How a new film is setting the narrative for Maharashtra poll

Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray along with party leaders Aaditya Thackeray and Eknath Shinde before the split in 2022.
| Photo Credit: PTI

As political campaigning moves away from the traditional methods to the realm of social media and audio-visual medium, political parties have shifted their focus accordingly. The recently released movie, Dharmaveer 2, in Maharashtra is an effort to set the narrative for the upcoming Assembly election. Apart from serving as the biography of late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe, the movie justifies the rebellion that split Shiv Sena.

Contemporary history

Considering that the movie tries to set a narrative about the incidents related to contemporary history, each character has been chosen carefully to suggest similarities with the current MLAs and leaders. In many scenes, real-life venues, including the Chief Minister’s residence, a five-star hotel, which was a favourite haunt of the political party, have been used. In some instances, political leaders have played their own part in the movie. Be it allegations about being ‘traitors’ or having allegedly taken ₹50 crore to switch over from the Thackeray-led Sena to the Shinde faction, the movie tries to set a counter-narrative.

But the biggest issue it seeks to address is the sympathy wave for Mr. Thackeray after the MLAs walked away from him and joined Mr. Shinde. The climax has Mr. Shinde himself on screen, sitting inside an SUV (indicating his journey to Surat with the other MLAs on the day of the Vidhan Parishad voting), claiming that he had both ‘Hindutva’ and ‘Shiv Sena’ with him in that journey.

Thereafter, news clippings of the rebellion and the subsequent journey to Guwahati, and the formation of government with the BJP are shown before the end credits.

The movie claims that the rebellion by MLAs led by Mr. Shinde was to protect ‘Hindutva’ and save the ‘Sena from the clutches of the Congress, which allegedly wanted to finish it’.

Drawing parallels between Dighe and Mr. Shinde, the movie portrays the current Sena chief as the carrier of the mantle of Hinduvta, who allegedly protected the party from losing its core ideological commitment to Hindutva. “A leader looks good at the doorstep of his political worker, not in his own house,” says a character in the movie.

“If you ask me what is the most prominent theme of the movie, it is self-respect,” says the film’s producer, Mangesh Desai.

In the movie, the tipping point is when a girl from an external agency asks senior Shiv Sena MLAs who among them was Mr. Shinde. The character of Mr. Shinde is shown hurt, insulted and dejected. “Who is Mr. Shinde?” he asks himself, as he sits on a chair outside the conference room where other MLAs are led for a dry run of the voting for Legislative Council elections. Mr. Shinde was the group leader of Shiv Sena then, and there were political speculations about the alleged distrust shown against him after the voting for Rajya Sabha elections.

“The movie is a justification for moving away from Uddhav Thackeray, for taking away the party with him. Though there is no sympathy factor for Mr. Thackeray anymore, the allegations of snatching the party from him were being heard. This is putting forth a justification for that, showing how the MLAs were feeling stifled, insulted, ignored. And that they felt that under the compulsion of alliance with the Congress and the NCP, the Shiv Sena was losing its Hindutva. That is why that dialogue where Mr. Shinde is told that he should take Hindutva on one shoulder and Shiv Sena on the other. It tries to portray that Matoshree had lost connect with its own MLAs, that the decision to go with the Congress and NCP was out of personal ambition, that Mr. Thackeray didn’t deserve the sympathy.

‘Political propaganda’

Using movies for political propaganda is fairly common in south India. Even in Maharashtra, we have seen similar attempts, said senior political journalist Abhay Deshpande. “Now, parts of the movie will be used on social media,” Mr. Deshpande said.