Roja in 'Law and Order' State

Author(s): S. V. Srinivas
Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 20 (May 14, 1994), pp. 1225-1226
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401206
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Roja in 'Law and Order' State
S V Srinivas
TEJASWININIRANJANA's article('Inte- ChakravarthyandPandianhaveemphasised
gratingWhose Nation? Tourists and Terro- on seemingly opposing pressures of the
rists in Roja', EPW, January 15) and the same process. In the film, there is thus at
response by Venkatesh Chakravarthyand once "a rejection of the Nehruvian state
M S S Pandian ('More on Roja', EPW, which had been compelled to write in its
March 12) have quite correctly focused on policies a vision of democracy and egali-
the political significance of Maniratnam's tariansocialism" (Niranjana),and the ulti-
Much-dubbedfilm. mate victory of the "stateand Hindu-patri-
Released at a time (latterhalf of 1992 in archalculture"(ChakravarthyandPandian).
Tamil and Telugu) when the Hindu right's The question I would like to addressis how
rhetoricon Kashmirand Muslims was more Roja, released at the crucial moment when
stridentthanever before, the film also coin- the Nehruvianstate was dismantled,reacts
cided with the government's claim to have to the transformationmentionedabove that
successfully solved the 'Punjab problem'. strengthensthe repressive arm of the state
This was also the time of increased state and drives it out of every other sphere of
repressionin AndhraPradesh,Assam, Bihar, activity.
Gujarat,tribalareasof Maharashtra, Madhya Roja interpellates the 'common man',
Pradeshand Kashmiritself. All these states upper-caste-middle-class male really, to
(except Gujarat)apparentlysuffered from protect 'nationalinterest' by fighting terro-
'terrorism'andthegovernmentsof the states rism. The correspondencesbetween family
andcentrewere busy 'tacklingthe extremist andnation(Chakravarthy andPandian)serve
menace' with a variety of brutal,unconsti- to 'bring home' larger problems like terro-
tutional means. ULFA and PWG were rism by tuming abstractconcepts like na-
bannedearlieraswereRSS,VHPandBajrang tionalsecurityintoimmediatelyrecognisable
Dal later. The response of the state to the ones like family well-being. Such a rela-
rightwas exceptionally wild while scores of tionship between the subject and nation
people lost their lives due to their alleged rendersirrelevantany otherkindof commit-
association with ULFA and PWG. As has mentexcept (andthis is where the film takes
been pointedout by Tejaswini Niranjana,in the cake) in the most mechanical and cli-
Tamil Nadu too there was a crack down on ched terms. The moral: fight terrorismor
'terrorists'which in reality meant suppres- your family will go to the dogs. This in itself
sion of Sri LankanTamils and their suppor- is not new to Indian cinema (two decades
ters in the name of twisting the latest ago Deewar merged the interests of the
'foreignhand', LITE. family with those of the nation-the errant
On the otherhand,the regime's obsession son was also a criminal).In the recent past,
with privatisationand liberalisation,Bank- the essentialcinematicproblemhas become
Fundism'smost visible manifestations,was protection of the family (not necessarily
acquiringa concrete,irreversibleform.Even nuclear family).2Maniratnam'sDalapathi,
while the state withdrew from its economic which preceededRoja, is all said and done,
and social obligations, armed and ruthless a highly unimaginativefilm on the Hindu,
interventionin a broadspectrumof opposi- family. Family in films is itself becoming
tional movements-became the order of the more oppressively patriarchalin the course
day. Interestingly,emphasis is now being of these developments.3Maniratnamthere-
given to 'people's participation'even in law fore has at his disposal a rich film intertext
and order maintenance. As a result, Delhi which has already made the equation bet-
police spends lakhs on appealing to the ween family and nation-state,by extension
'public' to help fight 'terrorism', 'drug heroism as a fight for both.
abuse',and'communalism'.This new-found What is new about this film is the blatant
maniafor 'broadeningthe base' for policing equation of the Muslim with terrorism.If
does not preventthe governmentfrom rais- anything, Indianfilm-makershave gone to
ing a well-trained(read armed to the teeth) ridiculous lengths to say 'Hindu-Muslim
force to guardprivatelyowned tea estates in (or Hindu-Sikh)Bhai- Bhai' and blame the
Assam. # foreign hand's agents, generally maniacal
It is possible to argue that today, even individuals, for the trouble. In Roja the
while the state grows increasingly repres- foreignhandis very muchin thebackground
sive, it is reducingits sphereof activity and but more visible is an identifiable ethnic-
rapidlyconfining it to maintaininglaw and religious community actively engaging in
-order.'The rulingclass-caste elite has been terrorism.4
demandingprecisely this. There seems to be Thanks to the intertextavailable on what
a 'contradicton',in the-sense of a double terroristsdo, the directorleaves this largely
bind, in the state's-functioning.Comment- to the audience's awarenessof state propa-
ing on-Roja, Tejaswini Niranjana and gandaandits manifestationincinema(scores
Economic and Political Weekly May 14, 1994
of films have been made in Tanil, Telugu
and Hindion this subject). Insteadthe focus
is on who they are (Muslims) and one of
their 'victims'. Throughthis victim and h's
beloved, the 'common man' is interpella*ed
to save the nation and family.
Maniratnamemploys two important'tech-
niques, starcasting and film cliche, to force
the closure of the film which, to quote
Chakravarthyand Pandian,is 'orgasmic'. It
is a fulfilment of Rishi Kumar'sdesire to be
reunited with Roja and the middle class
fantasy of saving the nation.
Film is generally watchedand interpreted
in the context of a long history of film-
viewing. The audiences are always already
conscious of a history of cinema, its actors,
plots, genres and cliches. This conscious-
ness is highly 'productive' as film-makers
may build on expectations or play with
them. When it comes to actors, especially
recognisable ones, no matterwhat role s/he
plays in the presentfilm, thereare 'images'
alreadyavailable to the audiencein the light
of which the new role is received.5Part of
the 'pleasure'of watching films is grecisely
this interaction between what we are con-
scious of and what is being offered.6
In Roja the 'image' of the starsis used by
Maniratnamr to force, at least partially,the
movement of the film towards its conclu-
sion. This is Madhubala's (Roja) first film
in Tamil. Her Phool Aur Kante (Hindi) was
already a major success by this time. She
was thus either unknown in southernIndia
or known as a sexual object (Phool Aur
Kante). In both cases she could quite easily
function as the "ideal site of unlimited de-
sire" (Chakravarthyand Pandian). Arvind
(Rishi Kumar) appeared in Maniratnam's
previous film, Dalapathi, as a responsible
IAS officer and ideal son (the errantbastard
being Rajanikanth).He also beats his half-
brotherin the race to marrythe heroine. He
is thus recognisably responsible, sophisti-
cated and successful. Hkecansolve the na-
tion's pressing problems and resolve the
film's crisis. PankajKapur(Liaquat)is new
to south Indian cinema but he is of course
Karamchand, the carrot-eating crime-
buster of Doordarshan's first detective
serial (available at least to urban middle-
class audience).He is a good manreallyand,
as the authors of the earlier article have
pointed out, not threateningfor other rea-
sons as well. Nationalism (and patriarchy)
has already won half the battle.
As in Maniratnamr's earlierfilms, Liaquat
is the hard-corecriminal who undergoes,a
changeof heart(Nayagan,Dalapathi).Need-
less to say, the audienceis fully awareof the
possibility of such a change even before this
film begins.7As pointedout by Chakravarthi
and Pandian,the ideological battleis lost by
the terroristswhen the directorseals the lips
of Liaquat beyond a few outbursts on
'aazadi',while Rishi mouthsfamniliar exple-
1225
tives against violence, foreign hands, inno-
cent victims and negotiating tables. Some-
thingsimilarhappensin Nayagan where the
protagonistlooks appropriatelyapologetic
when challenged by his daughter.
Likewise, film cliches$ serve to force a
resolution of the crisis (Kashmiri nationa-
lism, separatism, fundamentalism) threat-
ening the nation's being. As we have seen,
muchof theproblem-hasalreadybeen solved.
The issue of whether hostages should be
exchanged is clinched by the employment
of the age-old film cliche of 'action'.9The
hero fights his way to justice, safety and
happinessever after.But for the 'action', the
film would have to end in Rishi's death or
the defeat of the army's stand against the
exchange of hostages. If Rishi were to die,
the army would be seen as insensitive. A
partof the audiencemight go home thinking
that hostages should be exchanged for hu-
manitarianreasons. If on the other hand the
exchange is made, the armywould lose face
and, worse, the audience might view such
exchanges as attractivesolutions to similar
problems. Very unattractiveand 'danger-
ous' alternatives indeed for the director.
Thanks to the 'action', firstly the army's
stand is vindicated and, secondly, Roja's
plea to the minister and the government's
climb down are rejected as incorrect and
dangerous,if sentimental.Roja is a woman
and the ministera politician,afterall. Indian
cinema todaydenies politicians(who gener-
ally appearas corrupt,cruel, etc) the role of
spokespersonsof the state's point of view.
The army alone is being projected as the
authenticvoice of the state.'0Here the con-
flict is not between two representativesof
the state but between one authentic repre-
sentative and an unpatriotic (even if
avanNlar) opportunist.Thereare numerous
caustic references in the film to the ex-
change of hostages by the V P Singh
government.
The film thus slickly packages state pro-
pagandaand "helpsto legitimise army acti-
vities such as searchoperations,the interro-
gation of 'terrorists' and the shooting of
them"."Roja calls foi more ratherthan less
armfted interventionof the state. It criticises
the'sqftness' of the regimne in its handlingof
terrorismand projects the army as a true
friend of the patriotic people. The upper-
caste-middle-class, as in other spheres of
activity, is now matureand willing enough
to do its bit in helping the state in its peace-
makingactivities. It is now up to the govern-
ment of India to invite the tenders and take
the nation into the 21st Century.
Notes
[A K Sengar,Deepak K Singh and P K Kuri
watchedthe film only to discuss it with me.
Gopinathandthetwo Pradeepshaddiscussions
withmeonterrorism andonRoja inMalayalam.
1226
C T Manlong discussed representations of the
army in recent Hindi films. Finally, all the
above forced me to tone down what one person
called my 'obsession with stars'.]
1 K Balagopal and others in the Andhra
PradeshCivil Liberties Committee have for
sometime now been pointing this out in
their public statements. I am indebted to the
APCLC for this analysis of the state's trans-
formation in the recent years.
2 Witness for instance the development in
Telugu cinema: the leading actor
Chiranjeevi's recent films Lankesh
Warudu (1989), Gang Leader (1991) and
its Hindi version Aaj Ka Goonda Raj
(1992), Gharana Mogudi (1992) and
Mechanic Alludu; Krishna's Pachchani
Sansaram (1993) and Number I are films
about protecting the institution of Hindu
family. Interestingly, there is an overlap
of genres: 'family' films and 'action' films
are fused.
3 I cannot discuss this at any length here. I
shall only point out that as a part of our
project, 'Mass Culture and Its Audience:
Video Cinema in Arunachal Pradesh', we
(Deepak K Singh, J L Dawar and I) asked
film-goers what they 'learnt' from Hindi
cinema which is very popular here. A
majority of the male respondents said
they learnt to "take care of the family",
"be responsible sons/brothers", etc. The
most popular film on video circuit in the
recent past is the Mithun starrer Sansaar.
I fully agree with the findings of
Chakravarthy and Pandian on the link-
ages between family and the state, built into
cinema. My point is, this predates Roja.
4 See Rajeev Velicheti, 'Women, Violence
and Telengana in Contemporary Telugu
Cinema' (presented at the Anveshi/Subal-
tern Studies Conference on Subalternity
and Culture, January 1993). In a one page
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'Noteon Roja',he pointsout,"Thefilmcan
beseenas a Hinducommunalfilmpotrayi4g
Muslimsas perpetrating mindlessandself-
generating violence. A tune similar to
prayersofferedat namaaz,accompanied by
thumpingdrumbeats,followstheterrorists
re-
on the audio-track.The terrorists...are
peatedly doing namaazand utteringthe
nameof 'allah'" (p 13).
5 IntherecentpasttheHindiactorShahRukh
Khanseems to have benefitedmost from
such a manipulationby playing what is
called a 'negativeleadrole'. Baazigarand
Darr (1993), for example.
6 Thereis alsoanothersidetothis. Maniratnam
has himselfremarked,"Starsarea burden;
the bigger their image, the bigger your
responsibilityof notgoing againstwhatthe
audience expect of them" (Khalid
Mohammed,"Mani Matters",Filmfare,
January1994,p 64). Inthesummerof 1993,
fans of the Telugu actor Krishna are
reportedto have 'boycotted' his film
Varasudubecausehe wascastin a 'negative
role'.
7 To cite anotherexample, in Feroz Khan's
films the other hero has to die (Qurbani,
Jaanbaz, Dayawan).
8 By film cliche, I mean arrangementof
sequences which can be recognised as
'song', 'fight', 'flash back', etc. Not in
Esenstein'ssense of a predictableemotion-
al effectof shotsin a montage(FilmForum,
pp 60-61).
9 See also Damini for the deployment
of an 'action-hero'to resolvethe women's
question.
10 See Prahaar and Tirangaa (Hindi),
Dauthyam (Malayalam), and Aagraham
(Telugu)for the army'srepresentationas
the only solution to terrorismor crime
which is more often than not abettedby
politicians.
11 RajeevVelicheti,op cit.
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