Parmanu: the story of Pokhran (2018)- the saffronization of India’s quest for a nuclear weapon

ABSTRACT

Parmanu (2018) is a commercial action-cum-spy flick that recounts a highly stylized history of India’s efforts to become a Pokhrannuclear weapons state through the narrative device of the Mahabharat, one of India’s two great Sanskrit epics. In doing so, it renders India’s quest for nuclear weapons in explicitly communal terms rather than national terms. Parmanu exemplifies Modi’s co-optation of Bollywood for his personal gain and that of his party, the BJP. It also participates in the BJP’s communal agenda of forging new, muscular image of India at home and abroad.

KEYWORDS:

• Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran
• Hindu nationalism
• India’s nuclear program
• bollywood
• Mahabharata

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Shruthi Subramaniam for her contributions to the early stages of this paper. All translations from the film are those of the author.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Parmanu, परमाणु, means ‘atom’.

2. Raman, ‘On the Actor’s Trail’.

3. Banerjee, ‘Parmanu Movie Review’.

4. Cherian, ‘The BJP and the Bomb’.

5. Abraham, The Making of The Indian Atomic Bomb.

6. There is a robust debate about this term. For a discussion of it, see the introduction to Sangita Gopal, and Sujata Moorti, eds. Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi song and dance. U of Minnesota Press, 2008.

7. Khan, No ‘Me’ Before The Nation”; Mitra, ‘# ModiWithAkshay’; Jha, ‘Unbecoming Men’.

8. Mitra, ‘# ModiWithAkshay’; Rao ‘Soch Aur Shauch’.

9. Shrikrishna, ‘Parmanu’.

10. Battle, ‘India and Pakistan’.

11. Karnad, Nuclear Weapons.

12. Itty Abraham, ‘India’s “Strategic Enclave”’; Ashley J. Tellis, India’s Emerging, Fair, ‘Learning’, Mohan, Crossing.

13. Summarized in Fair, ‘Learning’.

14. See Fair, ‘Learning’, Joshi, ‘Nuclear Shockwave’, Tellis, ‘India’s Emerging’.

15. Shinde, ‘When Dr. APJ Kalam’.

16. Burns, ‘Self-Made’.

17. Siegel, ‘Profile’.

18. Stewart, ‘The Mahabharata’.

19. Mankekar, ‘Television Tales’; Rajan, ‘Of Draupadi’s Disrobing’; Black, Draupadī”.

20. Stewart, ‘The Mahabharata’.

21. N.B. the names of epics are pronounced as Ramayana and Mahabharata in Sanskrit.

22. Lutgendorf, Bending the Bharata, p. 19.

23. Lutgendorf, Bending the Bharata.

24. Jaffrelot, Modi’s India.

25. The Janata party was coalition of three parties including the Bharatiya Jana Sangh ;(BJS), which was the original flagbearer of Hindutvadi, a chauvinist form of Hindu nationalism (Jafferlot 2021).

26. Jha, Guruji’s Lie”.

27. Jha, ‘Guruji’s Lie’; Anderson and Damle, The Brotherhood.

28. Lutgendorf, Bending the Bharata, pp. 20–22.

29. Lutgendorf, Bending the Bharata, pp. 20–22

30. Lutgendorf, Bending the Bharata, pp. 20–22.

31. Agarwal, ‘Mahābhārat, TV Version’.

32. Parwar, ‘BJP’.

33. Mahabharat, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3212600/?ref_=ttep_ep_tt.

34. ‘It took 7 years to make “Mahabharat”: Amaan Khan’, Business Standard, December 14, 2013. https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/it-took-7-years-to-make-mahabharat-amaan-khan-113122400381_1.html.

35. Jha, ‘Guruji’s Lie’; Dhar, ‘Mahabharat’.

36. Jha, ‘Guruji’s Lie’; Dhar, ‘Mahabharat’.

37. ‘SS Rajamouli explains’.

38. Booth. ‘Traditional Content’.

39. Mankekar, ‘Television Tales and a Woman’s Rage’.

40. Kumar, ‘The Fascinating World’.

41. Booth. ‘Traditional Content’; Blizek and Desmarais, ‘Is Slumdog’.

42. Kumar, ‘The Fascinating World’.

43. Singh and Chandran, ‘Reading a Retelling’, Booth, ‘Traditional Content’.

44. Thomas, ‘Melodrama and the Negotiation of Morality’, p. 162.

45. Thomas, ‘Melodrama and the Negotiation of Morality’, p. 162.

46. Haider, ‘India’.

47. ‘Mahabharata Battle’.

48. Karna is an illicit son born of the Pandavas’ mother, Kunti, and a god named Surya before she married their father, Pandu.

49. Rahman, ‘Indian Prime Minister’.

50. ‘Internet existed’.

51. Sengupta, ‘The Shishupala Doctrine’.

52. Devadas, ‘The shifting terrains’, p. 220.

53. Devadas, ‘The shifting terrains’, p. 220.

54. Dwyer, Filming the Gods, p. 15.

55. Mitra, ‘# ModiWithAkshay’, p. 284.

56. Mitra, ‘# ModiWithAkshay’.

57. Dwyer, ‘The Saffron Screen?’.

58. Rajagopal, Politics after television, quoted in Mitra, ‘# ModiWithAkshay’, p. 285.

59. Shoesmith and Mecklai, ‘Religion’. See also Jaffrelot, ‘The Hindu nationalist reinterpretation’.

60. Shoesmith and Mecklai, ‘Religion’, p. 266 drawing from Rajagopal, Politics after television, p. 2–3.

61. Shoesmith and Mecklai, ‘Religion’, p. 266.

62. Savarkar quoted in Chaturvedi, Hindutva and Violence, p. 112.

63. Mubarki, ‘Body, Masculinity, and the Male Hero’, p. 239.

64. Mitra, ‘# ModiWithAkshay’.

65. Das Gupta, ‘Modi’s Bollywood’.

66. San Chirico, ‘Dharma,’ p.77.

67. Nandana Bose quoted in Sharma, ‘Supporting Role’.

68. Nandana Bose quoted in Sharma, ‘Supporting Role’.

69. Nandana Bose quoted in Sharma, ‘Supporting Role’.

70. Mehta and Kaye, ‘Media Censorship’.

71. Nivedita, ‘Pathaan’s Besharam Rang’. Also see Chowdhury, ‘Bollywood’s Code Orange’.

72. Rao, ‘The Kerala Story’.

73. Chotiner, ‘What a New a Disturbing New Film Reveals about Modi’.

74. Rao, ‘The Kerala Story’.

75. ‘Photos’; Rai, “’May the Force’”.

76. “PM Narenda Modi’s Meeting’” Nooreyezdan, ‘Prime Minister’; ‘Aamir Khan’; ‘Priyanka Chopra Meets PM Modi’; ‘Narenda Modi and I have Same Goals’; ‘Photos’; Rai, ‘May the Force Be With You’; Kidwai, ‘Indian Politics’.

77. Bhatia, ‘How Bollywood is Rewriting History’; Sathe, You Only Live Once”.

78. Das Gupta, ‘Modi’s Bollywood’.

79. RAW is India’s external intelligence organization.

80. Murty, ‘Representing Hindutva’, p. 270.

81. While a thorough analysis of the Parmanu soundtrack is beyond the remit of this paper, it should be noted that the communalizing sentiment of the film is reinforced by several songs, which are naturally patriotic. But one song in particular, Kusambi (a color for saffron derived from the sunflower seed), is notable. This song, using elements from Marwari, plays during the crucial scenes during which the ISI spy is identified and the traitorous Indians who collaborated with him and his CIA associate are captured at different places surrounding the test site. Back at the test-site, the team is fighting the clock to assemble the devices, implant them in their shafts and seal the shafts for testing. The song opens with an address to the motherland whom the narrator exclaims to be the most important thing in his life for which he’d happily die. The song narrates their dedication to succeeding at the task at hand. Between stanzas is the refrain ‘my soul is painted in saffron’ (हो मेनू लगेया लगेया, लागी लगेया लगेया, लागी लगेया कसुम्बी रंग) The term used for this color is kusumbi, as the title suggests, which is a permanent dye made from dried sunflowers. The use of this word suggests that the narrator is permanently cast with this hue in contrast to those Indian traitors working with the ISI and CIA.

82. ‘For those Who Want to Know’.

83. See Shrikrishna, ‘Parmanu’.

84. San Chirico, ‘Dharma’.

85. Chaturvedi, Hindutva and Violence.

86. Godbole, ‘Indian Parsis’.

87. Bharucha, ‘In a First’; ‘BJP vs. Congress’.

88. Narang, ‘Strategies’.

89. Manuel, ‘PM Modi’.

90. Manuel, ‘PM Modi’.

91. Joshi, ‘Line Out of Control’.

92. ‘Vicky Kaushal’.

93. Iyer, ‘Vicky Kaushal’.

94. Dubey, ‘How’s the Josh’.

95. Sharma, ‘Supporting Role’.

96. Husain”, Bollywood and Politics”.

97. Das Gupta, ‘Modi’s Bollywood’; Mitra, Sreya. ‘# ModiWithAkshay’.

98. Balan, ‘Whose Side’.

99. Balan, ‘Whose Side’.

100. The Economist, ‘What Does India’s Government Have Against Bollywood’; John, ‘Bollywood has Finally Spoken’.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

C. Christine Fair

C. Christine Fair is a Professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University. Her most recent book, co-authored with Safina Ustad, is The Literature of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba: Deadly Lines of Control (Oxford University Press, 2023.