Rethinking the angry young cop in Indian cinema
Live MintWhen the Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire released in 2008, it faced a barrage of criticism in India. Amitabh Bachchan called it “poverty porn”, filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan called it “anti-Indian”, writer Salman Rushdie said it was a “kind of fantasy writing that gives fantasy writing a bad name”. “There was no public uproar about the fact that this film opens with a scene of astonishing police brutality where the Indian policeman is shown torturing the hero with electric shocks to get him to confess,” MP Shashi Tharoor noted in a Parliamentary debate around the time. In the clip from Simbaa, a police constable says, “Jab tak yeh rapist logon ko apun police log thokte nahi na, tab tak kuchh nahi badlega.”. In another from Mardaani, the cop played by Rani Mukherjee seethes, “Ye India hai, yahan aise bhi faisle kiye jaate hai.” A montage of slaps, thwacks and karate-chops follow, and Mukherjee’s character tells the bad guys what her violent acts mean: “Some call it encounter, some kharcha-paani, some Lokpal Bill.” Such portrayals have an impact on both the audiences and the police, said Anushka Shah, founder of the Mumbai-based Civic Studios, who was moderating the session.
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