The Rebellion Against Religion- A Simple Case Study on Bollywood and the Iranian Film Industry
Two different conservative film industries, such as Bollywood of India and the Iranian film industry, directly confronts and challenges religion head on time to time. While analysing four films, two from each of the industries, as examples, will give us an insight on the social condition of the two countries, and how the general public reacted to these "blasphemous films".
India is a country with a majority of Hindu population and the Hindu rulers are very strictly conservative. From all social to political aspects, Hinduism plays a vital role in creating decisions. Iran is a Muslim based country with Islamic rules, with the Shariah law being implemented constitutionally. So, both the countries are sitting upon conservative values and morals in terms of their social perception, and laws.
Here I will be looking at four films, two from each of the film industries and analyse their approach in their confrontation of religion and religious rules and regulations. From India I will be discussing the films Oh My God and PK. In Oh My God.
Oh My God
In Oh My God, the protagonist sues God after he is refused insurance claims when his shop got destroyed by an earthquake. God cannot appear in person in the court, so the man issues notices to God's messengers, e.g the priests, religious leaders, to appear before the court. The messengers are then held accountable for the billions of dollars that they earn by convincing people to pay them.What follows in the trial questions the moral base of all the world religions. What is interesting about the film is, that the real God himself is shown helping the man to fight his case. so, the film does not question the existence of God, rather critics His religious leaders and followers.
PK
In PK, the protagonist is an alien who lands on Earth and loses his contact device with his planet. As a result, he cannot get back and starts searching for ways to get help. He learns about God for the first time and tries to find God to help him return to his planet. He is hillariously shown trying to find God while getting into situation where he gets beaten up, but ends up failing every single time. This film approaches the matter from a much more atheistic point of view compared to Oh My God. The star of the film, Aamir Khan, had gotten numerous death threats from around the country. the film was even banned in certain parts of the country. Yet, it did tremendous business, and became one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of all time.
From the Iranian film industry, I will be looking at Offside and Taxi, both directed by Jafar Panahi, a director who was put in house arrest by the Iranian government. Panahi is considered one of the best film makers in modern times, for his rebellious outlook of the religious rulers of Iran.
Offside
Offside tells the story of a few Iranian girls who disguises as boys to go see a football game. It may not seem like a rebellious act, but when you consider the fact that it is a strict law that women cannot go to a football game, the film becomes an act of rebellion against the institution. Iranian law, in accordance to the Sharia law, states that men and women cannot mingle together. Panahi breaks the rules and shows the girls has mere human beings who just want to watch the football match. This created huge stir inside Iran and the film was banned while Panahi was scrutinised for making such a film.
Taxi
In Taxi, Panahi acts as himself and goes around the city to showcase the city life and how certain rules and regulations affect the mass people's life. While he is driving around, people get in is taxi and talks about the problems in their life. In one scene, a man dies in his car and tells Panahi to record his death wish on his phone. He says his wife will get all his belongings and properties. He also says that if he does not record it, his wife will not get anything, as the Islamic law does not allow the wife to get the husbands full share of inheritance. With scenes such as this, Panahi critics the rules of Iran, as well as Islam blatantly. The film was not even released in Iran, and had to be smuggled out of the country for screening.
The treatment of religion by these filmmakers show that even in the most conservative of societies, one can criticise religion, and religious fanaticism. There is nothing wrong with that. What is wrong is, coming under attack for criticising hypocrisies by religious leaders and people as a whole. Although most of the people in those countries reacted negatively to the films discussed above, it is still positive to see that many are progressive enough to accept these films as forms of criticism and a narrative against religious fundamentalism.
Annotated Bibliography:
"Books and Arts: High as a Horse; Iranian Film." The Economist, vol. 361, no. 8243, Oct 13, 2001, pp. 112-80. ProQuest, https://search-proquest-com.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/docview/224046971?accountid=12378.
This article explores the rich arts and literature in Iran along with films as a medium of art. This will assist the paper in understanding the point of view of Iranian cinema.
Cunningham, Erin. "Women in Iran are pulling off their headscarves — and hoping for a ‘turning point’. The Washington Post. 2018. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/women-in-iran-are-pulling-off-their-headscarves--and-hoping-for-a-turning-point/2018/03/08/bb238a96-217c-11e8-946c-9420060cb7bd_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.441845f70cb5
This article shows gravity of the situation in Iran with the Shariah Law. It will help us understand the socio-political situation.
Ghattas, Kim. "Spotlight on Iran's film industry". BBC 2015. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-33999098/spotlight-on-iran-s-film-industry
This video report gives us an objective insight into Iran's film industry and how it is thriving despite numorous sanctions put on it.
Hirani, Rajkumar. "PK", UTV Motion Pictures, 2014. Clip from film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZXPCFmWH8I
Here PK talks about the fake god that the masses have created and asks to abolish this fake god.
Nayar, Sheila. “Bollywood Religious Comedy: An Inaugural Humor-Neutics.” American Academy of Religion. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, vol. 83, no. 3, 2015, pp. 808–825.
This article explores both PK and Oh My God in terms of their content and how it is portrayed using comedy; which is often considered blasphamous.
Pandey, Vikas. "Why is Bollywood film PK controversial?". The BBC. 2014. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-30602809
This article serves as a short analysis to why PK has been so controversial in India which is one of the main points of the paper.
Panahi, "Offside". Sony Pictures Classics. 2006. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xF029bEi00
This is the trailer of the film Offside and gives us a little glimpse of the content of the film
Priyadarshini, Subhra. “Bollywood Takes on Menstrual Stigma.” Nature, vol. 555, no. 7694, 2018, pp. 27–28.
Although this article does not talk about religion in Bollywood, it does help in understanding the social context of India and how conservative the society is in terms of thought process.
Qadri, Monisa, and Sabeha Mufti. “Films and Religion: An Analysis of Aamir Khan's PK.” Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 20, no. 1, 2016, pp. I-29.
This article analyses PK and gives the audience an insight into the film to better understand how religion was directly challenged in this cinema.
Rist, Peter. "In Real Time: An Interview with Jafar Panahi". Off Screen. 2009. Retrieved from https://offscreen.com/view/interview_panahi
This is a first hand account of Jafar Panahi, who is the director of Offside and Taxi. We will be able to understand his perspective on making the films.
Saggar, Manik. "4 Reasons Why OMG: Oh My God Is A Better Movie Than PK", Desimartini, 2018, Retrieved from: https://www.desimartini.com/news/martini-shots/box-office/oh-my-god-vs-pk-aamir-khan-paresh-rawal-akshay-article37668.htm
This blog post discusses the contrasts in between the two films in discussion.
Saltz, Rachel. “MOVIE REVIEW; Alien's Search for Pendant Mocks Religious Differences.” Chronicle - Herald, 2014, p. D2.
This film analysis is written by a non Indian film critique. This will give us an insight into a foreign perspective of Indian cinema and the film PK too.
Sheibani, Khatereh. The Poetics of Iranian Cinema : Aesthetics, Modernity and Film after the Revolution. I.B. Tauris, 2011.
This book deals with the narrative of Iranian cinema and the film language of the industry. Iran has a unique film language, which is known and celebrated around the world. This book will give me an insight into that language and how it relates to the films in discussion.
Singh, Deler, et al. “ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC ELEMENTS IN INDIAN PARALLEL FILMS: A STUDY OF HOMOPHOBIA IN INDIAN SOCIETY.” Trames : A Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences, vol. 21, no. 3, 2017, pp. 285–295.
Homosexuality is condemned in almost all the religions of this planet. This article sheds light into homophobia in the context of India and Hinduism and how it challenges religion.
Tapper, James. “The Rise of the Hindu Fundamentalists.” Toronto Star, 2014, p. WD.7.
This newspaper article shows the fundamentalism present in India and how a film can create a stir in the society.
Thompson, Veronica, and Manijeh Mannani. Familiar and Foreign: Identity in Iranian Film and Literature. AU Press, 2015.
This book depicts the Iranian culture and will help in understanding the social context of the films.
