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Martin Scorsese, reflecting on superhero blockbusters, had said, “Marvel movies are closer to theme parks than cinema.” According to him, such movies, with their larger-than-life ensemble of superheroes create a world where nothing is at risk. The world of RRR, a Rajamouli creation, evokes a similar sentiment. From a police officer braving a furious mob and a tribal warrior trapping a tiger to both of them coming together to take down the mighty British Empire, every scene becomes a well-choreographed spectacle and commentary on India’s Independence struggle. Behind this fast-paced thriller is an attempt to place the legendary figures of Alluri Sitarama Raju (played by Ram Charan) and Komaram Bheem (Rama Rao) within the saffron pantheon. The film blends episodes of anti-colonial struggle with the mythical semantics of Indian epics, especially Ramayana, with such grace that it becomes impossible to sift fact from fiction.
Hindutva Fascists have taken movies seriously. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan, which consciously incorporated RSS talking points on Ram’s earthly birthplace, set new records for Doordarshan in 1987. BJP appointed filmmaker Pahlaj Nilhani as chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) who brought out strict film certification guidelines to ‘capture the Indian ethos’. Thereafter, in 2017, TV actor and BJP member Gajendra Singh Chauhan was chosen to head FTII. Films remotely critical of the government or starring Muslim actors have faced #Boycott campaigns. Suraj Pal Amu, who offered a bounty of Rs. 10 crores for beheading Padmavat actor Deepika Padukone has been appointed the BJP’s Haryana spokesperson. Films like Uri, promoting a masculinist nationalism, or The Kashmir Files, an overt propaganda project demonising Muslims have enjoyed State patronage. However, each of these endeavours were blatant about their objective and limited in their reach and artistic content.
Unlike those experiments, RRR never limits its audience. Instead of dividing the crowd, the first half largely dwells on a fictionalised crossing of paths of two real revolutionaries who made veritable contributions to the Indian freedom struggle. Moments of Hindu-Muslim unity crop up and so do instances where kind hearted relatives of the evil Governor Scott seem to sympathise with the Indian cause. The latter half reveals that Alluri Sitarama Raju harbours a secret mission to steal a consignment of guns to fuel the revolutionary uprising against the Britishers. [Hindutva spoilers ahead:] In the grand finale battle, Sitarama Raju’s character resuscitates in the avatar of Lord Ram—very close in resemblance to Ramanand Sagar’s popular Hindutva depiction—to save the day. Aiming to reach a wider audience the filmmaker keeps such theatrics in the margins till the climatic reveal. By this time, the narrative of the film so masterfully weaves the story with saffron strings that a viewer is likely to forgive its propagandistic intentions. In a real-life twist, RRR screenwriter V. Vijayendra Prasad, S.S. Rajamouli’s father and longtime collaborator, was rewarded with a Rajya Sabha nomination by the BJP after this film, despite threatening the film’s release in Telangana.
Furthermore, the real characters it deals with are famous revolutionaries from present-day Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Sitarama Raju led the Rampa Rebellion, in 1922, against colonial forest-grabbing laws and Komaram Bheem organised the Gonds with the famous call of ‘Jal, Jangal, Zameen’. When the film alludes to this war cry in the end, it comes as a patronising reference to Bheem seeking shiksha from Raju, by now in the familiar avatar of Ram, who blesses his Adivasi disciple by writing this slogan for the first time. Bheem’s own agency as well as his real-life association with Communist ideas is conveniently erased. RRR masterfully co-opts our radical history and repackages it with Hindutva iconography. In doing so, the Adivasi warrior Komaram Bheem gets subsumed under Alluri Sitarama Raju, a well-educated Kshatriya. He is depicted in the form of Hanuman, promising to bring together Ram and Sita, Alluri Sitarama’s fictionalised wife, in a cameo by Alia Bhatt.
Saffronisation of progressive figures, as the Sangh brigade continues attempting with Babasaheb Ambedkar and Bhagat Singh, finds its fullest expression in RRR. It retells the story of India’s past within the parameters set by the Hindutva project, imagining a new Hindu-nationalist basis for unity. We must expose this unity that wants to wipe out the secular, anti-imperialist heritage of our sub-continent.
