Perhaps the earliest depiction of RSS/Sangh in Bollywood is from 1961, in a film called 'DharmaPutra'.
Shashi Kapoor plays the role of a proud Hindoo bigot, who seems like your average Hindutva warrior from 2020.
https://youtu.be/LwHivJQCNXM
See for example from: 1:29:30
The films however, has no ambiguity in ridiculing him for his beliefs.
"Pehle Hindi Hindu Hindustan". His harking back to Hindu dharmshastras as ideal is rebuked by his own MOTHER!! She talks of Sati, Child marriage and asks him to remove his bigoted lens!
Still Shashi is somewhat ideal Sanghi, he actively hates westerners too, unlike today's sanghis who fantasize about west adulation.
From 2:02:04 Shashi talks of genocide of muslims. Talks of Akhand Bharat, forced conversions, temple destruction..how consistent Sangh's talking points have been!!
But the important thing is, he is countered actively by his friends. He is shown as a lunatic...never normalized
2:06:06 He actively participates in a riot with an interesting call...'Naara e Bajrangbali'. Almost always curious to see how much modern Hindooism derives from Organized religions...even while admonishing them.
2:08:00 he talks of Hindoo culture being defiled by muslim patient, but again is rebuked badly by his own FATHER!! He admonishes him for his communal views.
2:10:11 "Akhand bharat ki saugandh khata hoon" with raising the slogan 'Naara e bajrangbali' and 'har har mahadev'
Have to say this is an effective rebuttal of Sangh's call for religion. The parents call Shashi 'adharmi' and say they will kill him if he keeps to his bigoted way. This is like the cinematic version of Nehruvian imaginary Indian i guess.
Product of its time too. And the director is none other than Yash Chopra! Yes the same guy who made all those escapist romances later on.
Apparently, people rioted in some theatres and the movie was a flop. Which prompted Yash Chopra to never make a political film again! (According to Wikipedia). No wonder!
For what its worth, the film ends with the state police coming in to separate the warring religious groups. And Rajendra kumar speech about india being for all.. while fusing into actual footage of Nehru. So deference for the state/union government was always the norm, regardless of the issue. Oh well.
All in all a surely oddball and curious bit of time capsule.
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