Prabhu Chawla
The mystery of Kangana Ranaut is that she is no mystery. To mutilate a Churchillian wisecrack, she is an enigma wrapped in a Sabyasachi sari, mysteriously accepted as a political novice-turned-moral police with her hugely popular social media handles. There are other women actors in politics, but the 38-year-old heroine of Manikarnika is a breed apart. She is not a damsel in distress, but a hardsell nonetheless. The style and substance her acerbic diatribes against those who oppose her ideology and her idol signals the arrival of a belligerent saffron warrior. Her persona subconsciously identifies with Jhansi ki Rani, the warrior queen who went down fighting.
However, this Bollywood rani has no intention to go down, but only to fight. She aligned with the BJP six years ago, attracted by the uncompromising persona of her idol, Narendra Modi, who gave her a ticket to contest from Mandi in her home state Himachal Pradesh.
The cinematic queen defeating the son of the incumbent is a metaphor for her life: a successful outsider in both cinema and her party who is widely panned by the cognoscenti. She may not be a motor-mouth, but she is a much louder mouthpiece of the BJP than many of her party’s first-term Lok Sabha members.
Kangana may not be accepted by the Bollywood royalty or the BJP’s organisational hierarchy. But she definitely cannot be ignored. She has done 44 films, six of them superhits. Her last film, Tejas, was rejected by the audience; some theatre owners even cancelled the screenings because not a single ticket was sold.
Now that she has switched roles, Kangana’s ticket to glory is her idol, Modi. “I’ve been the struggler of the century. Fortunately, everyone loves the underdog,” she told an interviewer. What makes Kangana different from other film stars in parliament who reserve dramatic dialogues only for the silver screen? She launched blockbusters centred on strong but not silent women who triumph over patriarchy.
Now she plays the perfect supporting actress for Modi’s anti-elitist stance.
The bard wrote: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances.” Well, Kangana does know how to make an entrance. Her anti-Rahul Gandhi meltdowns are not only politically incorrect but are in bad taste. No star cast matters to her, but caste is the star. She retweeted a highly objectionable RG meme with the comment, “Jaati-jivi jise bina jaati pooche jaati ganana karani hai (one who wishes to hold a caste census without asking anyone’s caste).”
A vegetarian by choice, she wants to make mincemeat of her opponents. Since Modi-bashing is the invigorated INDI Alliance’s favourite sport, Kangana is playing the BJP’s unofficial ideological matador by taking on RG: “Apni jaat ka kuch ata pata nahi, nanu Muslim, dadi Parsi, mummy Christian aur khud aisa lagta hai jaise pasta ko kadi patte ka tadka lagakar kichadi banane ki koshish ki ho, aur inko sabki jaat pata karni hai (You know nothing of your own caste, your grandfather is Muslim, grandmother Parsi, mummy Christian, and it feels like someone tempered pasta with curry leaves to make rice and lentils, but he wants to know everyone’s caste).”
And on another occasion: “Rahul Gandhi has no dignity, yesterday he was saying that we are Shivji’s baraat and this is a chakravyuh. I feel that he should be tested if he is doing drug consumption. The way he reaches parliament and the way he speaks irrationally. Either he is drunk or under the influence of drugs whenever he reaches parliament. Nobody can make this kind of statement in their right mind.” The last one was rather rich considering her rehab past.
Her contempt for Bollywood’s Tier I defines her anti-establishment profile. She has called Karan Johar the “flag-bearer of nepotism” and a part of the “movie mafia”. She has trolled her own industry for not backing her for slapping a woman cop. She called Urmila Matondkar “a soft-porn star,” Sonam Kapoor a “mafia bimbo,” and Swara Bhaskar and Richa Chadha “B-grade actresses.”
Kangana has cracked the code of today’s political ethos: spew invective and get attention. Over 20 years ago, she had claimed: “My biggest asset is that I know how to learn, and I believe it will help me in the long run.” And she ran—for parliament. Hers is an Indian cannonball run through cinema and politics.
After a series of humiliations by powerful film personalities, Kangana Amardeep Ranaut decided to be an A-grade actor in B-town. It should’ve been easy. She had more National Film Awards for best actress than tricks the snooty Bolly-dynasts’ turned at parties she wouldn’t be invited to. Mocked for her backwoods English accent and eviscerated on social media for her politics and gaffes, Kangana played the parvenu to the hilt—after all, she is an acclaimed actor. She chooses her own roles and her own script.
The only role she is currently playing is to win enough saffron Oscars to last a political lifetime. Politics is a great bulldozer. The high-profile tyro neta is on a spree of levelling Modi’s enemies. She trashed Mamata Banerjee for appealing to Bengalis to maintain peace after the Bangladesh unrest and back Modi’s decision: “Mamata didi ko bhi prime minister ji ki yaad aayi, finally unhone apni life mein pehli baar Bengal ko Bharat ka hissa mana, Centre ko support kiya. Wah! (Mamata didi too remembered the prime minister; she considered Bengal a part of Bharat for the first time, supported the Centre. Bravo!)”
To call India’s only openly nationalist filmstar a brainless bimbo would be reading the wrong script. Her histrionics reveal someone with a keen eye for polarising debates by projecting narratives as Modi vs the world and herself as the BJP’s Joan of Arc. By calling Netaji India’s first PM, she was playing to the establishment gallery, which has been booing the Nehru-Gandhi team.
She gives a Hindu spin to everything, from diplomacy to politics. After Sheikh Hasina landed in India, Kangana boasted: “Bharat is the original motherland of all Islamic republics around us. We are honoured and flattered that honourable prime minister of Bangladesh feels safe in Bharat, but all those who live in India and keep asking why Hindu Rashtra. Why Ram Rajya? Well, it is evident why! No one is safe in Muslim countries, not even Muslims themselves. Unfortunate whatever is happening in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Britain. We are lucky to be living in Ram Rajya. Jai Shri Ram.”
Evidently, Kangana doesn’t want to waste her new avatar like her other filmi colleagues in parliament do. Hema Malini, Shabana Azmi and Jayalalithaa were conspicuous by their presence, and not for opinions on everything from potato to politics. She has defined her identity and the destination. However, she should be wary of becoming a hot potato in politics if rhetoric over substance is her plan of action.
In politics, as in films, Kangana is writing her own dialogues for a lethal oratorical arsenal to target her foes. But what’s cooking in her political kitchen is anyone’s guess.
