Decoding the political messaging of Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’
The HinduIn 2018, when audience and critics were coming to terms with films pushing the schemes and ideology of the current dispensation, there came Mulk, the tale of a practising Muslim whose family was hounded and declared anti-national by his neighbours because one of his family members was found involved in a terror attack. The latter has been feeble till Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan hit the screens last week. Shah Rukh’s political statement It is a myth that Shah Rukh Khan, in his more than three-decade-long career, has stayed away from the socio-political realities of the day and focused only on escapist cinema. Azaad, son of a soldier Vikram Rathore, lectures the audience to ask those seeking their votes, “What will they do for you?” Drawing from eminent Urdu poet Waseem Barelvi’s popular couplet, he sings, “Usulon Pe Jahan Aanch Aaye Takrana Zaroori, Banda Zinda Ho to Nazar Aana Zaroori Hai”. By creating a network of strong female characters around him, Atlee has tried to retain Shah Rukh’s image in the male saviour dynamics that operate in the director’s territory but it doesn’t hold.