Last week's feature on the book “Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema” by Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen gave an overview of the main themes the study was exploring. One major theme of Muslim portrayal in Bollywood films has been through period films - the ‘Muslim Historical'. Excerpts from the book expand on this idea: The Muslim Historical As a genre that is deeply invested in projecting an image of the grandeur of the past, the Historical draws its dramatic power from the stories of historical personages, and the legends and myths that circulated around well-known and powerful public figures of bygone eras. By the early 1920s the Historical had emerged as a significant cinematic genre and almost from the very beginning, the pre-British Islamic empires were a source for the plots and protagonists of these films. In the colonial context, the Historical inevitably spoke to the subjected condition of a colonized people, raised by implication questions about the legitimacy of colonial rule, and presented visions of liberation in the future. Moreover, the Historical attempted to compensate for the colonial, Orientalist devaluation of Indian culture and society by an intensified and hyperbolic assertion of self-worth, and by configuring images that were invested with the value of a unique cultural identity distinct from that of the colonial power. At the same time, the Historical allegorically addressed key areas of tension and attempted to envision the possibility of reconciling conflicting forces. The most crucial and contested of these issues was the relationship of Hindus and Muslims. The destructive communal conflict of the 1940s gave critical political and cultural significance to the genre of the Muslim Historical in its celebration of the beneficence of Mughal rule. Their significance as military powers who consolidated warring groups into a unified nation, their patronage of the arts, their acceptance and even affirmation of religious diversity all gave the Mughals a symbolic locus in the period from the 1940s to the 60s. Mughal imagery Babur in Mehboob Khan's “Humayun” (1945), after conquering the kingdom of Chanderi and allowing the independence of Amarkot under Mughal suzerainty, ritually declares to the gathering of Rajputs in the Amarkot princess' court that he has not come to loot, but “to make Hindustan his own country”. With the birth of Akbar in India, this claim of legitimate belonging could finally be consolidated. Humayun dramatizes Akbar's birth under Princess Rajkumari's protection in her palace at Amarkot. The birth of Akbar on Indian soil is thus elaborately and ritualistically celebrated in a manner that also cements the Mughal claim to belonging. “Humayun”'s trope of brotherhood was an extremely charged metaphor in the 1940s, in which the Muslim–Hindu relationship was cast. A related one was of friendship and brotherhood in arms, and Muslim Historicals like “Pukar” (1939), “Shahjahan” (1946), “Anarkali” (1953), “Mughal-e-Azam” (1960), all take for granted and represent the loyalty of the Rajputs to the Mughals. Durjan, Maan Singh's son in “Mughal-e-Azam”, gives up his life to keep his word to Salim of protecting Anarkali and delivering her alive to him. Justice prevails The concept of ‘justice' is central to the Muslim Historicals. Film after film of the genre articulates a concern with this issue and locates the person of the Emperor as the locus of justice. In “Humayun”, he ascends the throne to the announcement that “the great Emperor, the merciful Alam Panah is known for his justice”, while in “Mughal-e-Azam”, the “sacred scales” that Maan Singh says “are a memorial to Emperor Babur and signify Mughal justice” emblematically foreground the symbolic significance of the mobilization of the imaginary of the great Mughals. The Muslim Historicals have created grand visions of romance, power, intrigue and empire-building; addressed ethical questions of governance and responsibility towards a larger social good; and given us imaginary but memorable portraits that represent visions and interpretations of history that may have been and even should have been.
