Dhruv Rathee, the owner of the popular Indian YouTube channel Dhruv Rathee, recently criticized the movie Dhurandhar 2 and its connection with the BJP in one of his videos. He sees the movie not just as a movie, but as a very expensive advertisement for the BJP in its election campaign. According to him, the movie serves a political purpose that seeks to distort the history of the country and has become one of the most powerful propaganda tools for the BJP.
Dhruv Rathee’s defamation and criticism
Dhruv Rathee initially referred to the movie’s director Aditya Dhar as a “scoundrel” of the BJP in his video, but later he amended his comment and referred to Aditya Dhar as a “university”-level scoundrel on a larger scale. Rathee made this comment clear about the motive behind the movie, which is not just a movie, but a propaganda advertisement.
He claims that Dhurandhar 2 is only made as an election campaign of the BJP and it contains many lies that are used to brainwash the countrymen.
Characterization of BJP’s propaganda and lies
Dhruv Rathee points out the story of Dhurandhar 2 and the lies contained in it, saying that the film is presenting some events that did not happen in the history of the country, but it is giving wrong information to the people. He particularly emphasizes on the first scene of the film where a Sikh man is burnt alive in Pakistan. Rathee feels that this scene was intended to increase Hindu-Muslim animosity, which is actually unnecessary for the story of the film.
He also added that the real names and faces of Dawood Ibrahim and BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi are used in the film, while the later description says, “This is completely coincidental”. Rathee identifies it as a legal cheating code, which is creating confusion in the minds of the audience.
Propaganda and Mind Games with Emotions
Dhruv Rathee discusses the psychological techniques of propaganda and emotions in cinema. He says that the villains in the film, especially the character of Dawood Ibrahim, repeatedly praise Modi. This has a profound impact on the minds of the audience, because when the villain praises the Prime Minister, it proves to the people that Modi is a very capable leader.
Rathee calls this emotional priming, which is a psychological technique where a strong emotion is first created in the minds of the audience and then it is converted into a certain ideology. It is a kind of gaslighting process, where a delusion is created in the minds of the audience that what they have seen was wrong.
Analysis of Dhruva Rathee’s information and the lies of the film
Dhruv Rathee claims that the film shows the swearing-in of Narendra Modi, but there is wrong information presented there. He said that the talk about international cooperation and ISI involvement in the movie is not in line with reality. Although Aditya Dhar in the movie calls it a “fictional work inspired by real events”, in reality it is a complete lie as well as a piece of propaganda.
Rathee also said that the anti-Modi characters in the movie are shown to be involved in foreign funding, which is the opposite of what is actually happening. He added that the information they have shown in the movie is actually an attempt to obstruct the work of human rights organizations against the BJP.