{"id":4468,"date":"2016-05-04T08:58:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T03:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4468"},"modified":"2016-05-04T08:58:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T03:28:32","slug":"hun-hunshi-hunshilal-gujarati-satire-fascism-political-biopics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=4468","title":{"rendered":"What Hun Hunshi Hunshilal, a Gujarati Satire About Fascism, Tells Us About Governments and the Banning Culture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I<\/span>n <\/p>Sacred Games<\/span><\/i><\/a>, one of the characters, Home Minister Bipin Bhosle says \u201cDesh khatre mein..\u201d He doesn\u2019t provide a detailed explanation but just about hints at an invisible enemy who\u2019s out to destroy the nation. He didn\u2019t need to. Somehow this vague threat of an invisible enemy has always served the political class, who exploit democratic mechanisms as per their whims and fancies. It guarantees that the citizens, in an extravagant Orwellian trope, rally behind the government as the social, economic and general well-being of the country goes haywire even though the people in power continue to stay relevant. <\/span>\n\nThis attack on <\/span>democracy<\/span><\/a> has been occasionally critiqued in films like <\/span>Kissa Kursi Ka<\/span><\/i> (1978) and <\/span>Aaj Ka MLA Ram Avatar<\/span><\/i> (1984) but there are some that remain hidden. Like Sanjeev Shah\u2019s Gujarati satire, <\/span>Hun Hunshi Hunshilal <\/span><\/i>(1992), which is set in Khojpuri. In the film, the king, Bhadrabhoop, is busy protecting the nation against mosquitoes, although no one has a clue why they need to be protected from them. But that doesn\u2019t deter the film\u2019s eponymous protagonist Hunshilal, who has been conditioned by the state since childhood in \u201cothering\u201d the mosquitoes. He becomes the perfect tool to obliterate these invisible enemies. <\/span>\n\nPlayed by Dilip Joshi, (whose claim to fame was playing Jethalal in <\/span>Tarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chasma<\/span><\/i>) Hunshilal is a conformist and a model <\/span>citizen<\/span><\/a> who uses onions to create a weapon deadly enough to annihilate all the mosquitoes. But he eventually changes his mind after befriending a fellow scientist Parveen (Renuka Sahane) at the Queen\u2019s Laboratory. A man who was perfectly conditioned by the state to do its bidding, suddenly rebels. Naturally, it doesn\u2019t go down well with the authorities. <\/span>\n

hankfully, there\u2019s no social media drivel or WhatsApp forwards in Khojpuri, which kind of makes the king\u2019s task slightly difficult.<\/blockquote>\nIn a way, that\u2019s what the movie tries to orchestrate \u2013 question leaders, their decisions and fight against totalitarianism. What is even more incredible about <\/span>Hun Hunshi Hunshilal<\/span><\/i> is its connection to the political scenario, the world over: In the film, the Khojpuri <\/span>government<\/span><\/a> keeps spreading lies and creates an enemy class \u2013 the mosquitoes who they claim are preventing the nation from moving ahead \u2013 to keep the citizens distracted. Rings a bell? Think anti-nationals, beef-eaters, and the tukde tukde gang.<\/span>\n\nThe mosquitoes are probably the most interesting characters in <\/span>Hun Hunshi Hunshilal<\/span><\/i>: They are invisible and yet they are everywhere, keeping everyone on their toes. It prompts the king to pass several laws that keep the <\/span>mosquitoes<\/span><\/a> at bay so that they don\u2019t make the citizens question authority. When Hunshilal admits that he has been bitten by a mosquito in his dream, dreaming instantly gets banned. I\u2019ll admit, watching it gave me a feeling of d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu \u2013 my mind immediately recollected the number of times our governments have tried banning something that didn\u2019t need to be banned as a result of hysteria.<\/span>\n\nIn fact, to further the war against mosquitoes, Bhadrabhoop also declares a war against anything red, including tomatoes. The king also declares that the mosquitoes thrive where there is darkness, which need to be annihilated. And he has no qualms about destroying settlements where he assumes the mosquitoes breed. Thankfully, there\u2019s no social media drivel or <\/span>WhatsApp<\/span><\/a> forwards in Khojpuri, which kind of makes the king\u2019s task slightly difficult. By the end of the film, it manages to make us ponder on a few things: There is no guarantee that bringing about a change will necessarily make things right. Sure, fascist forces might be eradicated but their spectre will still linger on and blot the democratic process for a long time…<\/span>\n\nIf <\/span>Hun Hunshi Hunshilal<\/span><\/i> released today, it would\u2019ve created as much of a stir as <\/span>Kissa Kursi Ka<\/span><\/i> created during the Emergency. Especially since we live in times of films like <\/span>PM Narendra Modi <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>My Name is RaGa<\/span><\/i>, that strive to mythologise our netas and sway the country during <\/span>election<\/span><\/a> time. Or maybe, it would have been consigned to the limbo of the censor board. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the era of political biopics, Sanjeev Shah\u2019s Gujarati satire, Hun Hunshi Hunshilal, reminds us how governments anywhere manipulate the narrative. The movie is set in Khojpuri, whose king is busy protecting the nation against mosquitoes, although no one has a clue why they need to be protected from these mosquitoes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":300,"featured_media":4469,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[141,372,2368,7945,7946,729,7947,7948,1179,6635],"class_list":["post-4468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop-culture","tag-bollywood","tag-censor-board","tag-elections","tag-hun-hunshi-hunshila","tag-jethalal","tag-narendra-modi","tag-political","tag-political-biopics","tag-rahul-gandhi","tag-satire"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Hun Hunshi Hunshilal, a Gujarati Satire About Fascism, Tells Us About Governments and the Banning Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the era of political biopics, Sanjeev Shah\u2019s Gujarati satire, Hun Hunshi Hunshilal, reminds us how governments anywhere manipulate the narrative. The movie is set in Khojpuri, whose king is busy protecting the nation against mosquitoes, although no one has a clue why they need to be protected from these mosquitoes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=4468\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Hun Hunshi Hunshilal, a Gujarati Satire About Fascism, Tells Us About Governments and the Banning Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the era of political biopics, Sanjeev Shah\u2019s Gujarati satire, Hun Hunshi Hunshilal, reminds us how governments anywhere manipulate the narrative. 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