Delhi-6 (2009)

Film: Delhi-6

Year of release: 2009

Director: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Producer: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ronnie Screwvala

Lead Actors: Abhishek Bachchan, Sonam Kapoor, Waheeda Rehman

Delhi-6 has several scenes best described as gems of blatant Hinduphobia, sometimes under the garb of humour and at other times not.

Take this gem based on the 2001 ‘Kaala Bandar’ sightings. In just over a minute, Mehra and ilk reiterate the same Urduwood agenda:

• Saffron-clad sadhus and priests are frauds who dupe people while pretending to solve their problems
• Hindus are regressive, and therefore, they believe in these babas
• They are a deeply and widely casteist society. Look how they treat that sweeper woman Jalebi (Divya Dutta)
• Look how they throw Gobar under the bus because he is an orphan
• Hindu men are pansy. Young boys have more courage than their elders, but the grown-ups crush their spirits and turn them into weaklings

pic.twitter.com/jNs77sO7yx— Gems Of Bollywood Fan (@FilmyPulao) August 7, 2022

The movie has many more such scenes, besides a soulful number picturised in a mosque titled ‘Maula Maula’.

Perhaps, censor board chief Prasoon Joshi would never even raise an eyebrow at scenes that project Hindus as a condemn-worthy group of people. Not too long ago, he blocked the release of The Conversion, a film about Love Jihad, which is closer to reality than Delhi-6.

Perhaps Joshi’s paymasters, Aamir Khan and Farhan Akhtar, don’t believe in LJ. Perhaps Joshi only encourages films where tilakdhaari babas dupe people while performing pooja-paath.