The trailer for ‘Chhaava’ has been released and it has posed an important question. There is a recent trend of making Islamophobic movies to cater to the far-right audiences that happen to be in an euphoria of power at the moment.
‘Chhaava’ is a story of the tussle between the Maratha and the Mughal, the Hindu and the Muslim forces. It antagonises Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb and for very valid historical reasons.
But will the movie be inclined towards the recent Islamophobic trends? Only a few movies in this trend have been successful and they are ‘The Kashmir Files’, ‘The Kerala Story’ etc.
Lakshman Utekar, the director of Chhaava is a sensible filmmaker and there is a possibility that he will not take the turn of the story towards an offensive and pseudo-historical retelling of Shambhaji’s story.
We will have to wait to see whether the movie takes the usual way or dares to do something different with such a sensitive storyline. There are already some netizens who are offended with a presumed anti-Islamic ethos of the movie but it will be too early to guess things right now.
At least Chhaava promises to be a technically well made film with wonderful actors in the cast list and it will possibly be a big hit too.
