but not the freedom to take a widely researched period in history and run away with it.

Here are the five ways in which Mohenjo Daro ran away with history, logic and much else.

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1. Sanskrit, The Language of the Future!

Everyone in Mohenjo Daro speaks in a Sanskritised Hindi, regularly throwing around phrases like ‘Sindhu Ma ka prateek’ and ‘anivarya.’

But the film is set in 2016 BC (as the opening credits grandly inform us). And the earliest evidence of Sanskrit dates to 1700 BC; a hundred years AFTER the period the film is set in. Future language of the future, basically.

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2. Dude, Where Are These Large Bronze Goddesses From?

At the heart of Mohenjo Daro lies a large, bronze sculpture of a goddess called Sindhu Ma which everyone worships by pouring water over it.

But apart from the fact that large sculptures made of bronze would be impossible to exist at that time, even if they did, surely historians would have found some evidence? ‘The Dancing Girl’ figurine of Mohenjo-daro is 10.7 cm long!

Also, Chaani (played by Pooja Hegde)‘s father is a pujari, draped in saffron shawls and rudraksh-like beads. But in 2016 BC, which is when the film is set in, Hinduism as an organized form of religion didn’t even exist.

Where is the Shiv-style idol worship coming from?

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3. No Manish Malhotra Summer Collection Clothes, Please

In the ‘Dancing Girl’ figurine and various other artefacts excavated from the Mohenjo-daro period, it is clear that the women of the period wore simple drapes and had hair braided on their sides. But feathered headdress and embellished gowns with thigh high slits?

Nope.

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4. ‘Discovering’ Ganga, Feat Hrithik Roshan

In the last scene of the film, Sarman (played by Hrithik Roshan) guides the people of Mohenjo-daro across a desert (um, Noah of Ark anyone?) to a river which he deems fit for settling.

“But what will the river be called?”, asks Chaani (played by Pooja Hegde).

“Ganga”

The Ganges is in Uttar Pradesh and historically, Mohenjo-daro is believed to be in Pakistan. Assuming that the highly contested Great Flood Invasion theory about the destruction of Mohenjo-daro is true. How did an entire town migrate that distance, without any death or difficulty, in one day?

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5. Short and Dark, Not Bronzed Tall Heroes

Historically, people of Mohenjo-daro were known to be short, dark and with curly hair. Definitely, not like Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde in their tall, bronzed glory.

Interestingly, there are characters in the film who resemble men and women of the period, but they are forced to play minor characters or extras. Clearly, the director of the film was aware of the typical man in Mohenjo Daro, why not allow him to play the lead role?

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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