If the juror of a film festival is being called out for being 'out of line' when commenting on the political aspect of a film that is deeply political and politicised in India, should Indian politicians also be called out for their lopsided defence of a Bollywood film?
A renowned Israeli filmmaker바카라 웹사이트Nadav Lapid, the jury head of the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI),바카라 웹사이트on Monday described the controversial Bollywood film 'The Kashmir Files'바카라 웹사이트as "propaganda" and "vulgar".바카라 웹사이트The comments have led to a row in India where it has snowballed into a diplomatic issue.바카라 웹사이트
On Tuesday, Israel's ambassador to India, Naor Gilon, publicly denounced the filmmaker's comments in an "open letter" he wrote addressing바카라 웹사이트Lapid, imploring the latter to be바카라 웹사이트"ashamed" of바카라 웹사이트his comments.바카라 웹사이트
"It's not in Hebrew because I wanted our Indian brothers and sisters to be able to understand," Gilon tweeted, adding in the letter that바카라 웹사이트Lapid had abused the Indian invitation to the judges' panel in the "worst way".
Lapid, who is heading the festival jury, slammed the movie at the closing ceremony of the festival on Monday evening in Goa. He stated that바카라 웹사이트the jurors at KFFI were "disturbed and shocked" by 'The Kashmir Files', which has been in controversy ever since its release in March.
"That felt to us like a propaganda, vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious film festival," he said. Facing massive바카라 웹사이트backlash over the critique, the jury has distanced itself from his remarks, calling them his "personal opinion".
BJP's Amit Malviya on Tuesday compared Israeli filmmaker바카라 웹사이트Lapid's condemnation of 'The Kashmir Files' to the denial of the Holocaust, the killing of millions of Jews by Hitler's regime. The party's IT department head said, "For the longest time, people even denied the Holocaust and called Schindler's List propaganda, just like some are doing to Kashmir Files. Truth eventually triumphs, no matter what." BJP Goa's spokesperson Savio Rodriguez also slammed Lapid's comments as바카라 웹사이트an insult to the "horrors faced by Kashmiri Hindus", he tweeted.
Others such as the film's director Vivek Agnihotri and actor Anupam Kher who starred in it have also expressed disgruntled reactions.바카라 웹사이트
The issue has led many to question if Lapid, as head of a film festival jury, had the right to make a political comment.바카라 웹사이트Defending his stance at the festival itself, Lapid had said, "I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life".바카라 웹사이트
If Lapid, as a juror of a film festival, is being called out for being "out of line" when commenting on the political aspect of a film that is deeply political and politicised in India, should the politicians and Bollywood celebrities also be called out on their stern reactions to Lapid's comment about a Bollywood film?바카라 웹사이트After all, thousands of films are produced by Bollywood around the year.
After the release of 'The Kashmir Files', 바카라 웹사이트BJP ministers went in hordes to watch the film in multiplexes and were profusely moved by the film. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched the film and told BJP leaders that they should watch it.바카라 웹사이트
The last time those in the government were so excited about a film was in바카라 웹사이트2019 when 'Uri: The Surgical Strike' released, propelling actor Vicky Kaushal to India's national poster boy status and a special favourite among바카라 웹사이트BJP leaders and ex-military men.
Perhaps Lapid was out of line in making a political statement at a film festival hosted in India that he knew had the potential to blow up. many Kashmiri Pandits in India who lived through the turbulent times that the film painfully dredges up바카라 웹사이트have defended the film as an honest reminder of the tragedy.
Author and feminist podcaster Jessa Crispin had written in a 2019 editorial for The Guardian바카라 웹사이트that바카라 웹사이트"if you insist that a movie is바카라 웹사이트important, you don’t really have to deal with whether or not it라이브 바카라 good. You can shame people into seeing it as a political statement, rather than as an entertainment or cultural selection".바카라 웹사이트
This applies to both Lapid and the BJP leaders like Amit Malviya.바카라 웹사이트While one may be seen as trying바카라 웹사이트to browbeat the film as dangerous propaganda, the other is trying to browbeat audiences into sympathising with it, despite a barrage of criticism against the film's alleged inaccuracy and voyeuristic depictions of violent trauma.
To be fair, Lapid must have known바카라 웹사이트what he was doing. A long-time critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, Lapid is not a stranger to mixing art with politics. He knew his comments on The바카라 웹사이트Kashmir Files at the바카라 웹사이트IFFI, the official film festival바카라 웹사이트of the Government of India, in the presence of senior ministers, would create a political backlash.
But why is Lapid the only one on the dock? If criticism from a filmmaker about a film is바카라 웹사이트"political", hyperbolic바카라 웹사이트praise or defence of the same film from politicians or governments is also political.바카라 웹사이트
German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl known for producing some of the most prolific pieces of Nazi propaganda in the history of cinema바카라 웹사이트had once said that she did not make political films. Speaking about the 1935 magnum opus바카라 웹사이트'Triumph of바카라 웹사이트Will' which is often treated as a "masterpiece" in propaganda filmmaking by researchers of film studies,바카라 웹사이트Riefenstahl had always maintained바카라 웹사이트that she just intended it to be an honest documentary of the Nuremberg rally. In her 1975 essay,바카라 웹사이트film critic and artist Susan Sontag called Triumph of Will바카라 웹사이트a film whose "very conception negates the possibility of the filmmaker's having an aesthetic conception independent of propaganda". She also wrote in detail about the separation of artist from political context.
But there is a third stand. In a paper titled, Film Propaganda:바카라 웹사이트Triumph of the Will바카라 웹사이트as a Case Study, Alan Sennett noted that바카라 웹사이트Sontag, despite her criticism, gave Reifenstahl credit for making politically and culturally potent films, media scientist Brian Winston has opined that a film like the 'Triumph of Will' can be seen as an바카라 웹사이트antithesis to persuasive propaganda and rather as a powerful warning against the very ideas it represents. Winston also stressed that the film did바카라 웹사이트not stand as바카라 웹사이트strong work of art on its own and that it was far from the "masterpiece" that even its most violent critics have dubbed it to be. It was simply a bad film.바카라 웹사이트
If바카라 웹사이트Riefenstahl was making films in the post-truth era of the digital age바카라 웹사이트when "truth" has lost much of its바카라 웹사이트semantic difference from its antonyms, she would be confused too about what is propaganda and what isn't. At a time when facts seemed to have been robbed of their former eminence, drowned out by conspiracy theories masquerading as “alternative facts”, everything is propaganda.바카라 웹사이트
While Lapid and the BJP are locked in the battle for proving if 'The Kashmir Files' is propaganda or not, perhaps audiences can focus on바카라 웹사이트the film itself and its own merits as an artistic and aesthetic expression of socio-political facts. Moreover, in a post-truth world, perhaps the true merit of바카라 웹사이트a film like 'The Kashmir Files' is not judged by what바카라 웹사이트critics or politicians say about it바카라 웹사이트but바카라 웹사이트instead by what it reveals about the critics and바카라 웹사이트politicians.바카라 웹사이트