There are times to field your nuanced critique of an art piece. And there are times to understand the larger civilizational themes and flow with the positive trend. But there are few who confuse the two and use the former urge in the latter situation.
Naatu Naatu is not a philosophically deep, or aesthetically exquisite song. No one is confused in that regard. It’s only worth is that it is part of a movie which got its politics and social wisdom right.
RRR used explicit and exquisite Ramayana imagery, and connected it to a contemporary story. It used Vaishnava dharma centered in the legend of Shri Rama to give the call for Hindu unity – ‘Ram Bheem’.
It used the correct cultural and political icons and opened up, with its success, the possibility and desire of creating movies on Hindu themes, explicit dharmic imagery and correct socio-political configurations.
It is NOT about the song. It is about the opportunities that RRR has opened up for the Hindu side.
So for the time being, we can suspend our expert skills in artistic and aesthetic criticism and encourage the boost that Hindu imagery in movie making might get with this chance.
Now is the time for Hindus to up and rise and provide research for movies and artwork based on explicit Hindu themes. Now is not the time to apply your inner aesthete on the situation.
I also sense an internal dynamics where the Tamil and Kannadiga cultural sensibilities are hurt on the ‘crudeness’ of Telugu film industry. It is correct that in general Tollywood is nearer Bollywood in flashy and gaudy themes and ‘masala movies’.
And it is true that Kannada and Tamil movie art is more refined, but if dharma and politics is not right, then art alone can turn adharmic, as it has in many ‘art movies’ in Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The urge should be to connect to best in all these places; the urge should be to push Hindu themes, with or without aesthetics.
As long as the Hindu lives, aesthetics will come back. Once the Hindu is gone, the aesthetics will as easily serve the enemy and then disappear after a while. My two bits on ‘critiquing the song…’.
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @PankajSaxena84 on March 16, 2023)
