Why propagandist directors are using Leftist poetry in their films

It is good news for the Reds as leftist poetry is back in the vogue in Indian popular culture. Or is it? Over the past few years, subcontinental revolutionary poetry from the 20th century has been finding its way into films.

In 2016, Vivek Agnihotri’s Buddha in a Traffic Jam featured an intriguing rendition of Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s noted poem Chand Roz Aur. The film aimed to expose the supposedly corrupt infrastructure of the Maoist movement in India and the role played by intellectuals in recruiting bright young individuals from college campuses for these movements.

The latest example is Habeeb Jalib’s iconic Main Nahi Maanta, which makes an appearance in the trailer of JNU: Jehangir National University. In the forthcoming film, writer-director Vinay Sharma offers a critique by proxy of Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, which has long been in the crosshairs of Hindutva supporters for fostering generations of iconoclasts and free thinkers.

Both these films are part of a new kind of propaganda cinema in India that demonises Muslims, vilifies left-leaning intellectuals, glorifies Hindutva icons and belittles civil society.

In Buddha in a Traffic Jam, Faiz’s poem provides the lyrics for a song that featured at a pivotal moment when the protagonist uncovers the connection between his college professor and the Maoist leadership in Bastar. This revelation exposes a...

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